Update On My Life

Some of you realize that I have had weeks where I missed posting an entry. There were days when I was so busy with other things that I would forget to post. And then there were other days when the energy had just disappeared.

This week was a little bit different. It goes without being said that having a long weekend can sometimes throw your daily schedule off for part of the following week. Well, that happened to me this week. I have not been sleeping well lately, but I am hoping that over the next week or two, it will be rectified.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the Orofacial Clinic in St John’s. I had been to my dentist in early July as I was having some pain in my gum and it was also swollen. After an x-ray and some poking around, I was informed that it looked like one of my teeth had a fractured root. I was going to be sent to a specialist in St John’s who deals with root canals. It was going to be a six- to eight-month wait to get in to see him.

About a week or two later, I noticed something strange. After the antibiotics were completed, the swelling was gone but there seemed to be a white line in my gum. I didn’t do anything about it then, but within a week, it was starting to break through the gum. I did a quick visit to the dentist and, it turned out that the fractured root had decided that it didn’t want to stay in place and wanted to see the world. It had actually cut through the gum. The visit to the previous specialist was no longer the option. Instead, I was sent to the Orofacial Clinic to have the tooth and root fragments extracted.

This visit happened on Thursday of this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready to go and still forgot to take some of the paperwork with me. My husband had to go with me as I was in no condition to be doing any driving on Thursday. We left to arrive in St John’s early enough to go see the Star Trek movie that is currently playing at the show. Then we checked into the Comfort Inn on Airport Drive. I chose this one because it is very close to the clinic. Unfortunately, I did not set my alarm properly and woke up about twenty minutes late. We still made it in time and we got lost along the way.

I was put right under because I made sure that I didn’t get enough sleep so that I would have no problem going to sleep. Apparently, the procedure only took about ten minutes. I was woken up about 9:16. My appointment started at 8:00 am after I filled out the prerequisite paperwork. We were sent on our way by 10 am.

I had a couple of places that I wanted to go to since we were in St John’s. One of them was the Maritime History Archives at Memorial University. I had sent them a list of ships’ records that I wanted to get a copy of. This was our first stop. We had the work done by 11:45. From there, we went to the library of the Newfoundland Family History Society. I asked some pertinent questions regarding cemeteries and found that my best option would be to join the society and I would be able to do what I needed to do to start that particular research at home in comfort.

From there, I had wanted to make a stop at the Family History Library and the St John’s Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to see what records they have and a quick trip to Avalon Mall to get the hand soap that I like. I decided that I had done enough and needed to start for home instead. I still hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before and the freezing was coming out and the pain was starting.

We decided to see about filling the prescription for the pain killer and the mouth rinse that were prescribed. We went into a branch of the pharmacy that I deal with in Gander, but I would have had to fill out the paperwork again and didn’t have the insurance information with me, so I decided that I could wait until we got back to Gander.

We tried a restaurant in Paradise but they didn’t have anything that I could eat. We then tried a pub about five minutes away, but they didn’t serve any food. So we drove down the highway about an hour, when I told Gordon that I needed a stop. Within five minutes we came across a gas station with a restaurant called Monty’s Restaurant. They were quite happy to give me what I wanted. I needed soft food and asked for scrambled eggs, with soft toast, and a bowl of seafood chowder. The chowder was fantastic.

I slept most of the way home, but the road is under construction right now and my sleep was not very good. I honestly thought that I didn’t sleep very much, that it was more of a doze. When I went to bed last night, I had trouble going to sleep. The first stop that we did when we reached Gander was to fill my prescriptions, of which I took the first dosage of painkiller when we arrived at home.

Today, I was able to function more normally, and did some of the things that I needed to accomplish today. I am at a point that I think that I will be getting a better night’s sleep tonight.

In a sense, I am happy that I have been able to complete the entries for the trip to Ireland, but now I am betwixt and between what I want to write about now. I will find something soon as soon as my head clears a bit more. I know. I want to rant about having to fill out more forms for the chain of stores where I already frequent one. More of this next time.

Have a good weekend.

The North of Ireland Family History Society

As you read the title of this post, you may read it as Northern Ireland Family History Society. If so, you have read it wrong. It is actually the North of Ireland Family History Society. There is a reason why it is so called that. It is because, as I said in my post about the Ulster Historical Foundation, the Province of Ulster is not just in Northern Ireland. Only six counties from Ulster make up Northern Ireland. The other three counties are in the Republic of Ireland. That being said, this family history society do have books, documents, databases, etc., from south of the border in their holdings.

The North of Ireland Family History Society are more than happy to open their research center at a time that they are normally closed in order to accommodate visitors from outside of their country, especially when they arrive in a bus and everyone wants to see the records. Their research centre in Newtownabbey, Antrim, is not very big. When I say not very big, it probably can handle about eight to ten researchers at a time, but not much more. To have more than fifteen researchers there will tax the room available if everyone is looking for the same type of information. I walked into the Randal Gill Library and found that there was really not enough room for me to go looking if I am not focused enough with others there. So, I left the room to those who knew what they were looking for and ended up in the computer room where I did some online research. Unfortunately, I couldn’t print out what I found.

