Searching for My Relatives: Kilkenny, Ireland
We have all seen the commercials on TV for Ancestry.com, and I am sure some of you have even contemplated signing up and digging into your family tree. Well, I did just that. Then, I followed it up by planning a trip centered on doing some actual on-the-ground searching. For those who haven’t signed up for an account, the main limitation stems from the inability to view the names or records of anyone still alive. This little wrinkle makes it harder to shake hands with a distant relative. I wasn’t going to let that stand in my way, though.
Ancestry Gets the Search Started
I planned to amass as much information as possible, get to the town listed, and place local inquiries. First up, I searched my father’s line. As I started my research, the first relatives I could find born outside of North America were from Kilkenny, Ireland. I was hot on the trail now, or so I thought. Further research into Kilkenny led me to discover that it was a town and a county. Consequently, as the county seat, Kilkenny was the primary records center, and entries could be made for anywhere in the county.
Persistence and comparing many other users’ family trees to mine led to my first clue. My relatives appeared to be from a little town called Three Castles in Kilkenny County. I had my first solid lead as my great-great-great-grandfather and his father were both known to be buried in the area. Unfortunately, tiny towns typically mean small amounts of Internet information. I didn’t let that deter me as I started to search for cemeteries in the area. That’s when I got my first lucky break from a blog called “Ireland In Ruins” by someone dubbed Castlehunter. A photo on his blog matched one I had seen posted on Ancestory.com, and now I knew the cemetery I was looking for. As a bonus, Castlehunter included directions to the old church and cemetery: Yahtzee!
On the Ground in Ireland
The moment of truth had come, and I was on the ground in Ireland with Heather and my parents. We rented a car and stayed in Kilkenny, as Three Castles is tiny and only 7 miles away. We followed Castlehunter’s directions to the cemetery and only managed to get ourselves turned around a few times. As we parked the car, I started to get excited. We headed up the walkway towards the church and proceeded to enter the grounds, and suddenly, I became aware of my accelerating heartbeat. Thanks to some help from another user on Ancestor.com, I had a picture of the gravestones I sought.
As I showed the image to everyone, it became like a game for a moment to see who could find them first. Within a few minutes, we located them, and then we took another few minutes to soak it all in. It is odd to have some attachment to a stone planted in the ground with words carved in it, but I did. After that, we examined the grounds and scoured the other headstones for more possible family members. We were excited that it was working out so well, but what happened next was unreal.
From a Longshot to a Jackpot
After we left the church, we just wanted to drive through the town of Three Castles to get more of a feel for the place. I had spotted some cows that I was thinking of taking some photos of on our first pass and pulled over on the way back to do so. That is when my dad noticed a man doing some yard work and decided to go over and chat for a moment.
It turns out the man knew some people still in the area who shared our last name and gave us directions to their place. Twenty minutes later, we were knocking on the door of the house of a potential relative. We had gone to Ireland, thinking we might get lucky and find a few graves. However, thanks to my dad for taking a complete shot in the dark, we spent the next hour or so having tea and cake and talking with our family. It felt like straight out of a movie; we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.
Next up was tracing my mother’s heritage in Sicily. Would we be so lucky again? Stay tuned…
Have you ever gone searching for your ancestors? Have you had any luck? We would love to hear your stories.
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Copyright 2024, Matthew Holmes — All rights reserved.
Originally published at https://travelationship.com
