Dr. Jane Lyons's Posts - The Wild Geese2024-03-28T08:45:51ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyonshttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/68531937?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blog/feed?user=1uoiuamg1j7yf&xn_auth=noUnmarried Mothers & babiestag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-27:6442157:BlogPost:1021642014-06-27T03:06:33.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>Since the 'dead babies in Tuam' story *hit* the headlines I've read a lot about it on the internet in particular and I wonder a lot of things and this is a difficult blog to write because where do I let my thoughts go.</p>
<p>An extremely emotional subject.</p>
<p>The first things I thought when I heard the story and as I listened to the immediate reaction here in Ireland was</p>
<p>1. Do you have any idea of what life was like for those people (the mothers).</p>
<p>2. Do you remember what…</p>
<p>Since the 'dead babies in Tuam' story *hit* the headlines I've read a lot about it on the internet in particular and I wonder a lot of things and this is a difficult blog to write because where do I let my thoughts go.</p>
<p>An extremely emotional subject.</p>
<p>The first things I thought when I heard the story and as I listened to the immediate reaction here in Ireland was</p>
<p>1. Do you have any idea of what life was like for those people (the mothers).</p>
<p>2. Do you remember what it was like to live in a religious (Catholic) dominated country?</p>
<p>3. Do you realise that if this was the case over in Tuam, then it will also be the case with every Mother & Child institute we had in this country at that time.</p>
<p>and my final thought,</p>
<p>4. Not one of you making a comment has any real idea of the history of the period in our country when Mother & Baby homes were so important.</p>
<p>Let me begin with one thing I have read where someone has said that Priests did not baptise children born outside marriage. That may have been true for some priests, but, I can guarantee you, that I could not count the number of babies I have seen listed in Roman Catholic parish registers as being illigitimate or bastard and I have worked/transcribed a lot of Roman Catholic parish registers (see <a href="http://www.from-ireland.net">www.from-ireland.net</a> and go to the county pages and for the most you will see some parish register index.)</p>
<p>Do you know that in the days when we had working 'Workhouse' (pre 1845 forwards), the Workhouses had ladies in their employment who used to go round the workhouse area at night 'collecting' babies that they would find lying on the ground somewhere in the parish and that these babies were bundled into a basket on top of one another. In theory, these babies were supposed to be brought to the Workhouse to be looked after *but* some of these ladies would simply go into the area of another workhouse and 'dump' the babies they had found in their own workhouse area. Also, some of those babies would have died in transit.</p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;">What life was like for these mothers</span> : the story about baby deaths from Tuam is for a time frame prior to my birth, *but* back in the 1970's, if a girl got pregnant outside marriage in my home town and if her parents were alive, she was shunted off to a Mother & Baby home and as soon as the baby was born it was 'put up' for adoption. The girl was given no choice in the matter. I had a friend when I was in university and she got pregnant and this happened her, for as long as I knew her after that, she always worried about what had happened her little boy, where he had gone to and what his new parents were like. I knew girls in my home town who did become pregnant, who did keep their babies and then they were 'marked' - and that went on for years. These days it is different. In the days before the 70's, life must have been horrific for these young mothers.</p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Living in a one religion dominated country</span>: The Priests RULED - it was as simple as that. The Priests, the Nuns - they were, I won't say 'adored' but they were respected. You walked past the priest and you bowed your head, or you nodded you always acknowledged them. The Priest came to your house (if it was the house of an ordinary person), then the Priest was brought into the best room and treated as though he was God almighty. When you got in trouble, it was off to the Priest you went for help, support. You have to have lived through this to understand it. Life is not like that now, but, it was.</p>
<p>The Nuns - God love them, in a lot of ways they have been bashed about. I think that few who have not lived in a Catholic dominated country with religious running schools can ever understand the nuns. If you stop and think about it we had nuns in this country from the 1800's - how have they survived this long if they were as bad as I have seen them painted these last few years. I have no doubt that there were bad nuns but I also have no doubt that these were outnumbered by the good nuns. I am a non-practising Catholic so my defense of nuns here has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with my experience of these ladies. </p>
<p>I was sent to boarding school when I was about 11 years old, a boarding school run by nuns. We were allowed see our family one Sunday a month for about 3 hours and I can honestly say that in my 5 years in that school I got into trouble for being a bit bold, but, I was never hit once. Having Mother Malachy's finger stuck into my shoulder and hearing her say my name would make me cringe, but, her pointy finger being stuck into my shoulder was as bad as it got. The school I was in had what we called 'the laundry' where girls (who were poor) had a job cleaning clothes.</p>
<p>In a poor country (and that is what Ireland was - a backward, 3rd level country), we had no money to mind these mothers and babies. The mothers were for the most part 'looked down on' because they had gotten pregnant outside marriage, so..............who was going to deliver their babies? Who was going to mind the babies? Where were the mothers going to get the money to deal with this? We didn't have social services, the parents of the girls didn't have the money to pay to mind their daughters or their grandchildren.</p>
