Misfortune and hardship
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Recent updates posted to Arborealis
It has been a very busy few months here at Arborealis, with recent updates to the website in line with WordPress’s new Full Site Editor method for designing, launching, and maintaining a website. At this date, we have completed about two-thirds of this task. We might have made greater progress but have continued to publish… Continue reading
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Mary McDonnell in, “The lot of the soldier’s wife” (revisited)
Since writing the first installment of “The lot of the soldier’s wife” in 2015, the recent discovery of a (third) marriage record lifts Mary McDonnell out of the inscrutable murk of family history mystery. Nevertheless, Mary has led us on a merry genealogical chase to learning what was her lot for the twenty-one years between… Continue reading
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Portent of the Great Famine in December, 1844
In December, 1844, the Limerick Chronicle† contained a portent of the Great Famine of 1845–1852. In that edition was issued one of the earliest warnings of that looming and terrible visitation of the potato blight, famine, and disease in Ireland. A serious rot had been detected in the potato pits in several districts. At this… 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
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