A few years back, while visiting my grandparents, I photocopied a bunch of letters that had been written to my great grandmother, from her brother. I never got a chance to actually read them, because as soon as I got home, I promptly put them in a very, very, very safe place. So safe, that in three moves, I did not unearth them. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago, while looking in the closet for vacuum cleaner bags–I never did find those–that I stumbled across the letters. I quickly scanned the through one on top of the stack and realized it was chock-a-block with information about my great grand grandmother’s family back in Ireland. I called my mom, and got some more basic info from her, then I went to work.
If you’ve never done any sort of genealogical research, it’s an interesting puzzle. You can search and search and search for one piece of information, hit a brick wall, and then weeks, months, or even years later, stumble across it. Or you may never find it. On those occasions when you are able to locate a key piece of information, it can be a bit like decoding the Rosetta stone. One simple date can make everything fall into place. Or, if you’re having a bad day, it can make everything fall apart.
I’ve been able to make a good bit of progress in a very short amount of time. I’m very lucky in that the family name, though very uncommon here, is common in the part of Ireland my great grandmother is from. I expect they’re all related in some way, and it’ll be an interesting puzzle trying to figure out how everyone fits into the big picture.
Another piece of luck is that there are some active genealogists in County Mayo. A lot of vital records have been transcribed and are online, with more being processed all the time. From what I can tell, most of that information is so new that it has not yet hit the bigger genealogical search databases, like World Connect or even the LDS’ Family Search. (And, yes, I’ve encountered a few Basquills who have been co-opted by the LDS. I wish they’d knock it off with the baptizing of long dead people who are not even Mormon. Hrmf!)
So, that’s what I spent my weekend doing, instead of arting. My hand is just about crippled from writing. I have a ginormous dent in my middle finger and the tip of my thumb is completely numb. On the bright side, I forgot how yummy the ozone produced by laser printers smells. Mmmm. Every time I run it, I get a blast of ozoney goodness.
red paper boat 