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“for the considerations therein mentioned”
or, What a Memorial of an Indented Deed is, and what it isn’t. During the past few months, while transcribing and indexing memorials of Irish deeds , I’ve noticed certain legal terms used in deeds and other proceedings . Historic newspapers are the same way: after a time, you begin to recognize patterns in language Continue reading
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Duties of the Irish tenant farmer :: one fatt Unshorne Mutton, one Bole of Barley, &c.
one fatt Unshorne Mutton One Bole of Barley Twelve Fatt Henns Six days work of Man & horse The 21st century reader would be forgiven for thinking that these might have been lines from an ancient verse or folk song. As it happens, these words defined the duties of the Irish tenant farmer to his Continue reading
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A Huggins thorn in George Washington’s revolutionary side
Like so many other Irishmen from the province of Ulster, young Thomas Huggins ventured out to the American colonies in the early 1770s, to seek his fortune. It seems unlikely that a Revolutionary War was a part of the 18th century American Dream that Thomas sought—but that, indeed, is what he got. Equally, it is Continue reading
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The Halifax Explosion, 6th December 1917: Epitaph for Merle Huggins, a schoolgirl
On this day, 6th December 2015, a ceremony is underway to commemorate the Halifax Explosion which devastated the north end of the city ninety-eight years ago. Every year, people gather beside the Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower, to mark the wartime marine disaster which killed 2,000 people, injured another 9,000, and left 25,000 homeless. One-third Continue reading
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The lot of the soldier’s wife was unenviable (1st writing)
So little was etched into the written record about our great-great-great grandmother, Mary McDonnell (1794–1869), the earliest known of our ancestors in this line from the county of Mayo. Of course, the system of record keeping favoured male heads of household, tradesmen, and soldiers. Women tended to fall off the archival radar. While we are Continue reading
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Unsung Hero: John Burke of Claremorris, regimental tailor, 96th & 39th Regiments of Foot
One evil consequence of the penal laws was, that the Irish being denied the exercise of the honourable profession of arms at home, (as alluded to in the introduction to this section,) the high-mettled youth of the land were driven to take service under foreign banners; and England had often to regret the valour of Continue reading
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Kilpatrick family history :: Lislea, parish of Kilrea, county Derry
After thirteen years’ study of a wide range of Irish, Canadian, and American records, I’ve decided, finally, that I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to put quill to paper and write the Kilpatrick family history for our branch out of Lislea townland in the parish of Kilrea, county Londonderry. This research commenced in late Continue reading
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Acknowledgements (the first iteration)
This morning dawned unseasonably cold and damp, more like mid-November than mid-September. After fighting with myself over the unseemliness, let alone the cost, eventually I gave in and turned on the furnace to take the chill out of the air. As my cerebrum began to defrost, it became apparent that this was no day to Continue reading
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Great War Remembrance Project :: “We shall remember them”
Over the course of the next four-and-a-half years, I hope to undertake a Great War remembrance project. The intent of this project is to provide complete biographical sketches for each of our extended family’s casualties of the Great War. This is no small undertaking, as the number in the list shown on the page, We Continue reading
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Data management and moving social history work to the Web
Talk about a data management problem! and trying to make sense of all that data. I have been researching my paternal (English) and maternal (Irish)‡ lines for fourteen years. As of today,§ the Genealogy folder on my computer contains 12.98 GB of data. According to an article posted to the BBC’s web site on December Continue reading
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