Donnybrook

On our last night in Ireland, it was decided that we would have a special dinner, one that gave us a chance to spend time together without any real rush. This event took place in the community of Donnybrook.

Donnybrook is a district of Dublin which is in the south side. It has an interesting history that goes back to the 12^h century. At the beginning of the 13^th century, King John signed a charter for the Donnybrook Fair which existed until 1866. It started off as an agricultural fair, but degraded into a fair that promoted “fun” and drunkenness. Things got to be so bad that the local people raised money and prominent citizens and clergy purchased the rights to the fair. The fair had been held on the property that is now used as the Donnybrook Rugby Ground and the Ever Ready Garage. The name, Donnybrook, came to describe a rowdy brawl.

Donnybrook is a civil parish that consists of sixteen townlands. Twelve of the townlands belong to the Barony of Dublin. Three of the remaining townlands belong to the Barony of Rathdown. The final townland, Sallymount, is in the Barony of Uppercross.

On Morehampton Road, you will find a small establishment that looks like a pub from the outside. I’m not sure what the main floor of the restaurant looks like as we were ushered upstairs to the Belmont Room which is designed to host parties up to 90 participants. It has its own bar and washrooms, as well as a lounge area and fireplace. The dining area is split into two areas, upper and lower. There is also a fairly large reception area as you enter from the stairwell. Entertainment had also been arranged for us, we were treated to a final night of Irish music.

When we arrived, we were presented with a demonstration of how to make Irish soda bread. We were even given a copy of the recipe and told about possible pitfalls. After this, we then sat down to a very good meal. I believe that there were either three or four choices which were made before we even arrived in Ireland. The food was delicious and plentiful. I cannot for the life of me what I had as we have been back for three months now and a great deal has happened since then.

Once the food was out of the way, we had a bit of an appreciation party, giving thanks to Lesley Anderson for all of the work that she had done for us both before and during the tour. We also showed our appreciation to our bus driver and guide, Austin, from CIE Tours in Ireland.

The time came that we had to vacate the restaurant and travel back to our hotel for our last night in Ireland. We had a long day ahead of us with our travel back to Canada and to our various homes, mostly in Ottawa, but a couple from Alberta, three or four from the States, and myself currently living in Newfoundland.

It was a good trip. I plan to go back to Ireland to visit the places that I want to get to know better and to do some research that I can’t do in Canada. Who knows, this might happen sooner than later. We will see.

I am sure that Lesley Anderson will appreciate the following picture. My brother and I had gone for a walk on our last night in Belfast so that I could get some pictures. I came across this one during that time. Lesley, if you are reading this, please enjoy:

Family History Fireside Chat – 7 May 2016

Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a Family History Fireside Chat which was sponsored by the Family History Centers of Newfoundland. This was originally planned as a one-day conference but because of lack of preregistrations, it was considered to be unfeasible to continue on as a conference.

As Lesley Anderson was scheduled to fly into St John’s from Ottawa and already had her ticket booked, there was a certain cost that had to be covered whether Lesley came or not. So, the decision was made to have her come and change the venue into a fireside chat. It gave Lesley a chance to tour St John’s and to visit places that she hadn’t been to before.

The committee decided to also ask Yvonne Sorenson from FamilySearch.org to also speak. Yvonne was invited to Skype in from Salt Lake City which is what she did.

There were four locations where you could go to attend the fireside chat. They were the chapels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in St John’s, Bay Roberts, and Corner Brook as well as the meeting place for the members in Grand Falls-Windsor/Gander area. Those attending in St John’s, Bay Roberts, and Corner Brook were treated to a potluck dinner. Those attending in Grand Falls-Windsor had light refreshments during the fireside chat. This was because the facility in Grand Falls-Windsor is not big enough to be able to have a meal like the others and then immediately go into the other room for the program.

I am not sure of the attendance in the other locations, but in Grand Falls-Windsor, we had eight people in attendance. It looked like the other locations had approximately 20 to 30 people each. I personally think that, for this area and the fact that this is the first time that we have done this, the fireside chat was a success.

Lesley Anderson was the first speaker and spoke about Ancestry.ca. She explained how to get started on your family history as well as how Ancestry can help you with it. Ancestry has come out with some new initiatives and Lesley explained how they worked.

