[Arbor : Tree] + [Borealis : Northern]
Image credit: — Picturesque views in England and Wales: Chatham, Kent in 1832. (See details, below.) 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…
Continue reading ➞ Mary McDonnell in, “The lot of the soldier’s wife” (revisited)
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 ➞ Portent of the Great Famine in December, 1844
The Ottawa Evening Journal, 6th December 1917. "1300 Killed at Halifax." 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…
Continue reading ➞ The Halifax Explosion, 6 Dec. 1917: Epitaph for Merle Huggins
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 ➞ The lot of the soldier’s wife was unenviable
Composed by John D'Alton (1792–1867), born at Bessville in county Westmeath; lawyer, historian, biographer, & genealogist. Footnotes prepared by the editor, S. Lover: * 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…
Continue reading ➞ Unsung Hero: John Burke of Claremorris, regimental tailor