One of the great things about studying family history is that you find that members of your family did things that make you wonder 'What they were thinking?', 'What drove them?'. Often they did things that don't fit the general historic themes you learn about in school and through books.
For my wife and I this process started with regards to Patrick Conway back at the end of May when we first found her great grandparents' census form on the 1911 Census web site. Patrick was "head of family", a "bricklayer's labourer". had been married for nine years and had four children. The oldest child, my wife's grandmother, was nearly 7.
It wasn't even that anything we found was all that surprising, but my wife had never really thought about Patrick Conway other than as the man who was her father's grandfather and that he died in the First World War. The census somehow brought him to life.
We have few hard facts, but we believe Patrick served with the British Army in the Boer War in South Africa around 1900. We also believe he was a member of the Citizen's Army - a worker's militia born out of the Lockout of 1913.
Now that's interesting because in Irish history the Citizen's Army and the British Army ended up on opposite sides during the 1916 Rising, but that was all in the future when Patrick Conway enlisted in January 1915.
So, he was in the British Army, left, married, had a family, worked as a bricklayer, joined the Citizen's Army and joined the British Army again. As my wife thought about all these things and the fact that he was around 38 years old when he (re)enlisted in the Army, the main question was: why? Why did Patrick Conway, a 38-year-old husband and father of four. decide to go to war?
And really there was only one answer. He must have been out of work. As a friend of mine said to me recently when I told him this story, "What employer would hire a 38-year-old militant trade unionist bricklayer's laborer?" So simple and straight-forward that it has to be true.
They were harsh times and he probably realized that the army at least offered a wage and, even in death, a pension. Something for his family to live on.
That man was the father of my wife's grandmother, somebody she knew well, but who had never talked about these things. This is why my wife had to go to Bethune, France to visit his grave. We were going to be too near to let the chance slip by.
Bethune is only about an hour over the border from Ypres so we changed our plans to include a visit there. Unlike all the other British military cemeteries that I saw, Bethune is a local cemetery, with a war graves section. It is mostly local French people who are buried there. The war graves aren't exclusively British either. Most of them are British, but there are French and German soldiers buried there as well.
---------------
Comments:
jacersisityourself wrote:
The two Patrick Conway articles were indeed a delight to read. It is even personal in a way because years ago I got into Family History and Genealogy before the last of our elderly aunts and uncles died. I only got so far in my research but a younger cousin took up the cudgel and found information on generations further back, some with the help of the 1911 census publications. We even have ancient photographs, which is nice ‘cos you can see the persons in your family tree.
The reference to visiting the grave of Patrick Conway was also touching. It shows even after we’re gone, someone somewhere later in our families’ tree cares enough to bother to make that effort to do so. Members of my father’s family emigrated from Ireland to Canada and my cousins and their sons and daughters now have families of their own, born in Canada but with Irish roots. The youngsters were drawn into school projects along the lines of “Who do you think you are?” a popular TV show which helps the famous and not-so-famous find their family histories.
It was queries from my Canadian cousins that sprang me into family genealogy research for their sakes. It was rewarding and highly interesting. There is a photograph of me with my great grand-aunt when I was very young. She is buried in Canada. My cousin sent me a photo of her grave’s headstone. I treasure that photo and have put it aside for my own future generations.
I certainly understand the Patrick Conway articles' import. Well done & thaanks to The Yank and his wife.
7/3/2009 7:43 PM EDT
jacersisityourself wrote:
Pity there has not been any further comments yet to The Yank’s articles about one Patrick Conway. I am sure there are many Irish descendants around the world with thoughts and memories that could have contributed to these lovely articles.
Recently I marked one my so-called ‘milestone’ birthdays. As the first-born, I had my three immediate younger family members and their other halves together for the occasion. It was nice.
The mother of us four conceived ten times but lost six babies either before or after birth. We four are the lucky survivors. I was old enough by the time my mother’s last baby died to remember my father’s grief at her, and my last born sister’s, loss, two days into her wee life.
D’ye know what? Sitting looking at my three family members alive and well across the birthday dinner table, made me think of the brothers and sisters we could have had around the table too.
And thinking just the other day about the Yank and his wife’s the visit to France to Patrick Conway’s grave made me realise I have no idea where my lost brothers and sisters are buried, if they were at all. I would like to visit a marked grave, or even unmarked grave, of at least the ones who survived delivery into our world.
What do hospitals and their staffs do with born babies that die within hours or just a couple of days? Could I ever hope to visit at least a hospital-known mass burial plot to remember my brothers and sisters, like the Yank and his wife remembered Patrick Conway?
7/4/2009 10:03 PM EDT
TheYank wrote:
jacersisityourself,
Am I right in assuming you're in Ireland? I think more people here will (& should) get interested in family history. The 1911 census is a great spur. I've seen it in action, but questions from America/Canada/wherever can also help. Obviously, I'm from America, but even I have taken for granted the access I have to the family history until I get a question from an American relative which spurs me into learning more.
Old photographs are great too, although they can be frustrating if you can't find someone who can identify the people in the picture. My grandmother was a great believer in writing names on the back of photographs and I think she's right. How we'll deal with all these digital pictures is another issue, however.
7/5/2009 5:09 PM EDT
TheYank wrote:
jacersisityourself, your story is a tough one. I wish I knew the answers to your questions about what hospitals do (did?), but I would imagine that every baby born alive would have been buried and that someone, somewhere would have a record of that. I hope so, anyway.
7/5/2009 5:12 PM EDT
jacersisityourself wrote:
I was abroad on holidays recently, so I dd not seeTheYank's postings above 'til now. Yes, I am Irish, born and raised in Dublin but living "in the sticks" now, as we say here.
Yes, old family photographs are indeed a treasure and yes, it can be frustrating trying to find out who's who in them! I have one of my great grandfather as a young man with a large group of other young men in an obviously official photo. The problem is that despite our efforts, we cannot yet find the circumstance of the photo!
I was big into photography years ago and have a black bag full of photos that I took as my family grew up. In time, those photos will be a delight to them and any descendants they might have. I appear in very few, as I was the one mostly behind the camera.
Yes, I can see the problem for future generations with digital photos, unless printed for posterity. As storage media are changing rapidly these days, even memory cards will be obsolete in time.
Thanks for kind comments on my non-surviving siblings. Your suggestions are well worth following up but a lot will depend on the extent that hospitals bother to search their records for any information that I might ask for.
I was born in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin's city centre. As you will know from living in Dublin, there is a statue of Charles Stewart Parnell at the top of O'Connell Street. The statue shows Parnell pointing his finger towards the Rotunda Hospital. Beneath the statue, one of Parnell's speeches is written in gold. It begins "No man shall put stop to the march of a nation..." A folly, if ever there was one... the finger pointing to the door where thousands and thousands of Dublin's babies like me first smelled Dublin's air!
8/7/2009 3:25 PM EDT
