Happy St Patty’s

Hi Everyone… I hope you all had a green day!

I for one was definitely celebrating St Patty's Day.  It was only a few years ago that I even discovered Irish connections.  It's amazing how things can turn very unexpected when you decided to trace your roots!

My father never spoke about his father or his ancestry at all.  When he died we knew nothing except that our name had been changed by my grandfather.  From what, we had absolutely no idea.  It took me almost a year before I finally had a breakthrough and got beyond my father, to his father.  It really took that long.  In the meantime, I had traced my mother's side of the family back to the 1500s…. but my father… stuck very firmly in the 1900s.  Then one day… everything started to be revealed.

We had always believed that my father's side of the family was Welsh and my mother's Irish.  Imagine my absolute utmost surprise when I discovered that I could trace my mother's roots back to the 1500s firmly in England. No Irish that we could find!  I was even more surprised to find that my grandfather was Irish.  HUH!!!! How come we had never known that… .I mean… seriously! 

Anyway, I did research, went as far as I could on the internet and then Lou and I decided to take a trip to the Emerald Isle.  In fact.. we landed in Ireland on 3/17/2007.  Errrrrr…. mmmmm…. you would have thought that me… being newly discovered Irish… would have remembered that arriving on St Patty's in Dublin was probably not a good idea 🙂

We spent a week tracing my family through historical records based on the information I had.  We managed to trace the family back to the 1300s in a town called Carlingford, Co. Louth.  What an amazingly emotional week that was.  I discovered that my family had lived in the same town for 700 years and my grandfather and grandmother had met there, married there and left when they were in their early 20s.  We discovered that the family had actually first arrived in Ireland in the 1100s from Scotland… so… well.. really…. that was even more of a surprise!

So… here's to my grandfather – whom I never met – and my Irish family in Carlingford.  Who defended their religion (they were part of the crusades I was to discover), defended their land, and probably had more than a glass or two of Guinness!

This picture shows the defensive structure of my ancestor's position – it is a fortified residence and was originally at the water's edge.  This particular residence dates back to 1600.  Aren't those little slits for the bows and arrows absolutely fascinating.  I was amazed. 

The next place I have to show you is Smarmore Castle in County Louth.  The original family seat…. err.. its now a bed and breakfast and hotel… they didn't take too kindly when i knocked on their door and demanded they hand over the keys to my family estate as I had recently discovered it was mine 🙂 Especially since I wasn't sure when a direct family descendant had last lived there… oh yeah.. .and there are probably hundreds of people with the same claim 🙂

I didn't really demand they let me in and hand over the key… i mean.. we wouldnt be able to afford the rates and taxes!

When I originally found that we had a family seat and it was a castle…. and it dated back to 1320… i wa thinking C A S T L E.. you know the English variety… maybe something like Windsor Castle…mmmmm… not quite… these were actually fortified residences, not quite castles.

So.. there you have it.. a little more of my history 🙂

I hope you all have a fabulous Thursday.  Sorry there was no card
tonight… but I wanted to share a story and a photo or two.

Trish…… it was so good to see your comments today!  Your presence in our little community made my day

Hugs to everyone and Happy St Pattys

Jaydee