<p>We were paupers *but* we had the nuns, and the nuns took in the mothers and 'looked after' the babies. Yes, they are criticised for 'adopting' out the babies BUT what right have we to stand over them and judge what they did thinking it was the best for the children. Tomorrows generation will judge us for judging that earlier generation</p>
<p>I once worked with the books which had belonged to an Undertaker in a town. The man had listed the details for each person he had buried in these books - he began this work we'll say about 1923. One listing I read was for a baby and a note in the book, it said "We don't need a coffin we have a shoe-box". My mother was a Doctor (GP) and I went home that day and said to her do you know what they buried a baby in a shoe-box and her reply "For God's sake Jane, of course babies were buried in shoe-boxes, these people had no money". We don't think of something like that, we have a habit of comparing what we read about the past with our own lives and that is wrong.</p>
<p>I think I've said enough.</p>
<p>We needed the nuns and the minding they did of these mothers and babies. We were a poor country rampant with disease - outside of our famines, we had typhus, cholera, TB. When I was a child, TB was the big killer - people would get sent to Peamount.</p>
<p>The nuns I lived (1970-75) with were not cruel or nasty.</p>Message re one of my Facebok pagestag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-22:6442157:BlogPost:1017062014-06-22T18:19:25.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p><span>Copy of message sent to my Facebook page</span></p>
<p><span>My name is Jane Lyons, Ph.D., and I post on this page. I set this page up as an attachment to my Jane Lyons Genealogy page. This page is called Irish Genealogy, it has NOTHING to do with any professional site of the same name</span><br></br><br></br><span>I do not hav</span><span class="text_exposed_show">e and this page has nothing to do with a website which carries the name irishgenealogy<br></br><br></br>This page has been set up by a…</span></p>
<p><span>Copy of message sent to my Facebook page</span></p>
<p><span>My name is Jane Lyons, Ph.D., and I post on this page. I set this page up as an attachment to my Jane Lyons Genealogy page. This page is called Irish Genealogy, it has NOTHING to do with any professional site of the same name</span><br/><br/><span>I do not hav</span><span class="text_exposed_show">e and this page has nothing to do with a website which carries the name irishgenealogy<br/><br/>This page has been set up by a woman, an individual working on her own who is interested in history and gravestones.<br/><br/>I am by training a Scientist, a Marine Biologist. I was awarded my PhD from the National University of Ireland through University College Cork in 1991.<br/><br/>All my photographs are freely available on the net nad yes, some of them can't be read, but we have an index<br/><br/>and yes, on my website <a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">www.from-ireland.net</a> I do have a section a bit, with every gravestone page saying that if someone wants a copy of an original photo then I will charge them 5 Euro<br/><br/>In truth, that's nothing really. If you stop and think about the amount of money I have spent travelling to places, if you stop and think about the time that has gone in to working with photographs - then 5 euro for one shot or a group of shots is not much - and..........it doesn't even begin to pay for money I've spent.<br/><br/>The people who every so often tell me they found their ancestors on my pages - does it ever dawn on them how incredile that its to me<br/><br/>I doubt it.<br/><br/>Jane.</span></p>Gravestone talk : Beyond the Grave Conference, Limericktag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-21:6442157:BlogPost:1012162014-06-21T21:53:04.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>Beyond the Grave Conference, Limerick - a few weeks ago........</p>
<p>Jane Lyons (me) Talk.</p>
<p>I've just been sent a link to a 'video' of my talk at this conference and y'know, I was wrecked, had had about three hrs sleep the night before, it was 4.30pm, I was tired.</p>
<div class="text_exposed_show"><p>I've been told I was very good, but me, I thought i was very borderline......now that I see the video though, I realise I wasn't bad at all *except* I should really have stood closer to…</p>
</div>
<p>Beyond the Grave Conference, Limerick - a few weeks ago........</p>
<p>Jane Lyons (me) Talk.</p>
<p>I've just been sent a link to a 'video' of my talk at this conference and y'know, I was wrecked, had had about three hrs sleep the night before, it was 4.30pm, I was tired.</p>
<div class="text_exposed_show"><p>I've been told I was very good, but me, I thought i was very borderline......now that I see the video though, I realise I wasn't bad at all *except* I should really have stood closer to the microphones.....except maybe it's not so bad, maybe people with full hearing can hear it whilst I have problems - cos I am really half deaf</p>
<p><span> </span><a href="http://youtu.be/aSAa6biV3GA" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/aSAa6biV3GA</a></p>
</div>Old Irish Newspaper Extractstag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-12:6442157:BlogPost:978132014-06-12T13:31:37.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>Old Irish Newspaper Abstracts:</p>
<p>We tend to forget the things that so many people have done, especially in this day and age of advanced technology. Many of you don’t remember the days when the Irish Census returns were not on the internet, many of you don’t know about the days when you had to go to the Irish Civil Records office to get the references for births, marriages and deaths. Today, we can get those references if they exist on the internet (for the most part). We all forget so…</p>
<p>Old Irish Newspaper Abstracts:</p>
<p>We tend to forget the things that so many people have done, especially in this day and age of advanced technology. Many of you don’t remember the days when the Irish Census returns were not on the internet, many of you don’t know about the days when you had to go to the Irish Civil Records office to get the references for births, marriages and deaths. Today, we can get those references if they exist on the internet (for the most part). We all forget so easily about how it was so hard back then and about what we owe to the dedicated people who transcribed material and put it up on the net for the rest of us to see.</p>
