The search for my Irish ancestry, part 1

Before I started this genealogical research, I fully anticipated collecting a few names and then being able to trace my roots straight back to the Irish town from where they came, easily locating relatives and then forming a lifelong bond with them. I had visions of me being invited to tea at a brick cottage with my dear Great Aunt Mary, while her son Joseph tends to the farmland and shows up at the window periodically for a glass of water.

It’s been a bit harder than that.

Instead, I’ve found dead ends, misinformation, confusing archival evidence, and absurd dates. I’ve spent HOURS upon hours doing online research, calling parishes in Burin, reading thousands of birth and death records at the Maritime Archives and the Provincial Archives…I’ve taken up heavy drinking. (Or, I’ve resumed heavy drinking.)

I don’t know these people. I just like this photo.

(I don’t know these people. I just like this photo.)
I started out at Ancestry.ca. I got nowhere. When I found a Newfoundland-wide genealogical website, I contacted the administrators who put me in touch with a local genealogist. One conversation with him over the phone, and I knew I could never, ever do this on my own.

Since Newfoundland was one of the earliest places in Canada to be settled by Britain, it turns out nobody really knew what they were doing, and nobody cared much for keeping accurate records. Since priests were in short supply, they would often visit the small fishing coastal outports just a few times a year, travelling between them regardless of denomination. That means that even if my great grandfather was baptized a Catholic, he could very well show up in Methodist records.

Never mind the fact that Walsh is the fourth most common name in Ireland, and apparently the second most common in Newfoundland.

Here’s my conundrum.

My family has long believed that my Great-Great Grandfather Wilfred was born in the small town of Lawn, in 1862. We know for certain he died in St. Alban’s in 1925. His father was believed to also be Wilfred Walsh from County Kerry, whose wife was Mary Sullivan from County Cork.

Unfotunately, the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish has no record of my Great-Great Grandfather Wilfred Walsh ever being born there. The only record I CAN find is a Wilfred Walsh born in 1855, to a John Walsh and Honora Buckley (from Waterford, Ireland). This seems like the most likely candidate, as My Great-Great Grandfather Wilfred’s son Joseph had a daughter Nora (Honora) and he himself named one of his sons John (my Great Grandfather).

Wilfred is an uncommon name, so it adds up. Great-Great Grandfather Wilfred’s wife was Mary Willcott, born in 1853. If my original information were accurate, Mary would have been TEN YEARS older than Wilfred, and in her 30s when she started having kids. This is absolutely unheard of for a time when women started having kids in their early 20s (or earlier).

Everything adds up. Perhaps there was a headstone error, or a birth certificate error.

And then this happened.

When we DID search for a Sullivan family in the area, we found a few living in St. Lawrence.

Crap.

Now, we are trying to prove or disprove Mary Sullivan had any relation to Wilfred. And oh my god even just typing this all out makes my head whirl. Names and dates and family lineage. It’s like a big treasure hunt, except more confusing and I’m terribly worried about stirring up trouble with the members of my family who have only ever known the original information to be accurate.

I met my genealogist last week at the Provincial Archives. We pored over old records in barely legible handwriting, while he gave me a historical background of the area and what names would have belonged where.

I’m overwhelmed by this process of finding the people to whom I belong. In their lifetime, would they have ever imagined their Great Great Great Granddaughter would be sitting in a windowed library overlooking The Narrows, eyes barely a millimetre away from pages upon pages of family history? Could they ever conceive just how important this is to me?

The good news is that the records ARE there. And soon, we’ll figure out which ones are right.

  • February 22 2013
    cailin

    that made my head hurt! And from what I understand is that one of the Wilfreds had another Wilfred when it was like 7? I’m confused! haha

    • February 22 2013

      No! Wilfred was supposed to be Wilfred’s son, but we can’t find another Wilfred. The only other Wilfred we did find died when he was in his late 20s. Oh my!

      • February 24 2013
        Martina Mc Auley

        Good God Candice, it sounds like you have a big jigsaw puzzle on your hands there. My father is writing a book at the moment about his side of the family and he had to do a LOT of research. But he only had to go to Cavan, 4 hours drive from home, to do that. I wish you the best of luck with your search. I’m also looking forward to reading your website and blog etc. It sounds like good fun. Newfoundland is one place I’d love to go to. Maybe I’ll get there sometime. Martina Mc Auley (MatadorU student).

      • February 24 2013
        Martina Mc Auley

        Good God Candice, it sounds like you have a big jigsaw puzzle on your hands there. My father is writing a book at the moment about his side of the family and he had to do a LOT of research. But he only had to go to Cavan, 4 hours drive from home, to do that. I wish you the best of luck with your search. I’m also looking forward to reading your website and blog etc. It sounds like good fun. Newfoundland is one place I’d love to go to. Maybe I’ll get there sometime. Martina Mc Auley (MatadorU student).

