Riddle of 200-year-old Irish grave in New York

Riddle of 200-year-old Irish grave in New York
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Source: The Belfast Telegraph

Workers uncovered a young Irishman's grave in New York's Greenwich Village more than 200 years after he died.
Now authorities are determined to solve the mystery of the life and death of the Co Kildare man.
New York City Dept of Parks and Recreation workers expected to find unidentified bones when they dug below the city's Washington Square Park -- more than 20,000 people are believed to be buried in the former graveyard. But they discovered the 210-year-old 3ft-high sandstone gravestone of a Co Kildare man who died in 1799.
Its writing, still clear, read: "Here lies the body of James Jackson, who departed this life the 22nd day of September, 1799 aged 28 years, native of the county of Kildare, Ireland."
Workers have several times found skeletons during the restoration of the park, but Jackson's stone was the first burial marker.
"It's very unusual," John H Geismar, the archaeological consultant who made the discovery, said. "In fact, I'm stunned."
The New York Historical society has identified one James Jackson of 19 East George Street, who was listed in the city death records on September 23, 1799, Ms Geismar said. His occupation is listed as a watchman, though a city directory at the time listed him as a grocer.
Diana de Zerega Wall, an archaeology professor at the City University of New York, said that at the time Jackson was buried, the city was wrestling with a series of yellow fever outbreaks and he may have died from the illness.
Victims were buried there away from the then centre of town, as a safety measure.
After the discovery, workers dug seven feet below the gravestone but found no body. It is thought it may have been moved when the area was developed into parade grounds.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said that even in the absence of a body, the city hopes to learn more about the young Irish immigrant.

Essays Presented to Liam Mac Alasdair by the Genealogical Society of Ireland

The Genealogical Society of Ireland presented Liam Mac Alasdair, a longstanding member, Fellow and former Director of the Society with 'Feil-Scribhin Liam Mhic Alasdair,' or 'Essays Presented to Liam Mac Alasdair' on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009. This collection of essays by Members and Friends of the Genealogical Society of Ireland covers a range of subjects from genealogy, heraldry, social history, military history, Orders of Chivalry, cultural studies, clan/sept histories, family histories and the Irish abroad. The work was edited by Rory Stanley and contributors include Dr. Noel Cox, Jim Herlihy, Bartoz Kowlowski, Roisin Lafferty, Philip Lecane, Sean Mac Bradaigh, Tony McCarthy, Caroline McCall, Katrijne Merrigan, Michael Merrigan, Seamus Moriarty, Sean Murphy, Barry O'Connor, David O Morchue, Seamus O'Reilly, Jaùes Scannell, and your truly, John Hamrock.

My essay on pages 50-59 is entitled, 'The origins and chief locations of the O Gara sept' and is an excerpt from a more extensive history of the O'Gara sept which I hope to have published in due course.

Sir Richard John Griffith

The Irish Genealogy Research Society's September 2009 Newsletter reports,

Recently a portrait in oils of Sir Richard John Griffith was purchased by the National Gallery of Ireland. Griffith is well-known to genealogists as the organizer of various valuation surveys in Ireland and these remain a primary resource for genealogical studies. Patrick Wyse Jackson of Trinity College, Dublin, has written a paper published by the Royal Irish Academy that describes the portrait. The paper, which contains a colour reproduction of the portrait, may be freely downloaded from http://www.ria.ie/cgi-bin/ria/papers/100809.pdf.

Inhabitants of Scattery Island, Shannon Estuary, Co. Clare by Senan Scanlan

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/fam_his/scattery/introduction.htm



Inhabitants of Scattery Island, Shannon Estuary, Co. Clare by Senan Scanlan

This excellent book by my friend Senan Scanlan is on the Clarelibrary.ie website and
can be read there.

1 Introduction and Acknowledgements
Scattery Round Tower
Scattery Round Tower


Introduction

This book intends to provide a detailed account of the inhabitants of Scattery Island from the earliest recorded times to the 1940s. Its primary objective is to provide genealogical information on the main inhabitants from the 1840s to the 1940s and this includes all the available memorial inscriptions from the graveyard on the island.

Section two gives an outline account of those inhabitants that settled on the island up to the 1840s, taken from the best available source which includes extracts from a number of the Annals[1].

Section three summarises the information relating to the main inhabitants from the 1840s to the 1940s it outlines the reasons why the island was repopulated in the early 1840s and why its population increased during the famine when the rest of West Clare was in severe decline. The detailed genealogical information on the inhabitants in Appendix 8 is primarily the result of extensive research in Kilrush Parish Registers and the General Register Office, Dublin, including obtaining more than thirty copy certificates for Births, Marriages and Deaths. In addition some dates prior to official registration in 1864 have been estimated from information on Marriage and Death certificates and from the Census for 1901 and 1911 together with data from the memorial inscriptions. The research, which also included examination of some War Office records in The National Archives in London, concentrated on providing where possible all the details for the nineteenth century and only outline details are given for the early years of the twentieth century. Section three also outlines details of land division on the island together with the names of pilots and source details for these are included in Appendix 10. A brief description of Appendix 11 which has pedigree sheets for the main island families is also included.

Section four details the memorial inscriptions extracted from the island graveyard and gives details of the deceased inhabitants that lived on the island and those that lived elsewhere but are buried in this graveyard.