<p>"<strong>Ireland Old News</strong>" contributors:</p>
<p><strong>Cathy Joynt Labath</strong> who I believe did most of the transcribing and who created the website.</p>
<p><strong>Jim McNamara</strong> (and I think he told me recently it was 1999 we first met) and</p>
<p><strong>Brian Magaoidh</strong> (both) who I am still in contact with.</p>
<p>Alison & Kathryn who I knew through lists.</p>
<p><span style="color: #888888;">Dennis Ahearne</span> (RIP) who contributed so much to people researching their Irish ancestry.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/old-newspapers-ireland/">http://www.from-ireland.net/old-newspapers-ireland/</a></p>World War Veteran - Victoria Cross and name changestag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-06:6442157:BlogPost:966682014-06-06T19:05:22.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>This week, I finished an index for all the names on all the stones in Rathdowney, Laois(Queen's Co) and I head of into town to go to the graveyard to begin checking the 1300 or so names and with my new magic torch hopefully be be able to read the bits I had a problem with.</p>
<p>As I get into the town, I wonder to myself if an acquaintance of mine who is also director f a funeral home would be interested in the index so I call to ask him. "Ah Jane", ses he......"I have an index. I keep…</p>
<p>This week, I finished an index for all the names on all the stones in Rathdowney, Laois(Queen's Co) and I head of into town to go to the graveyard to begin checking the 1300 or so names and with my new magic torch hopefully be be able to read the bits I had a problem with.</p>
<p>As I get into the town, I wonder to myself if an acquaintance of mine who is also director f a funeral home would be interested in the index so I call to ask him. "Ah Jane", ses he......"I have an index. I keep the 'funeral books'" Ah Kieran ses I, your books are not alphabetically indexed" Ah Jane", ses he. 'Yes, I'd like a copy of your index - and, would you like to se my books" Ah, Kieran" ses I - as I jump up and down smiling....'Of course I would"</p>
<p>Then he asks me.....'Do you know anything about John Moyney?" 'He's a war vet' ses I - and 'No, I only know a bit but I'll go home and come back to you later cos I'm bound to have something on Moyney's in my computer" (I actually have more information on Laois (Queen's Co.) people in my computer than anyone else in the world.</p>
<p>Off I go home and begin looking and looking and looking. I find that I have no references to the surname. That the only Moyney registered in Ireland early on was in the Griffiths and in Tipperary. I find on the fsamily search site that there were Moyney's in Cavan in the 1870's and then they appear in the Roscrea area in the 1950's.</p>
<p>I go back into town to tell Kieran that his John Moyney is a mystery - and then John ses to me did you try "Miney" and I say no...........and go home to try Miney....and yes, there he is in the 1901 census and his family in the 1911 census.</p>
<p>(Before I go another step father in this message, I would like to say to post editors - when I use the word 'ses' I am using it the way I would if I was talking to someone, do not change it plese and thank you)</p>
<p>I go back in to town to tell Kieran i have him and his family - we're delighted the two of us. </p>
<p>In the meantime I had asked a friend of mine who is an historian if he knew anything about this John Moyney and he rang me to say yep!!! Tons of stuff and we talked for at least 90 mins about John Moyney.</p>
<p>John or Jack (Jack is a 'pet' name for John) Miney joined the British Army - he is listed as John Miney in the civil records - I believe he died as John Moyney </p>
<p>This man won a Victoria Cross for his bravery - I'm told that a Victoria is a rare cross and that two men from my home town were awarded one. </p>
<p>Jane</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>Unlike Any Other Marathon in the Worldtag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-02:6442157:BlogPost:957442014-06-02T22:30:00.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706106?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706106?profile=original" width="750"></img></a> Flora Mini Marathon, Dublin City, 2014</strong></p>
<p>In excess of 40,000 women ran in this mini marathon today. It's all of 10k, and it's actually magic.</p>
<p>Listening to the radio as I came home this evening, I heard the presenter say that 'some' of the women ran for charity, and that 800 charities were represented. The truth is that the vast majority of people…</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706106?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706106?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>Flora Mini Marathon, Dublin City, 2014</strong></p>
<p>In excess of 40,000 women ran in this mini marathon today. It's all of 10k, and it's actually magic.</p>
<p>Listening to the radio as I came home this evening, I heard the presenter say that 'some' of the women ran for charity, and that 800 charities were represented. The truth is that the vast majority of people who run in this mini marathon are running in aid of a charity.</p>
<p>I stood there watching the women come home and thought, "Isn't it just so incredible that so many people who have been in contact with an ill person or a dying person or someone who has died because of an illness ... they all come together on this one day and walk to try and aid others not to die from the disease, the illness?"</p>
<p>Cystic fibrosis, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, acquired brain injury, kidney disease, cancer, hospice support groups ... 800 charities. I couldn't possibly name them all.</p>
<p>My Sinead and her friend, Amanda, this year they walked in aid of Bru Columbanus, a building attached or connected to University College Cork. Back in 2011 when I was in hospital in Cork for a month, my three children stayed in an apartment for free. The girls have run in aid of Bru Columbanus before.</p>
