Exploring the Past...Where do I come from?
When I decided to travel to Ireland I was determined to find out more about my ancestry. Since my mom's side of the family has more recent ancestors from Ireland I started to dig into the past. My grandmother's maiden name was Duffy and her grandfather had immigrated to America from Ireland, that was my connection to Ireland!! With the help of family members I found out the year he died, how old he was, and with his wife's name I ordered his death certificate to give me clues to add to my puzzle.
Here I am with my grandmother Helen (left) and the rest of her living siblings (right in order) Tom, Ruth, Dee, Ray, and Bobby.
With the death certificate and the help of Ancestry.com I found the general area where my ancestor Patrick Duffy had lived, Castleblaney, County Monaghan. I contacted the Historical Society of County Monaghan hoping they could shed some light on my discovery and they gave me a name and address of a man who might have been related to me. I wrote a letter in April and didn't receive a response until the day we were leaving August. Turns out I wasn't related to that gentleman but my letter got into the hands of my actual relative! And we were to meet them at the end of our tour!
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Pictured above is my grandmother's father Charles Duffy (right), son of Patrick Duffy who immigrated from Ireland.
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And as it would turn out the world (or Ireland) is indeed small because our Bus Driver on the tour, Pascal, was from the area of County Monaghan and it got smaller when it turned out he had been a former student of our long lost relative Frank. During our visit with our relatives we got to see where some of our ancestors were buried and married along with the run down two room school house and the house where Patrick Duffy grew up, it's still in the family! Owned now by my grandmother's second cousin John and his wife Mary who let us come in for a cup of tea and a nice little chat. I say to those of you who have encountered bumps or road blocks along your genealogy journey, to stick with it because it has amazing rewards!