Section five describes aspects of life on the island including details of the main occupations of the islanders; the roles played by the Island School the Coastal Battery and the Lighthouse.

Section six gives details, principally from newspaper extracts of the Western Pilots and section seven gives an outline of Kilrush and Estuary News from c 1840 to c 1900. Section eight contains the main Appendix 8 which details the dates for Births, Marriages and Deaths of the main inhabitants that occupied the island from c 840 to c 940. In addition details of families that temporarily resided on the island for shorter periods during these years are included these being mainly associated with the Coastal Battery and the Lighthouse.

Section nine is Appendix 9 which is a plan of Scattery Graveyard.

Section ten is Appendix 10 and it provides details of pilot names and land division for Scattery Island.

Section eleven is Appendix 11 and contains seven outline Pedigree Sheets for the Main Families of Scattery c 1840 to c 1940.

Section twelve provides a detailed sources list divided into primary and secondary sources.

Acknowledgements
The Database (Appendix I) outlining the details of the main inhabitants after c1840 AD could not have been completed without the assistance and research done by Mick McGrath of Kilrush. In addition Mike Guiney, Glanmire, Cork, David Scanlan, Swords and Warren Buckley, Dundrum, assisted with the memorial inscriptions. Warren also arranged the layout and provided the photographs and cover for this book. Ron Battye, Dublin also provided some photographs and enhanced the map showing the fishing weirs. John Scanlan, Ennis provided valuable guidance. The Staff of the National Library of Ireland, National Archives, Limerick Archives, Dublin City Library and Archive also provided valuable assistance. Thanks to Andrew Scanlan for organising the printing of this book.

This book is dedicated to my late father Sinon, born on the Island in 1911 who encouraged and gave me the initial information and it is hoped that it will be of assistance to others who wish to pursue further research relating to the Island. Finally I would like to thank Mick McGrath and Patrick Scanlan Kilrush and Rachel Scanlan, Dublin who read and corrected the first draft of this book and therefore prevented me from making even more mistakes. Any remaining errors are my responsibility.

Senan Scanlan.
2007

© Copyright 2007, Senan Scanlan

Contact: book@scattery.com

Ennis, Co. Clare to Make Muhammad Ali first 'Freeman'

from the Associated Press and eurweb.com
17 August 2009

A town council has voted unanimously in favour of making boxing legend Muhammad Ali the first Freeman of his ancestral home in Ennis, Co Clare.

The 67-year-old former world heavyweight champion will visit the birthplace of his great grandfather on September 1. A civic reception will take place in Waterpark House, Drumbiggle, before Ali tours the town and the council is also hoping to host a public open-air event during the visit.

Ali's ancestor Abe Grady emigrated from his home on the Turnpike Road in Ennis to the US in the 1860s. Grady sailed from Cappa Harbour in Kilrush, Co Clare, eventually settling in Kentucky where he later married.

MUHAMMAD ALI TO VISIT HIS IRISH ROOTS: Boxing legend to tour town in Ireland where his great grandfather was born

*Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is to visit the Irish town from where his great-grandfather emigrated to the United States in the 1800s, the town's mayor announced Thursday.

Ali, 67, has finally agreed to take up a long-standing invitation from the town council to visit Ennis, County Clare, reports Reuters. "We will make him very welcome," Mayor Frankie Neylon told AFP. "We will be delighted to see him. I would hope to arrange a vote of the council to make him a freeman of Ennis."

Ali will be in Ireland later this month to take part in "An Evening with the Greatest," a Dublin-based fundraising event for the recently established Alltech-Muhammad Ali Center Global Education and Charitable Fund. The Irish biotechnology firm Alltech established the fund with Ali to promote educational and humanitarian goals. Alltech president and founder Pearse Lyons said Ali will revisit Dublin -- where he fought Al "Blue" Lewis in 1972 in front of a crowd of 25,000 -- for "a new and equally profound fight, a fight in the name of benevolence."

Research by genealogists found that Ali's great-grandfather Abe Grady emigrated to Kentucky in the 1860s. Abe married an African-American and they had a son called John Grady who was Ali's grandfather. He in turn had a daughter called Odessa Lee Grady who was Ali's mother. Ali was originally Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior but changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to the Nation of Islam.

Genealogists also claim that both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are descended from Irish families of shoemakers with their ancestors leaving Ireland within weeks of each other in April and May 1849.

Obama's ancestor came from Moneygall in County Offaly in the midlands and Biden's is believed to have emigrated from Carlingford, County Louth in the north-east. As a result of waves of migration, about 34 million people in the United States claim an Irish connection today.

Ancestor Network Limited Launches new family history research brochure and order form

John Hamrock to Present Paper at Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society Annual Conference

John Hamrock will present a paper at Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society Annual Conference to be held over two days at University College Dublin on Friday, 4th September and Saturday, 5th September 2009. This year’s conference will be focused on the Penal Laws. This conference is supported by the School of History and Archives, the Humanities institute of Ireland, and the Micheál Ó Cléirigh Institute. John’s paper is entitled, ‘Irish Augustinians in the Penal Times.’

Please see below draft programme (subject to change) which is a full and varied one. Please also see registration details and conference fee below.