<p>Coming home, I heard on the radio the voice of one of the participants. She was a lady from Tipperary, I think her surname was Anderson. She was 89 years old and said that this was her 20th marathon. She hopes to be there in her 90th year.</p>
<p>I saw a woman with walking sticks and a foot all plastered up. Women pushing other women in wheel chairs. My girls told me of someone who was unable to walk properly being 'carried' - she'd 'walk' the way she can walk, but two other women carried her the ten kilometers.</p>
<p>I heard some women on radio giving out about the handful of men who dress up as women and walk - the women saying, "Why can't men leave this to us?" But, one of those men I saw today wore a shirt naming his mother who had died of cancer which said "Love you, Mum." Nobody has the right to deny any man who has suffered in any way walking/running to support the cause that supports people who suffer what his mother suffered. I think, the giving out is all 'mouth' as we'd say - words just said, not meant.</p>
<p>I think all of us who have suffered from a bad disease one way or another, we all know what each other has gone through and we would never in reality negate any of us. I think, though, we should leave it a women's mini marathon. I don't think there is another mini-marathon like this in the world, and all those women who ran, jogged, walked - they are incredible people.</p>
<p></p>Ordnance Survey Maps and a Torchtag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-06-01:6442157:BlogPost:956462014-06-01T22:30:00.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706062?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706062?profile=original" width="750"></img></a> I sent the below message in to Facebook today and it is only as I read through the replies that I realise people don't actually think about these maps.</p>
<p>I was asked a question about the relevant size of them - it is 1:50,000</p>
<p>On Friday, the day before Janet arrived in this area, I dropped dogs with June my wonderful dog minder and then I drove to Dublin because I…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706062?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706062?profile=original" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>I sent the below message in to Facebook today and it is only as I read through the replies that I realise people don't actually think about these maps.</p>
<p>I was asked a question about the relevant size of them - it is 1:50,000</p>
<p>On Friday, the day before Janet arrived in this area, I dropped dogs with June my wonderful dog minder and then I drove to Dublin because I figured I needed to have Ordinance Survey maps AND I definitely figured I HAD to have the type of torch that John Tierney had shown me the day I went out to Killermogh graveyard with his group.</p>
<p>Now, most of you probably don't know about Ordnance survey maps or<span class="text_exposed_show"> if you do come here, then you figure the cost of these maps is too expensive. I think they're costing about 8.50 or 9 Euro per map. I crossed me fingers and hoped to God I'd live for another month that day and bought 3 new maps. The thing is, I had copies of all the OS maps for Laois BUT over the years, opening and closing them in the car does them no good - I know, I could buy the plasticky kind of maps for more money.</span></p>
<p>Neither here nor there. These maps would actually be extremely important for you if you are researching an area in Ireland. You have to buy 3+ maps for any county BUT these maps show you the locations of all burial grounds, graveyards and churches in a county. They also show you the location of Castles and architectural pieces like that.</p>
<p>My advice to you, if you come to Ireland to research and area and if you are in Dublin for a day, then there is a camping shop just off Grafton street - go in there, go upstairs and the staff are wonderful and will help you find the map or maps that you need.</p>
<p>If you intend looking at gravestones and if you have about 70 Euro to spare, then you need to buy a torch - a magic torch, this is not an ordinary torch <em>but</em> with this torch you can read letters on gravestones that you would not be able to read without the torch.</p>
<p>I've seen the difference, there is no comparison.</p>
<p>I went to buy a P7 torch and I actually wanted a small one but they had no P7's and I ended up buying a P14.5 (I think).....the light from this is like 350 times the light from the moon and over our days of travelling, Janet and I, we had 3 Maher gravestones in (was it Kilmocar?) and if I had not that torch we would never have been able to read them.</p>
<p></p>Life changestag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-31:6442157:BlogPost:955752014-05-31T18:54:09.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>Jan 2011, I fell down a stairs, next morning quarter of my skull was removed and I was kept in a coma for two weeks.</p>
<p>My children were told I would probably die - I didn't - they were told I would be brain damaged - I amn't.............</p>
<p>Truthfully....I'm not as fast as I used to be and \I can forget things.</p>
<p>A year later, I was diagnosed with a disease called haemachromatosis - iron collecting</p>
<p>Been bled - 500 ml of blood out of me every two weeks for a…</p>
<p>Jan 2011, I fell down a stairs, next morning quarter of my skull was removed and I was kept in a coma for two weeks.</p>
<p>My children were told I would probably die - I didn't - they were told I would be brain damaged - I amn't.............</p>
<p>Truthfully....I'm not as fast as I used to be and \I can forget things.</p>
<p>A year later, I was diagnosed with a disease called haemachromatosis - iron collecting</p>
<p>Been bled - 500 ml of blood out of me every two weeks for a year</p>
<p>All that and I still have photographed 26 graveyards since 2011.</p>
<p>I think I'm ok :)</p>Laois (Queen's Co.), Kilkenny, Tipperary and other Church photographstag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-28:6442157:BlogPost:949802014-05-28T15:52:18.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>A Church index of sorts.</p>
<p>While I've been travelling around with my friend Janet, Daniel who helps me with from-ireland has done a bit of organising of my last few months posts and created a Church index.</p>