      • February 24 2013
        Martina Mc Auley

        Good God Candice, it sounds like you have a big jigsaw puzzle on your hands there. My father is writing a book at the moment about his side of the family and he had to do a LOT of research. But he only had to go to Cavan, 4 hours drive from home, to do that. I wish you the best of luck with your search. I’m also looking forward to reading your website and blog etc. It sounds like good fun. Newfoundland is one place I’d love to go to. Maybe I’ll get there sometime. Martina Mc Auley (MatadorU student).

        • March 05 2013

          Hahaha, thanks Martina! It’s been an unreal and enlightening experience for sure. And YES, please come to NL! I love showing people my home.

  • February 22 2013

    Girl, this shit is off the chain! I would love to re-trace my roots and I understand your frustrations…even though my surnames are relatively obscure, my family did a TERRIBLE job of holding on to any documents, photos, family bibles, etc. It sucks, because all I want to do is know where I came from and how the hell I ended up so weird. Anyway, if you get any leads, try this site out. I was able to discover that my grandfather (who died before I was born) saved a guy during WWII, and there is a photo of him and everything, I literally cried when I saw it because there are ZERO photos of him anywhere. They also have things like emigration documents and stuff, not sure how extensive the Canadian documents are but it’s worth a shot. Good luck Candice!

    http://www.fold3.com/

    • March 05 2013

      Aww! Dammit, that’s so beautiful. Why the hell can’t it happen to me?

  • February 22 2013

    The Irish are notoriously bad at rememering things like, y’know, dates. It was only after my grandfather died that we found out he’d been celebrating his birthday two weeks too early for the last fifty or sixty years.

    • March 05 2013

      Hahahahaha. I find odd (and sorta sad) that they didn’t even CARE about keeping records. I don’t know, when I pass on, I’d like SOME indication that I existed.

  • February 22 2013

    I feel your pain! I am trying to trace my Hynes roots and trying to figure out which was the first one over from Ireland is next to impossible….and the fact they all have first names Joseph, Thomas, and James reads like “100 Years of Solitude”!

    • March 05 2013

      Hahahaha! I’m happy that I had at least ONE unusual name like “Wilfred” to cling to. Ah!

  • February 22 2013

    My dad’s line is meticulously recorded back to 1640.

    My mom’s… well…. lets just say we are Garcias. From Mexico. And my grandmother was an illegitimate child of a wealthy man in Chihuahua. Oh, and her mother’s mother may have been a gypsy from Spain. She (my great grandmother) was the only child of nine that wasn’t given away.

    I’ll just focus on my London lineage on my dad’s side. :P

  • February 22 2013
    Elizabeth

    I picked up doing the family genealogy research and when I started plugging some of the information into a database, I hit some snags too. I also found some very interesting information that lots of the family didn’t know. When that happens, you have to wonder about whether to set the record straight with family or just keep the information to yourself. I discovered on my husband’s side that his great-great grandparents had been first cousins! Then I wrestled with “Do I tell my in-laws this? Do they already know? Is there EVER a graceful time to bring this up?”. =)

    • March 05 2013

      LOL, right? I’m actually keeping mum about a lot of things. Think I might have already upset some relatives by telling them that basically everything they know is wrong. Touchy subject, turns out.

  • February 23 2013

    What a quest!
    And what and idea, back in the day, to name the children after their father: confusing!

  • February 23 2013

    What a quest!
    And what and idea, back in the day, to name the children after their father: confusing!

  • February 23 2013

    What a quest!
    And what and idea, back in the day, to name the children after their father: confusing!

    • March 05 2013

      SERIOUSLY! All those names of saints AND my last name being Walsh. Screwed from the beginning.

  • February 23 2013

    Wow that sounds so confusing and frustrating, but I think this is so cool that your trying to track down where your ancestors are from. I’ve always found ancestry interesting. Growing up I was told I was mostly German and Austrian, but back when my ancestors came over to Canada it was Prussia and The Austrian-Hungary Empire, so there’s a chance my relatives could have been from like Poland or Hungary instead of from Germany and Austria. I also have some English, Irish and Scottish ancestors, but I’d have no idea where to start with any of that. It seems like a genealogist would be a really great asset for this kind of search.

    • March 05 2013

      Ah, love it! I was afraid I’d find that my family was a bunch of criminals or something. Actually, that’s still a possibility.

  • February 23 2013

    I don’t envy you your quest, Candice! I may embark upon one of my own in the near future, though mine would be much more confusing considering all the random ancestry I have! (Seriously – I’ve got Slovak, Irish, Italian, and Welsh in me that I know of, and can only trace the Slovak back to specific cities thus far.)

    Good luck!

    • March 05 2013

      Hahaha, gotta love that about being born in North America…we’re like a Heinz 57 mutt. I remember one time I was telling my friend, “Oh yeah, my family came from England, Ireland, and France…” and he/she said, “You can’t be EVERYTHING.” Touche.

