Passport to dirt

In a previous post I mentioned I was applying for my Irish citizenship so I can get an Irish passport. All I needed was to gather the birth, marriage, and death records of one grandparent and one parent to establish my Irish lineage. In the process of information gathering, I've unearthed more sordid dirt about my family than I ever bargained for.

I decided first to pursue my matrilineage. My mother's records are easy to get; she was born in Brooklyn and is still living. Her father was born at Cork Barracks, Ireland, in 1892, the son of a British soldier who served in the Boer War. I already had his birth certificate; all I needed were his marriage and death certificates. But there were issues. Seems my grandfather was somewhat of a shadowy figure. He met my grandmother, who was born in Scotland, after both of them arrived in the States in the early 1930s. My grandmother didn't know much about him. They were married in 1935 and had my mother in 1937 and my aunt in 1941. In 1943 he took a job as sexton at the local parish. He had no immigration papers, so he couldn't get a job on the books. My grandmother worked as a domestic, and between them they somehow made ends meet. Then, in 1945, my grandmother received a letter from a woman in Ireland claiming to be my grandfather's wife. Apparently grandpa had a whole other family in Ireland that he sent money to. But where did the money come from? Certainly not a sexton's salary. That was the mystery. Turns out grandpa had jumped ship and landed in the U.S. illegally. On top of that, he was reputed to have ties to the IRA. When his Irish wife realized she wasn't going to get any more money out of her husband, she sent a letter to the parish church telling them about my grandfather's bigamy. The church let my grandfather go.

As if being secretive about his other family wasn't enough, he carried on an affair with a woman down the block right under my grandmother's nose. Seems everyone on the block knew about it and pitied my grandmother behind her back. Around 1947 the woman had a child, and everyone said it had my grandfather's nose. Grandpa died suddenly of a heart attack in 1948 at age 56, leaving behind many unanswered questions and a trail of bitterness.

That left my dad's side of the family. Both of his parents were born in Ireland, and although my dad's dead, his four brothers and sisters are still living. I figured they should be able to fill in the gaps. However, no one could agree on where my grandfather was born, and no one had records. Some say it's County Tipperary, where the family ran a creamery at Rossmore in Cashel around the time grandpa was born. Some say it's Tarmon Knock in County Clare, where the family ran a creamery around the time grandpa was born. When applying for an Irish birth certificate, you must know exactly where the person was born. I put down both places on the form and hope for the best.

Then there's the issue of my grandmother's name. She was born Ellen but insisted everyone call her Nellie (please spare the gay jokes). She was from a family called Ryan that was associated with the Daltons, but the Daltons were considered outlaws, so no one really knows if they're Ryans or Daltons. My grandparents met each other in Ireland but couldn't have a relationship because my grandmother's family was considered déclassé compared with my grandfather's family. Nanny and grandpa had to emigrate to New York so they could court. On their passage to America, they were each sponsored by family members and did not pass through Ellis Island as many immigrants did. My grandmother said that she came to live with her brother in Queens in 1929, but new evidence I found suggests that she actually worked in 1926 as a live-in maid for the Auchincloss family (which Jackie Kennedy's mother married into around the same time).

FYI, if you're starting out as a genealogist, as I've somehow become, I recommend two excellent resources to get you started. The Mormons, who fancy themselves the architects of the world's largest family tree, offer resources through their Family Search site. Ancestry.com has a 14-day trial period during which you can look up birth and death records, census records, obituaries, and other records. I stumbled on the 1901 Census for Tarmon Knock, County Clare, which lists my great-grandparents on my grandfather's side. The U.S. Social Security Death Index, accessible through Ancestry.com, is also an excellent tool, provided you know either the date or place of birth or death (and assuming the person had a Social Security number). Similarly, if the person had an SSN and the info is more than 50 years old. you can request under the Freedom of Information Act a copy of the person's original application for an SSN, which should fill you in on details you might not know.

Because of the shabby way my grandmother's family was treated, my grandmother taught her children that it was impolite to ask people what their parents did for a living. Now I know why.