<p>Mainly the Churches are in the counties I name above, but, we also have some Cork, Carlow, Kildare, Waterford, Dublin, Westmeath, Offaly (King's Co.) and Galway churches.</p>
<p>I just know I've forgotten somewhere!!</p>
<p>A Church index of sorts.</p>
<p>While I've been travelling around with my friend Janet, Daniel who helps me with from-ireland has done a bit of organising of my last few months posts and created a Church index.</p>
<p>Mainly the Churches are in the counties I name above, but, we also have some Cork, Carlow, Kildare, Waterford, Dublin, Westmeath, Offaly (King's Co.) and Galway churches.</p>
<p>I just know I've forgotten somewhere!!</p>Another 'Fairy Trip'tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-25:6442157:BlogPost:949282014-05-25T23:00:00.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>Bit, I told Janet earlier about you calling these kind of trips I make Fairy Trips....and she laughed. Later, she turned round and asked me what I had said about Fairies.</p>
<p>The more I think about this, I smile - travelling through Ireland with nary a care in the world, not worrying about where you are going because when you get there you will find something worth remembering - it is actually a fairy trip. Earlier today we were trying to get home from Castlecomer and I saw a sign…</p>
<p>Bit, I told Janet earlier about you calling these kind of trips I make Fairy Trips....and she laughed. Later, she turned round and asked me what I had said about Fairies.</p>
<p>The more I think about this, I smile - travelling through Ireland with nary a care in the world, not worrying about where you are going because when you get there you will find something worth remembering - it is actually a fairy trip. Earlier today we were trying to get home from Castlecomer and I saw a sign pointing to Ballyouskill - and I told Janet, 'Take that turn' and she did and next thing I knew we were up in our baby mountains where you can see 5 or 6 counties and Janet had to stop the car to photograph...... and me..I was sitting in the car hoping to God that no-one would come round the corner and hit me from the back But......I was so glad that I had brought her to this place</p>
<p>The beginning of my post...... Fairy Trip Janet arrived this morning and we talked and talked and talked. It was just so wonderful to see her again, so wonderful. I pulled up the O.S. maps and showed her all the graveyards, she pulled out notes and books and showed me stuff. I set my oldest computer searching for photographs with one of the surnames she gave me and boy did I find one out there in Donaghmore outside Ballyragget. We decided on a plan, go to Donaghmore find the stone and photograph it again, then on to Freshford cos there were Maher gravestones in the little Protestant cemetery there…… That’s where the plan went astray but I’ll get to that in a while</p>
<p>Donaghmore graveyard, someone had cut the grass in the first 1/3rd of the graveyard and left it long in the back – Janet being the brave one set off down the back looking for our stone – me, well, my son was busy up in Croke Park and he decided to call me, so I let Janet get wet all by herself – AND, no, she didn’t find the gravestone BUT we do have a copy of it and I can mail her a fresh photo soon as Ireland dries up. Back to Ballyragget to photograph the Castle – I can’t even imagine how many times I’ve driven through that town, looked at the Castle and told myself “Must photograph that”</p>
<p>From Ballyragget, we then headed for Freshford and then we took off on our Merry Little Way. We spotted a sign to (I think) was a Rory O’Meagher centre and said we have to go there. Janet was taking photos on the Green, walked up to a map and took photos of that, I walked up to her then and said, ‘Hey, is that the place I have Google Maps (if it was working), looking for – and she says, yep, you’re right Jane. So, I say, do we want to go there and she says Yep. Off we go on the road the map said to get to Upper Woods (I’m sure it was Upper Woods) EXCEPT we didn’t get to Upper Woods on that road, instead, I spot a building in a field and say to Janet, een here, there’s going to be a gate in a minute…..and there was. Here, I did not mind getting wet one bit (Janet was SOAKING after her graveyard trip) –off I went into the field taking photos left, right and centre – the grass, wet grass was up to my knees……. And there was or were the remnants of another old building across the road plus………sheep, there were sheep. Mammies and babies and Janet had to take photographs of them Baby sheep are lovely.</p>
<p>Back into car, back to Freshford and now, we set off for Tullaroan and en route we come across entrance to Upper Woods – and yes, Janet is not shy, in she turns and off we go up this road with her stopping to photograph the trees lining the road – and this lady, she knows more Irish history than I do – listening to her – wow, I don’t know history. We literally did not shut up all day I’m going to save the rest of the day for tomorrow…….tomorrow’s easy, we’re only heading off to Glasnevin but, en route so long as Janet gets an email back we are meeting someone for lunch in the National Museum.</p>
<p>To be continued ...</p>
<p></p>Maher / Meagher and otherstag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-21:6442157:BlogPost:939742014-05-21T17:30:00.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>I have a net friend, Janet Maher and we've known one another a long time and a couple of years ago (2012) I said to one friend I am NEVER going back to the US again and the very next day I get an email from Janet saying 'book published, launch on such a date" and I said to myself 'That's it Lyons, you're going back to America"</p>
<p>Off I went for about 2.5 weeks.</p>
<p>I'd been in the U.S. a number of times but this time, it was so different. This time I did not have to pay to stay in…</p>
<p>I have a net friend, Janet Maher and we've known one another a long time and a couple of years ago (2012) I said to one friend I am NEVER going back to the US again and the very next day I get an email from Janet saying 'book published, launch on such a date" and I said to myself 'That's it Lyons, you're going back to America"</p>
<p>Off I went for about 2.5 weeks.</p>
