Air Raid Shelters

 Am re-reading my father's journals. My father was a child in the UK when WW2 broke out - old enough to remember, young enough to not have the emotional tools to process the chaos and dangers around him.

I try not to be sad, my relationship with my father was complicated, much was resolved in the years before he died, but it is still bittersweet knowing how much might have been different had he not been traumatized by war at such an important, formative stage of his life.

As I re-read the Anderson shelter popped up. Not sure why I didn't document it before, but my father's family, like thousands of families across the UK, were issued an Anderson Shelter that was to be built by the families far enough from the home, and deep enough into the ground that it might afford some protection in a bombing. They were sent information on what to do when they heard the air raid sirens, they did drills, a seismic shift in every day life.

My father journalled how several of the neighbours made quick work of their construction and installation by doing it together, that they had been issued in 1938 - the sense that war was coming pre-dated any official declarations, made clearer in the words of my father in his elder-years.

And so here it is - information about the widely-issued Anderson shelter for the air raids that became a frequent sound piercing the ears of my father's childhood: Anderson shelters.

Continue

Ancestral travel - Dunning

This is one of many in a series of places I plan to travel to, or have travelled to, where my ancestors lived. As one goes back in generations, the number of spaces where my ancestors lived of course increases, but there are several places that have somewhat captured the imagination for me.

My roots in Dunning were torn out when my 3x ggfather left for Perth, and then Glasgow. Still in the works on documenting the family history in this small, classically beautiful, Scottish village/town, it's all a little muddled. This makes me want to spend time here, to see if I can't feel some of the family history that was abandoned generations ago.

Dunning - when you google search it, how can you not be intrigued. A marker of sorts to the persecution of witches...Saint Serf is said to have killed a dragon there, several thousands of years of potential inhabitants, and picturesque to boot - all the elements for a proper visit in play!

undiscovered Scotland - Dunning

Dunning parish historical society and the 1841 census of Dunning residents (close to its peak thanks to weavers). Dunning standing stones from the same site.

Ancient Scotland - Dunning

The Scotsman's take on St Serf and the dragon

The Dunning Conservation Appraisal has a trove of info on the place!

...and for a bit of fun, I created a Trip on Tripadvisor for Dunning.

Continue

to err is human (and creates brick walls in genealogy)

 I was reminded of the fallibility of first person accounts...again! And it is a bigger lesson in general in genealogy - it's not proven until it's proven!

Sigh, my father, bless his long passed soul. This time, I was pouring through his journals again, reading about his favourite aunt, Aunt Minnie. 

The errors, the errors in his recounting of her.

What he said: She was my favourite aunt, I wished she was my granny instead of my granny...she was my grandfather's sister.

The truth (many hours and years of research later): She was his grandMOTHER's younger sister. I had incorrectly placed several people with his grandfather's sister Mary (though I had also allowed for the possibility of Wilhemina or that Minnie was a middle name Mary.

A few other mis-facts included her street name, where her husband was from.

So lessons learned (again). Check BOTH sides of the family...both Mary's were almost the same age (less than 5 years apart), both from Northern Ireland, both have been a challenge to create a document trail of due to the rather common-ness of the name MARY in Ireland (!!)

Also, consider ANY and all variations for street names given to you from a first person account. Lowland Street could be Leland or Lealand, or Avenue, or Road. Be specific when possible with the neighbourhood...there are endless Bally- options in all parts of Ireland for example, or putting London could take you from the UK, and send you across the pond to London, Ontario...

It's all part and parcel of the patience one hones when truly dedicated to the pursuit of family history, of documenting it all, of weaving the stories in with the facts and making sense of it for family one may or may not have met yet, and to honour the ancestors with a bit of accuracy to boot ;)

Continue

Freeholders, Tithe Applotments, Griffith's Valuations

 This post is really a way to find some of the resources to trace land, and land tenancy in Ireland. I have greatly come to appreciate the farmers in my family history. Given the scarcity of pre-1800 records in Ireland, sometimes...ok rarely, but it does happen...I have found some earlier records thanks to various sources that recorded names and places of people that lived and worked the land.

Tartaraghan Parish, Armagh (Griffith's)

Freeholders - Northern Ireland (late 18th and early 19th centuries. I've found several gems here!

The Fáilte Romhat website has links, and notations, for so many valuable Irish resources. The following are just a few of the many noteworthy ones:

Hearth Money Roll (Monaghan) 1660s...sigh, I see some of my ancestral names, but cannot claim them, can't place them or name them...yet (said hopefully, and yet completely and entirely tentatively). What was a Hearth Money Roll? A tax levied in Ireland based on the number of hearths in each house.

Irish Flax Growers list 1796 - none of my ancestors, or that I know of, on this list.

Griffith's Valuation c.1848-1864 - useful if you know the names and where ancestors are from.

Continue