Patrick’s army record contains dates of his service and his postings. The regimental war diaries provide some details of actions and places. For example, we know that, on 25th August 1914, the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment made a stand at Le Cateau. Here they lost 350 men, representing more than one third of…
All posts by Keith Stanley
Poetry Please – Part 2
At school I studied poetry as part of the English Literature course. Having to analyse, criticise and deconstruct poems can drain the joy from reading them. Despite this handicap, there is one poem that sticks in my mind from that time. I read avidly, and have done so from an early age. My local library…
Poetry Please – Part 1
“Do not go gentle into that good night” Dylan Thomas “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and sky” John Masefield Robert Frost, Elizabeth Browning, Lewis Carroll, WB Yeats, John McCrae, the list of memorable poets and their works is a lengthy one. Poetry has the power to move, to…
Ballyglass Stanley
Sometimes I feel that my research into the Irish side of the family is like joining the dots on a puzzle. I can join a few dots here. I can join a few dots there. What I cannot do is create a bigger picture. DNA evidence has already shown (see post “DNA: the magic bullet?”…
Boston Pilot
I am conscious that many of those emigrating from Roscommon ended up in America. For 90 years (from 1831 to 1921) a newspaper called the Boston Pilot published a ‘Missing Friends’ column. Photo: Boston Harbour in the mid 1800s Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_harbor_and_East_Boston_from_State_St._block,_by_Soule,_John_P.,_1827-1904.jpg (cropped) The database has over 40,000 records. (https://infowanted.bc.edu/search/ ) (now behind a paywall) Advertisements…
Celina, Celenia or Selina Stanley, Connor or Brennan
On 10th January 1904 Michael Connor married Celina Stanley. The wedding took place in Cloverhill Church. Both parties resided in Emlaghroy. Celina was 21 (born 1883) and the daughter of Pat Stanley. (The townland of Emlaghyroyin lies between the River Suck and the railway line. It is about half a mile south of Island Upper…
Spike in the death rate?
In my attempts to tie down loose ends, I came across a curious page in the register of deaths for 1936. I was interested in Ellen Stanley. She appears on the 1901 census in Ballinlough. She is 60 (born 1841) and living with her brother Patrick (45), his wife Mary Ellen (45), and their three…
McCormack & Stanley
There were already nine (9) different people called John Stanley on this website when I started writing this post. I now introduce number ten! On 30th November 1882 John Stanley married Ellenor McCormack. John was a bachelor from Ballyglass. Ellenor was a spinster, also from Ballyglass. The wedding took place in Cloverhill Church. This church…
Boer War Concentration Camps
It is easy to identify ways in which the British authorities could have done a better job in the Boer War. Well it is with the wisdom of hindsight. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, military leaders were slow to adapt to new tactics. The Boers knew that they could…
The small print
In October 1902, Patrick signed Army Form B217 for a short service enlistment. It was for a total of 12 years, part on active service and the rest on reserve. Question 1 asks for the recruit’s name. (Starting with the difficult ones!) Question 2 provided the key information about Patrick’s place of birth. Question 18…