<p>I'd been in the U.S. a number of times but this time, it was so different. This time I did not have to pay to stay in any hotel, this time I was 'kept'/put up in people's homes. People I had never met took me , kept me, arranged meetings for me. I had the most incredible holiday of my life. I stayed with Janet, Cassie, Sue & Joanne. People came from all over to meet me, one man even drove 800 miles, I was amazed. It was incredible. I met *very* important people in the genealogical world but then, that doesn't really matter cos the ordinary people are more important to me. I have a different friend, 'Edna'. I've never met Edna, but I have telephoned her. She's an older lady and I think I'm going to take the parish records for counties that her most unusual surname was found in and go through them, and maybe, we'll keep our fingers crossed, just maybe I might be able to point her to a possible place that her ancestors came from. The Edna's of this world are more important to me than the 'important' people.</p>
<p>Outside of that - my friend Janet, she did incredible research and she wrote a book. She didn't just research her own surnames she has a ton of information on other surnames as well, because she worked with a graveyard.</p>
<p>I couldn't possibly begin to explain to you all the work she did except to say I was always extremely impressed.</p>
<p>The 'laugh' about it is that I got to the airport that Janet and her husband Paul picked me up at - and for me, it was the middle of the night my time, I just had to go to bed. Then, next day, I woke up real early and sat there with the book reading it so's I'd have some idea of what Janet had done and there it was, she had named me in her book.</p>
<p>I cried....... I'm good at crying - and I'm smiling as I say that, but I shouldn't be.</p>
<p>Back then I said to Janet, "If we could put your stuff and my stuff together, God knows, we could probably bring an awful lot of people home"</p>
<p>and Janet is coming over exactly for that reason, to go through graveyards and find people - and yes, she is lucky that she has me who has worked many of the graveyards she is interested in as a friend - but then, I'm lucky I have her as a friend</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705449?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705449?profile=original" width="260" class="align-left"/></a>Her book is called "From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley" and I'm posting an extract of the Amazon words re her book below.</p>
<p>Maher and Meagher - these last few days I've been trying to put together collections from my own data, Mahers and Meaghers to give to Janet</p>
<p>That's my spiel for tonight - the sun is shining, I think I'll go sit out for a while</p>
<p>Jane</p>
<p>Amazon Extract<strong>:</strong> Beginning from an interest in her own family's history, with From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley Janet Maher shares a deeply textured journey through a fascinating corner of the Irish Catholic diaspora. She explores the history of Ireland through the perspective of Catholicism, bridging it to the origins of Catholicism in Connecticut generally, then to several Irish families whose personal stories extend to the present. Mapping and thoroughly transcribing the oldest Catholic cemetery in Naugatuck, Saint Francis, Maher has made connections between generations of families and friends. The book includes selected marriage, baptism and death records throughout the nineteenth century and excerpts from rare letters between Irish immigrants and individuals still in Ireland. It is replete with photographs from Ireland and Connecticut, and restored personal images selected from families' collections, including her own, from materials safeguarded in scrapbooks and albums for years. In many ways Maher has made the people whose graves she encountered in cemeteries come alive again.</p>Muster Roll Kilkenny, 1685tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-20:6442157:BlogPost:941412014-05-20T18:48:05.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>Names have been extracted from a paper published in the “Proceedings and Transactions of the <a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/county-kilkenny-genealogy/" title="Kilkenny">Kilkenny</a> and the South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society” Vol 3. 1855. pp. 231-274</p>
<p>The article was written by John G. A. Prim.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/history-muster-kilkenny-1685-ireland/">http://www.from-ireland.net/history-muster-kilkenny-1685-ireland/</a></p>
<p>and yes, you can…</p>
<p>Names have been extracted from a paper published in the “Proceedings and Transactions of the <a title="Kilkenny" href="http://www.from-ireland.net/county-kilkenny-genealogy/">Kilkenny</a> and the South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society” Vol 3. 1855. pp. 231-274</p>
<p>The article was written by John G. A. Prim.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/history-muster-kilkenny-1685-ireland/">http://www.from-ireland.net/history-muster-kilkenny-1685-ireland/</a></p>
<p>and yes, you can find copies of the original articles online these days, but, you have to know what you are looking for</p>
<p>Jane</p>Old Roman Catholic Church, Couraguneen, Tipperary, Irelandtag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-20:6442157:BlogPost:939272014-05-20T10:12:31.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>This was actually one of the most interesting Churches I have been to because most of the side walls and the back wall had been knocked down and yu could still see the tiles from the inside of the Church and the wall remnants as you stood beside it.</p>
<p>I went off here because one day, a man on my FB page told me I had been close to a Church his family used to go to one day when I said I has walked the dogs around a bog beside the train line out the Templemore Road. So, next day i was…</p>
<p>This was actually one of the most interesting Churches I have been to because most of the side walls and the back wall had been knocked down and yu could still see the tiles from the inside of the Church and the wall remnants as you stood beside it.</p>