  • February 25 2013
    Hogga

    This sounds sooo interesting! I’d love to trace my lineage

  • February 25 2013
    Hogga

    This sounds sooo interesting! I’d love to trace my lineage

  • February 25 2013
    Hogga

    This sounds sooo interesting! I’d love to trace my lineage

  • February 25 2013
    Hogga

    This sounds sooo interesting! I’d love to trace my lineage

    • March 05 2013

      I feel like your last name would be an easy one to track!

  • February 26 2013
    Lela

    You’re so cool Candice.

  • February 26 2013
    Lela

    You’re so cool Candice.

  • February 26 2013
    Lela

    You’re so cool Candice.

  • February 26 2013
    Lela

    You’re so cool Candice.

  • February 27 2013
    jmr

    One of these days I want to try digging into my own family history. I have tonnes of information on my maternal grandfather’s side going back six or seven generations (hooray for good German record keeping!) but next to none on my father’s side.

    • March 05 2013

      Damn those Germans, always so meticulous! I wish the Irish were the same!

  • February 27 2013
    Joya

    It is tough work but good for you for trying. I’ve always wanted to study my family tree. How did you find someone to help you?

    • March 05 2013

      There’s already been a lot of NL ancestry research done…I was Googling around and found a web tracking families in the Burin area (where my family lived) and then got in touch with someone who put me in touch with my researcher. I was actually turned down TWICE by researchers who didn’t wanna take on the Walsh burden!

  • March 01 2013

    Candice, that does sound like a headache, but also terribly exciting. My grandfather has started something similar, but my father tells me he didn’t get too far. Unfortunately, he passed away before I was even interested in knowing more (that was many years ago). So, would love to do something similar, and see if perhaps I am of mixed heritage from one point in time.

  • March 01 2013

    Candice, that does sound like a headache, but also terribly exciting. My grandfather has started something similar, but my father tells me he didn’t get too far. Unfortunately, he passed away before I was even interested in knowing more (that was many years ago). So, would love to do something similar, and see if perhaps I am of mixed heritage from one point in time.

  • March 01 2013

    Candice, that does sound like a headache, but also terribly exciting. My grandfather has started something similar, but my father tells me he didn’t get too far. Unfortunately, he passed away before I was even interested in knowing more (that was many years ago). So, would love to do something similar, and see if perhaps I am of mixed heritage from one point in time.

  • March 01 2013

    Candice, that does sound like a headache, but also terribly exciting. My grandfather has started something similar, but my father tells me he didn’t get too far. Unfortunately, he passed away before I was even interested in knowing more (that was many years ago). So, would love to do something similar, and see if perhaps I am of mixed heritage from one point in time.

    • March 05 2013

      Warning: you WILL get obsessed, hahaha. It’s kept me awake at night. At this point it seems like I’m French, Irish, English, and god knows what else. A mixed breed.

  • March 04 2013

    I love this, it’s like you’re living in a mystery novel! My dad started out on a similar mission several years ago and I remember him sitting up at the computer late at night using swearing words that I’m not sure I’d ever heard before or since. Good luck!

    • March 05 2013

      Totally a mystery novel! And totally a mystery novel with way too much swearing! Jezus f*ck.

  • March 10 2013
    JustChuckinIt

    Candice, this sounds crazy hectic! Hopefully the trip in Ireland is amazing, but seems like its been a lot of loose leads and tangled trails of information. I wouldn’t even know where to begin tracking my Heritage, but it’s something I’m dying to do. Keep at it and it’ll come to you!

  • March 10 2013
    JustChuckinIt

    Candice, this sounds crazy hectic! Hopefully the trip in Ireland is amazing, but seems like its been a lot of loose leads and tangled trails of information. I wouldn’t even know where to begin tracking my Heritage, but it’s something I’m dying to do. Keep at it and it’ll come to you!

  • March 10 2013
    JustChuckinIt

    Candice, this sounds crazy hectic! Hopefully the trip in Ireland is amazing, but seems like its been a lot of loose leads and tangled trails of information. I wouldn’t even know where to begin tracking my Heritage, but it’s something I’m dying to do. Keep at it and it’ll come to you!

  • March 24 2013
    Kristine

    That sounds fun, but intense! I started doing a little research into my family and found out that my grandpa “Paul” was actually named Napoleon–a fact he hid from even his sons. I had a good laugh telling my dad :).

  • March 04 2016
    Bianca Walsh

    Hello Candice!
    My name is Bianca Walsh, and my father hails from St. Alban’s, Newfoundland. I stumbled upon this blog post while researching my own heritage (and potentially yours, as you are a Walsh, are we relatives perhaps?) and I have some information about the Walshs who first settled in St. Alban’s if you would care to hear it! Love your blog, Thanks!

    • March 08 2016
      Candice

      Hi Bianca,

      If your father was a Walsh from St. Alban’s, we’re most likely related! I’ll send you a message

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