The People
who came before us:
any of us always
want to know who we are, where we come from and perhaps who were our ancestors
that came before us. As a young man from Ireland I always had an interest in
Irish history, even tracing my own ancestry. It all started in 2003 talking to
elderly relatives whom told stories of unexplainable results. I spent the past
few years trying to get information on my great grandparents and generations
before them; this led to hitting brick walls such as difficulty of accessing
church records, lack of census records for Ireland dating to the 1800’s. One
recommendation I can give is that the 1901 and 1911 census for Northern Ireland
and Southern Ireland being made available online has led to many facts and
stories being uncovered, many people still might not talk about the stories
they come across as there is still an abhorrence of what they may uncover
throughout the process of tracing genealogy.
In the summer
of 2011 when tracing my own ancestry I went to visit a distant relative whom I
had never met before, this elderly woman told me of my great grandfather’s
brother being in the British army and taking part in the First World War. When
I heard this I was astounded as I had never heard any of this before. I
returned home that day and I began tracing this person’s life who was never
remembered, I discovered this man’s name was John Rourke born in the mid 1890’s
in a small area called Rathcore, in county Meath. It was new information to my whole family
about our great granduncle taking part in the First World War.
Knowing
this I researched further and discovered he was the son of a farm labourer and
came from a poor background his mother Anne Rourke died in 1906 during
childbirth when he reached his tenth birthday. In the 1911 census he is still
recorded as living at home. During this time of the 20th century
this part of Ireland would have been unprosperous with a mainly country
lifestyle for people working on the land or immigrating. There are not many
more records to show how John Rourke came to joining the British Army, but as
First World War was breaking out in 1914, he would have been living in an area
with very high unemployment. This would have brought him to the decision to
join the British Army. This would have been through a turbulent time as Ireland
was trying to gain independence from the United Kingdom and being a member of
the British Army would have been frowned upon in Ireland in the era of 1914 by
some local people, this brought the conclusion perhaps that’s why he was never
known about in my family. I eventually found out online that John was a member
of the Second Battalion in the Connaught Rangers, who were involved in the battles
in Belgium and France where John was posted to. I eventually found out he was
sent out to battle front in Belgium where he was killed within only a few weeks
of war on the 1st of November 1914, he would have only been around
19 years of age. This was a shock to discover that he was not remembered in
Ireland in many ways and that I did not know where his final resting place was.
I waited a few weeks and
started my journey of discovering who this person was, I went to Belgium with
family and we rented a minibus and travelled for a weekend visiting different
cemeteries till we discovered his resting place, he was resting near where he
was shot and killed in action. This was not a dry eye left near his stone which
only read his name and date of death. Two days letter I returned home wanting
to find out more about his family, discovering he came from a house that is
known as a Parnellite cottage, he lived in an area where there was only a
church and a public house. So with this I decided to set up a website by self
to help people find and trace their Irish ancestry for free online, I believe
in people not having to pay for access to records online and to making records
more available online.
The site is called www.familyresearchireland.com
and it’s a site that provides free access and recommendations online for free.
One of best ways you can start tracing your ancestry is by asking elderly
relatives or people within your family who may know about some of your family
history, even if you have only small information for searching the 1901 and
1911 census are a brilliant resource online for tracing your roots in Ireland
and these records are freely available on the Irish National Archives website.
You can also check some of the register of electors that do be available online
by searching through search engines. Lastly some of the old records great for
searching are Griffiths Evaluation this allows you to find out information on
ancestors in the early to mid1800’s as there nearly non-existent census records
for Ireland in the 1800’s. Just remember you never know what information you
will find out, every ancestor has a wondrous story to tell. If you would like
more information visit Family Research Irelands website on www.familyresearchireland.com
or email me on support@familyresearchireland.com
you can find us on facebook or follow us on twitter.
By Owen O
Rourke, Enfield, County Meath, Ireland