<p>I went off here because one day, a man on my FB page told me I had been close to a Church his family used to go to one day when I said I has walked the dogs around a bog beside the train line out the Templemore Road. So, next day i was there, I brought my OS map and headed off to find the Church to take some photos. This was last May and I think I got to about 3.5 graveyards and 4 Churches that day.</p>
<p>The thing about this Church too is that it sits right beside the modern Church and both are literally out in the middle of the country.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/church-oldrc-couraguneen-tipperary-ireland/">http://www.from-ireland.net/church-oldrc-couraguneen-tipperary-ireland/</a></p>Church of Ireland, Dunkerrin, Offaly (King's Co.), Ireland.tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-20:6442157:BlogPost:942072014-05-20T09:23:42.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>This is actually a very pretty little church and the thing about it is that it is on my way from Laois to Tipperary as I was a few weeks ago on my way to Nenagh. You literally drive t<span class="text_exposed_show">hrough this little patch of Offaly and then you are into Tipperary. I have done the graveyard a good while ago but I haven't checked my site to get a link. Been at the computer for about 2 hours now and all I seem to be doing is talking!!!…</span></p>
<p></p>
<p>This is actually a very pretty little church and the thing about it is that it is on my way from Laois to Tipperary as I was a few weeks ago on my way to Nenagh. You literally drive t<span class="text_exposed_show">hrough this little patch of Offaly and then you are into Tipperary. I have done the graveyard a good while ago but I haven't checked my site to get a link. Been at the computer for about 2 hours now and all I seem to be doing is talking!!!</span></p>
<p><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/church-coi-dunkerrin-offaly-kings-ireland/">http://www.from-ireland.net/church-coi-dunkerrin-offaly-kings-ireland/</a></span></p>Roman Catholic Church, Knock, Tipperary, Irelandtag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-20:6442157:BlogPost:940222014-05-20T08:36:54.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>This is some of what I do :)</p>
<p>Posted to my Facebook page a few mins ago and I've just decided that yep, this is what I will do with this blog. Post whatever new links I have created on from-ireland and yatter away about whatever I am going to do or where-ever I am going to go any time I go off out looking for something :)</p>
<p>"Roman Catholic Church, Knock, Tipperary.</p>
<p>I've posted that I had put photos of this Church up before, but they were photos taken from the graveyard at…</p>
<p>This is some of what I do :)</p>
<p>Posted to my Facebook page a few mins ago and I've just decided that yep, this is what I will do with this blog. Post whatever new links I have created on from-ireland and yatter away about whatever I am going to do or where-ever I am going to go any time I go off out looking for something :)</p>
<p>"Roman Catholic Church, Knock, Tipperary.</p>
<p>I've posted that I had put photos of this Church up before, but they were photos taken from the graveyard at the back of the Church so, last week or whenever I was off over trying to get to Nenagh I stumbled on Knock again and this time got out of the car and photographed it from the front.</p>
<p>So, some new photos<br/><a href="http://www.from-ireland.net/rc-knock-tipperary-ireland/">http://www.from-ireland.net/rc-knock-tipperary-ireland/</a> "</p>From-Ireland: My Websitetag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-20:6442157:BlogPost:939132014-05-20T07:30:00.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>I didn't name my website last night so now I'll tell you a little about it.</p>
<p>It is called from-ireland and I created it about 2001. A net friend taught me a little about web page creation and I don't mean the kind of web pages that we find free on the internet now, I mean he taught me code and what the 'source code' of a web page looks like. I had to work from the back forward meaning I created pages in code and then looked at what the end result would look like. After a while, I…</p>
<p>I didn't name my website last night so now I'll tell you a little about it.</p>
<p>It is called from-ireland and I created it about 2001. A net friend taught me a little about web page creation and I don't mean the kind of web pages that we find free on the internet now, I mean he taught me code and what the 'source code' of a web page looks like. I had to work from the back forward meaning I created pages in code and then looked at what the end result would look like. After a while, I did splash out on a webpage creation programme and it made life a bit easier for me.</p>
<p>Back in 1996 when I first got on the internet there were very few websites coming out of Ireland. People who did not live in Ireland and whose countries were technologically advanced to ours believed that the Irish were doing this deliberately. Also, when I would read what I saw on the internet as being 'historically accurate' I'd sit here and think these people were taught a different history to us. So, I decided I'll create a website with information about Irish people and history as I know it and it will be a good website. You have to understand that at that time I actually had no idea of what I was getting myself in to, the amount of work I would have to do. I haven't done too badly because we have a good visitor rate and considering the fact that this was all done by the work of one little woman all by herself with absolutely no knowledge of how the internet worked I'm actually pleased with myself.<em><br/></em></p>
<p>The thing is though, I had access to all the old Archaeological and Historical Journals in the University I worked in as a Marine Biologist and I would sit in the library reading through all the material in these books, some of them went back to about 1854 and then, in the Cork Archaeological & Historical Journal I found articles on gravestone transcriptions and they were just magic!! Absolute magic, I loved them...they were done so well. The man who had done the transcriptions used to talk to people about the people he'd find in the graveyards and he'd have notes about the dead people in his papers - that was it, I was caught, hook, line & sinker. I decided no-body has ever done this for Laois so I'm going to start.</p>
