I am continuing to explore the descendants of John Stanley and Winifred Kenney. (See Massachusetts Mary) This time it is the turn of Thomas. Civil registration started in Ireland in 1865. This doesn’t mean that all births after that time were recorded, but the majority of them were duly registered. Thomas was born on 21st…
All posts tagged United States
Massachusetts Mary
If you can’t go back, then go forward! I realise that not everyone is as obsessive in hunting down obscure clues as me. I found a whole chapter of my wife’s ancestry when I googled the name of one of her relatives. It turned out that a second cousin had been publishing a blog for…
Both ends to the middle – Part 2
Part 1 was really an extended preamble. How do the principles apply to ‘the man in the street’? We have to move from the known to the unknown. What information do we have with which to start? We might have locations. Ideally these are Townlands, because they are the smallest unit of area, often with…
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…
From Islands to America
On the post “Island Lower and Upper”, (https://www.roscommonstanley.me.uk/geography/island-lower-and-upper/ ) I referred to American records as providing answers to the question about what happened to the rest of the Stanley/Kenney line. (Bridget, Thomas, Mary and John) Bridget Stanley married William Simpson on 29th June 1887 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was born in Darnford, New York in…
Island Lower and Upper
The 1901 census reveals that there are only 17 people carrying the Stanley name living in County Roscommon. The population at that time was 102,000, only 40% of what it had been prior to the Great Famine of the late 1840s. They group into just four families. (There is also a Governess, born in Cork,…
Kilbride to Canada
In my efforts to understand more about my Roscommon ancestors, I have looked at Parish records. There are many gaps. It is not possible to track people from birth to marriage to death. Kilbride Parish Church, at Four Mile House, features in my family’s records. I have found another family with the Stanley name on…
DNA: the magic bullet?
Posted on Author Keith StanleyPosted in Brighton, Direct line, Geography, Ireland, North America, Unresolved questions
I was given a DNA testing kit as a Christmas present (2018). The results were pretty much as expected. I received a list of people with whom I share some DNA in descending order of overlap. The closest matches suggest that we might be fourth cousins. This means that we share a great, great, great…
Thomas Stanley (b 1873)
Posted on Author Keith StanleyPosted in Direct line, Geography, Ireland, North America, Possible relations
Thomas seemed to disappear after his birth. He is not recorded on the 1901 Irish census. There is no good match for him in England either. This made me suspect that he had emigrated. I spent a lot of time scanning passenger lists. Hours were spent on the census returns in the USA. In June…
The Great Famine
In almost every country in the world, there are events that are central to the collective memory. Examples include the release from prison of Nelson Mandela (1990), the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (1997), the attack on Pearl Harbour (1941) and the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). These events act as a pivot…