Yvonne Sorenson then spoke, giving a quick history of Newfoundland, the Atlantic provinces, and the northeastern states and how they related to each other. She then demonstrated what kind of records that are available online with FamilySearch.org and also mentioned some of the records that are available through Ancestry, Find My Past, and My Heritage. Yvonne also touched on the Indexing program and how anyone could index the records through this program. She mentioned that the Indexing program is about to make available some additional options that will be offered.

As we know, there are many records that are not available online as of yet. There are some in archives that may never be online. However, all of the records held in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will eventually be online. In the meantime, these records are on microfilm that can still be ordered into Family History Centers for viewing. Personally, this is the case that I have, some of my records may be the last records to be digitized and put online. Living in Gander, we are hours away from the closest Family History Center, but, at least there are two here on the island.

This Family History Fireside Chat was an initiative that may have been a way of making the best of things for the conference, but I can see that it can produce good things. We are hoping that we will be able to continue with them, highlighting various organizations here in Newfoundland that hold records and explain how they can help us find and understand our ancestors.

My direct ancestors did not settle here in Newfoundland. My mother’s ancestors went to what is now Lanark County and Huron County in Ontario, and my father’s parents and grandparents left Liverpool and moved to Toronto.

However, there are records pertaining to my great-grandfather here in Newfoundland. This is part of the reason why my husband and I are here. These records are the ships logs for the British Merchant Marines for all the years except those ending in 5. These also have the crews’ lists. I am also thinking that I might be able to find some passenger lists in them as well. I have already made one trip to St John’s but I have more than just my great-grandfather who was a sailor in the Merchant Marine. I have a number of indirect ancestors who were sailors and I want to find their records and be able to tell their stories to my children, my grandchildren, and possibly even my great-grandchildren.

May we work towards finding the records of our ancestors to tell our descendants about these people who came before us. May Heavenly Father help us to find the records, the people and the stories to become the family historians that we need to be. May our ancestors help us by prompting us about where to look for this vital information. May our love for our families, past, present, and future grow to encompass every member from the babies that died so young to the parents and grandparents who guided their children, to the black sheep and the white sheep, the adventurers, the tree-huggers, those that stayed at home, and those that trusted that the future would be all that it could. These are they that come before us and come after us. Let us remember them all as we find them. Everyone deserves to be remembered no matter what they have or have not done.

Jetlag and Other Things

Why is it that time can fly by without any reason? That is what happened to me this evening. Today, I thought that I would get everything done in the timeframe that I wanted it done, but I just realized that I forgot something important.

I guess that that I am under the influence of jetlag without realizing it. I am ready to go to bed about 8:30 or 9:00 pm and I just think about just staying up until 9:30. This evening, we also had a couple of visitors for about an hour.

I did manage to wash the dishes after our visitors left, but then I sat down at the computer and started to do some work on Ancestry. When I took a short break just now, thinking that I should go to bed, I realized that I had one more thing to do.

I am trying to get into a routine that I get certain things done by certain times so that I have a balanced life and can complete everything that I set out to do. Fridays, I usually go for massage therapy in the morning every other week. I also usually try to get some resumes out to possible employers. Then, in the late afternoon, I go over to the mess for social hour. I like to go over so that I can meet my husband’s co-workers and possibly make a friend or two.

Well, I did all of that, but when I got home, I should have worked on my blog at that time. Instead, I was looking into something else. Then along came time to make and eat supper.

All that I can ask you is to be patient with me. I am still getting used to the idea of writing a blog, let alone writing an entry every day. I do like it when it has been completed and find out where in the world the readers are.

This is going to be short tonight as I need to get up in the morning. I need to do some preparation for tomorrow evening when the first Newfoundland Family History Fireside Chat will be taking place. This first one is being broadcasted through Skype between St John’s, Bay Roberts, Corner Brook, and Grand Falls-Windsor. Lesley Anderson from Ancestry is our first speaker and Yvonne Sorensen from FamilySearch is our second and final speaker. Lesley will be speaking from the chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in St John’s, and Yvonne will be skyping in from Salt Lake City. We are looking forward to this being the first of a series of Family History Fireside Chats.

Good night all and sweet dreams.