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| Joseph E. Buckley |
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Stories passed down within your family are often as valuable as birth certificates in researching your family history – especially if you are just getting started. My Dad past away when I was young, so I was never able to hear the story of our family from him. But when I wanted to visit Ireland for the first time in 1986, my cousin, Jim, passed on to me the key family story he learned from his father, Joseph E. Buckley. It told of the time when our grandfather, Edward of Knockanavar, ran away from Ireland – and it went something like this: |
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| Trouble with the RIC |
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When Edward was about 16, he and his cousin, Timothy, were caught poaching fish and got in deep trouble with the law. Not too many years earlier, theft of a sheep could get you sent to Australia! The boys were ordered to pay a steep fine, and the two families got together and gave the boys a cow to sell (or two, depending on the teller of the story) to pay the fine. |
In order to get the best price, the boys took the animals to Cork City to sell -- which they did. But once they sold the animals, instead of returning to pay the fines they used the money to buy tickets on a ship sailing out of Cork for America.
Now the boys didn't sail off into the blue. Although we have not confirmed these details, the story tells that there were either older brothers or uncles of the boys who were already in America. But Edward's father and he had argued about this before: Ed wanting to go to America, and his father refusing to allow it.
Anyway, the boys arrived and Ed settled in; Timothy, it was said, returned to Ireland after a few years.
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In addition to this tale, Cousin Jim told me that Edward’s mother’s name was Johanna Carew, and that our family had, from time to time over the years, visited with the Carews still in Ireland. He also mentioned that we were related to a family in Cappawhite named Flood.
From this seed has grown everything that I have since learned and put on this web site. In the process, I have reconnected with the present-day family of my grandfather’s cousin, Timothy – and I am slowly reconnecting all the dots that make of the picture of our family tree. It turns out that there is a bit more to the story than what I learned as a child, and with my newly found cousin Clair's permission, I look forward to telling more of that story one day soon. . .
I hope to continue this page with the stories of those of my American and Irish cousins who are willing to share. If you have one to tell, please contact me by e-mail or leave a message in my Guest Book . . . |
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