Genealogy has become such a trend today that it seems it costs a million dollars to find your roots. An international 1 year subscription to Ancestry.com is $300.00!! I may not know much about my ancestors, but I know they weren't made of money. As I was holed up in my apartment sick one day, I decided to see what I could find out via the rarely reliable world wide web for free. I figured with my A+ googling skills, and a metro card (my passport to the metropolitan areas all my grandparents have lived, or there records might be stored) I might be able to find out a little bit more about my lineage.
Thankfully, my dad's cousin John keeps excellent family tree records. I happened to negotiate a copy out of him when he came to see the Christmas Spectacular. I soon realized I would not have been able to find anything without cousin John's comprehensive document. First, I'll show you my tree:
First, let me say I'm embarrassed to say I don't know my grandma's maiden name, so she didn't make the cut on the tree. But thankfully, I now know birth dates and locations for my grandparents on the O'Connor side in Ireland. Apparently my grandfather (DENIS O'CONNOR) was born in a town called Knocknagoshel, Co Kerry, Ireland in 1902. (Luckily, I don't have to pronounce this townships here). His parents were JOHN O'CONNOR and ELIZABETH CARMODY who were born on an unknown date, but both died in Knocknagoshel in the 1950s. Elizabeth Carmody's parent's were EDMOND and JOHANA (GEANEY) CARMODY from the smaller area of Meen, Knocknagoshel. I remember that my grandfather was one of 11 kids (and a twin) and was sent away to live with a relative family called the Carmodys, because there were too many kids to care for in his home. (I can't even begin to imagine what life was like for him.)
After much google searching I finally found a free public records database for Ireland- Thankfully the National Archives of Ireland will let you search the census of 1901 and 1911, online for free here.
Since my grandfather was born in 1902, I start with the 1911 Census. The records are first organized by county, which I know his is Kerry (which my sister is named for). Next I have to l0cate his DED which is District Electorial Divisions- thankfully I find one named Knocknagoshel, but yet there are more subcatagories. I returned to cousin John's records looking for further specification of where in Knocknagoshel Denis Sr. lived, to find a place called Muinganear, but it is not one of the subcategories listed. I randomly started poking through one called Ballyduff (because honestly it sounded like a village in The Shire). There are a million O'Connors in Knocknagoshel, and everytime I see a Denis I get a little excited until I notice they are far too old, or don't have the right parents and siblings. Finally I find a Denis that fits, and at age 8 he's living with The Carmodys. Its definitely him. Here's a copy of the census, filled out by my great-great-grandfather Edmond Carmody.
You can see this Census as a PDF by clicking here. I'm so glad that such a simple search yielded such exciting results.
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