The Society has a web page that seems to be well organized. Their home page is well laid out, showing where all eleven branches are located and give some general information about the Society itself. Surfing the website is easy and seems to be quite clear. Clicking on the buttons will take you where you want to go and are pretty much self-explanatory. Each button on the home page will take you to a different aspect of the Society. You can also go to the sub-pages for each of the buttons from the home page.

The Society’s holdings pertain primarily with the north of Ireland. They cover all of Ulster as well as some of the counties that border on Ulster. They have some holdings pertaining to England and the United States. A number of their databases are online, however, some of them are only accessible to members only.

There are eleven branches of the Society. They are: Ballymena, Belfast, Coleraine, Foyle, Killyleagh, Larne, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, North Armagh, North Down & Ards, and Omagh. The branches tend not to have research centres, but instead arrange day trips, monthly meetings, and other activities that enhance family history.

There are two types of membership in the Society. You can either belong to a branch where you pay your yearly dues which are in the neighbourhood of £22 a year. This would be a good idea if you lived in Northern Ireland. You would just need to find out which branch is closest to you. The other type of membership is an associated membership which will cost approximately £18 a year. This is primarily used by members who live a great distance from the locations of the Society. There are benefits to being a member, such as being able to access all of the online databases, and, of course, their newsletters. When I am at the point that I feel that they have information that I need for my research, I will be getting a membership. It really is a very small cost for the benefits that I will receive from it.

All in all, the North of Ireland Family History Society is much more than what I originally thought while visiting there. I can say, that it is actually a lot more than I saw and that it can prove to be a benefit to the family history world.

The Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland

If you plan to do any family history research in Northern Ireland and you have ancestors that emigrated to Northern Ireland from Scotland, this is a good place to do some research. Before we left for Ireland, I planned on visiting their facilities. However, when I was at PRONI, I decided to spend my time there rather than go to a facility that may not have anything that I am interested in as some of my Irish ancestors were Methodists and the records that I needed to access if I had enough time would be in PRONI. Afterwards, I was assured that there may have been some records that may have helped me in my search.

Most of the information that I present here was gleaned from the website. Their website looks like it’s fairly easy to use. They seem to have it well organized and they have a slide show explaining some of the history of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

If you are working on your family history, they do state that they do not have a comprehensive collection, but they will do the best that they can in order to help you. If you are interested in hiring a researcher, they direct you to go to the PRONI website and choose from the list of researchers there.

The website lists what is held in their library, in their archives, and how donations and indefinite loans can be made.

There are a number of documents that have been digitized and can be accessed online. The only problem is that you need to have a paid subscription or membership in order to access the information available. It currently costs £16 per year. When you look at the cost and compare it to some of the fees for other websites, £16 really is not very much money. Unless you are going to Ireland to visit other places as well, you may just find what you are looking for on your computer in the comfort of your own home.

If I find that the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland is one of the places where I can find records of my ancestors, yes, I would use the website and pay the fee so that I can access the information. You never know just where you may find something about that elusive ancestor who doesn’t seem to want to be found.

A Summer Day's Trip

I originally wrote this article in 2014. The time frame of the story is March to June of 2014.

I was perusing the marketplace at Gen-o-rama to see if there was anything that I should consider purchasing.  Global Genealogy had their books of information from newspapers from Lanark County out and I was considering that it might be in my best interest to purchase one.  But, I had to find one that would be of the most benefit to my research.  So, I was checking the indexes to see if any of my ancestors were listed.  Not surprisingly, there were very few Farrells listed.  Then I came to the book containing the obituaries for 1902.  I found only one name:  Mary Ann Farrell.  I didn’t think that this could be my great-grandmother, but I decided to check anyway.  As I read the obituary, I really got excited.  This was indeed my great-grandmother.  This obituary listed where Mary Ann died and was buried. I was so excited.  I wrote down the community where she was buried.  However, I did not purchase the book.  I did enter the information into Ancestry that same day through my tablet.  (Yes, there was internet access at the conference.)

After I got home, I began to google Cohorton to see where it is located.  I found that Cohorton was not the name of the community but it is Cohocton and is located about 2 hours south of Buffalo.  It is a small community but it does have an historic society which has a Facebook page. I sent them a message to see if they had any information on my great-grandmother and her family.  About 2 weeks passed and a message was returned.  Mary Ann passed away in 1902 after a period of time suffering from tuberculosis.  Two years previously, she gave birth to a baby girl by the name of Margaret.  Her husband’s name was Frank (Francis) and they had moved there 6 years previously.  That was about the extent of the information that they were able to find in that time.

This gave me more information than what I had before.  I still have more information to find. 

As it turns out, my husband and I own a house in the Niagara Peninsula about 3 hours north of Cohocton.  I was already planning a trip to there for about a week in the beginning of June for a dinner being held by the 57 Field Regiment Association.  I have made some adjustments to my plans so that I can go visit Cohocton on Friday, go to the dinner on Saturday evening, and then conclude my business and travel home by Tuesday. 

The staff of the Historical Society of Cohocton have graciously given me their street address and phone number so that I will be able to drive down and visit.  I will also be able to visit the cemetery that Mary Ann is buried in.  Who knows, but I might even be able to learn what address that the family resided at during the 1900 census and take a picture of it.

You never know what you will find at a family history conference.