<p>At the same time, I was subscribed to an Irish Genealogy mail list with Rootsweb and I used to read the questions and then look for answers if I could.</p>
<p>I used to get into 'trouble' because I would disagree when I read something about us or Ireland that did not actually fit into history as I knew it or had been taught it. Eventually, my friends suggested that I should begin a mail list of my own and so I did and then all about the same time from-ireland was created.</p>
<p>from-ireland is a mixture of the words of poems, songs, culture, history, genealogy (lists of names I'd find published in these old Archaeological & Historical journals, gravestones - lists and lists and lists; extracts from old newspapers and more).</p>
<p>Every day (well, almost every day) new pages are added. A day or so every week I take a trip out to take photos of churches or I go over to Kilkenny to transcribe some parish records, or I go up to Dublin to the National Library or the National Archives.</p>
<p>The website is at <a href="http://www.from-ireland.net">www.from-ireland.net</a></p>Genealogy of Others & Introductiontag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-19:6442157:BlogPost:938672014-05-19T20:30:00.000ZDr. Jane Lyonshttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/DrJaneLyons
<p>I transcribe gravestones in Ireland as well as transcribing information from parish records. I began transcribing the words of pre 1901 gravestones in 1996. </p>
<p>I have a website which was created in 2001 and two years ago we put 170,000 gravestone and church photographs online. I indexed the names off every stone I could read and we have that index online as well. The numbers of gravestone photographs have increased since that time and the places I have been to stretch from…</p>
<p>I transcribe gravestones in Ireland as well as transcribing information from parish records. I began transcribing the words of pre 1901 gravestones in 1996. </p>
<p>I have a website which was created in 2001 and two years ago we put 170,000 gravestone and church photographs online. I indexed the names off every stone I could read and we have that index online as well. The numbers of gravestone photographs have increased since that time and the places I have been to stretch from Glengarriff in Cork up to Deansgrange in Dublin. My main areas of concentration though have been Counties Laois and Kilkenny,</p>
<p>Stone readings which were done in the 1996-98 period were back in the days when I had pen and paper and then a dictaphone. These days when I go back to photograph the stones many of them can no longer be read. This makes my earlier transcriptions irreplaceable.</p>
<p>Before the Griffiths Primary Valuation was put online I had indexed the names of every single person listed plus the name of the townland they were leasing land in for county Laois (Queen's Co.). Before the 1901 census was put online I had indexed the names of all the Heads of Household for Co. Laois. My website has 32 county pages so even though I say I did this that or the other for county Laois, I was making attempts to do its and pieces of the same for other counties.</p>
<p>I am currently trying to put photographs of every Church I have been to and every Church remnant online. This is time consuming but I'm getting there. </p>
<p>Some days, I decide "Right, I have nothing for this area so why don't I just mosey off down there or up there and take some church photos" and so I do, and then, as I drive along one road with my OS map and all the places I am going to planned out, I see another little road and a sign with some place name so I head off that way instead. It's nice being just out and about wandering around.</p>
<p>Churches and graveyards are such peaceful places.</p>
<p>I created a mail list called Y-IRL on Yahoo back in 2001. Like most mail lists, the way the world is going we have quietened down but recently I had a Roll call and was very surprised at the number of responses we had.</p>
<p>Two years ago I went to the US because my friend Janet had just published her book - when there, I said to her, "Y'know, if we could just put your stuff and my stuff together, we might be able to bring lots of people home" Janet is now in Ireland,in a different county but on her way to my house and then we have a list of graveyard to visit in Laois, Kilkenny and maybe Tipperary to find surnames for her to bring home. By that I don't mean we'll be looking for 'surnames', I mean we will be finding as many gravestones as we can for the surnames that she has worked on in the US, photographing the stones and recording the information.</p>
<p>I've thought about adding a blog since I joined up with or subscribed to The Wild Geese and I wasn't going to because I already have the website, Facebook, Twitter and Y-IRL but I've begun reading some of the blogs and I've seen things being said that I would not agree with and people are always entitled to more than one opinion.</p>
<p>I also think that this project with Janet is a major one, this is one of the first works between two people from different continents on the Irish who left and who stayed.</p>
<p></p>
<p>That last time I was in the U.S., Janet brought me to some graveyards and then my friend Cassie brought me to some other ones and I noticed that in each of those graveyards, the Irish people came from different parts of Ireland. It was a really interesting thing to realise. My American friends had said as much to me about their relatives but none of them ever realised the graveyards can tell the story.</p>
<p>So, introductions. My name is Jane Lyons - I graduated with my Ph.D., from University College Cork. I was born in Dublin, lived in Westmeath, Longford, Laois. Went to boarding school in Kilkenny. University in Cork. Parents from Longford and Kildare. Parents born in Dublin and Belfast. Grandparents from Galway, Tyrone, Donegal - Kerry and Donegal come in there as well. I've lived in Jordan, Cork, Glengarriff, Dublin and am now back in Laois.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/group/irish-ancestry" target="_self">Find more help for researching your ancestry.</a></p>
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