Week 37: Mistake #52Ancestors

When I first started researching my family tree in earnest – about 10 years ago – boy, did I make some mistakes! As a newbie, I mistakenly relied upon the information in the trees I found on Ancestry.com. Holy smokes, you found my ancestor back in the 1400’s! So cool! 

Actually, no.

I am glad to say that I don’t make those bone-headed mistakes any more. No, my current mistakes are much more subtle and harder to correct. The biggest mistake I make now is not keeping a Research Log. No matter how many classes I take where the instructor speaks about the benefits of a Research Log, I still can’t get disciplined-enough to make this a regular practice. As a consequence, my research and my focus tend to wander. Needless to say, duplication of effort is a huge problem when you don’t use a log causing time to be wasted and much hair to be pulled out.

 A mistake I have grown out of is taking evidence at face value without corroborating its veracity with independent evidence. As an example, there is a picture of my husband’s 2nd great-grandparents where someone noted on the back that this picture was taken in Ireland. It shows John J. Quinlan and his wife Catherine Fitzgibbon who appear to be in their 60’s-70’s. My thought at the time: “okay, there’s a place to start my research” and this will help me pinpoint when they came to the U.S. Of course, that note turned out to be wrong. John came to the U.S. when he was about 22 and Catherine was born in Massachusetts and likely never went to Ireland. Sadly, I wasted a lot of time going down that rabbit-hole. 

I wrote about John and Catherine in Week 11: “Large Family” because they had thirteen (!) children. My research into Catherine’s family has run into a typical Irish genealogy road-block – I know her parents came from Ireland but I don’t know what town or county. John’s family is another matter and I have been fortunate to learn where he came from in Ireland and that information lead to his parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins. How that brick-wall was busted is a nice story of genealogical serendipity.

In 1931 , my husband’s grandmother, Kathryn Ann (McCormick) Baty, traveled to Europe with her aunt, Ellen “Nell” (Quinlan) Donnelly. While they were niece and aunt, Kathryn and Nell were only three-years apart in age, so grew up more like sisters.

Why were these two women traveling by themselves in Europe in 1931? Nell was married but had no children. Kate, on the other hand, had four children, the youngest of which was six. Europe was still recovering from World War I and Germany was beginning to fight against the reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Adolph Hitler, then a leader of the Nationalist opposition, was warning the world that it would not accept any further interference from France, England, or the U.S.[1]

Despite the possible unrest in Europe, it was essential for Nell to remove herself from the Kansas City area. If you remember back to Week 11, Nell was a prominent businesswoman in Kansas City. This trip was designed to cover-up her unplanned pregnancy.

Anyway, Kate and Nell went to Europe sometime in June or July and made their way to Ireland. They obviously knew precisely where to go because they got John Quinlan’s Birth Certificate from St Martin’s Catholic Church in Kilworth, County Cork. This single piece of paper was the key to finding John and his family in Ireland. I don’t remember how I got a copy of that certificate, probably from a Baty cousin who collected family papers many years ago. 

Researching your ancestors in Ireland can be difficult, but finding their Parish will open doors to a wealth of documents. Using this information, I found the Tithe Applotment Book for the Parish of Kilcrumper, Townland of Downing in 1828 showing John Quinlan’s father on 31 acres of land he was renting from Robert Norcott and others.[2] In 1837, Kilcrumper had 1,408 inhabitants and the land was reported to be of “good quality and chiefly under tillage.”[3] Sadly, by 1851 John’s father had died and the family was living in a house on a one-acre plot.[4] Shortly thereafter, John left for the U.S. What happened to his mother and sisters who likely stayed in Ireland is currently unknown.

This blog has taken us a long way from “mistake,” but I am not one to dwell on mistakes, other than to learn from them and always seek to move forward.

[1]“German Leaders Bitter,” Kansas City (Missouri) Star, 21 July 1931, p. 2, col. 4-5.

[2]Applottment for Rectorial Tithes of the Parish of Kilcrumper, Townland of Downing (1828), Daniel Quinlon; digital image, The National Archives of Ireland (www.titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie).

[3]Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2nd ed., vol. 2, (London: S. Lewis and Co., 1837), 42; image, Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)

[4]Primary Valuation of Tenemants, County Cork, Fermoy Barony and Union, Parish of Kilcrumper, Townland Downing South, p. 100; image, Ask About Ireland (http://www.askaboutireland.ie).

I love maps! This is part of a map of Kilcrumper showing Downing South. The plot I’ve circled shows the property upon which John Quinlan was living in about 1851.

Here is a present-day satellite map from Google where I have circled the area where the plot was. Some day, Bruce and I will have to visit! Image: Downing South, Kilcrumper Parish, County Cork; Map data c2019 Google (https://www.google.com/maps/: accessed 9 Sep 2019).