Riobard Gad you were running up and down the village! I wish you many more years of the same. If only Ireland had more dedicated researchers like you! I did try the email for the researcher you sent me re the Bantry/Cork area. Thanks very much-unfortunately -no response. Do you know if she is still around? On a cheerful note, I was in your neck of the woods the last two weeks of July but decided not to bother you as you have lots of enquiries anyway--more to come now? And my family does not seem to be from your area. A couple of '31st cousins' did help me with research at Bantry-getting close now but NOT 100%! Need to find some records specific to the 1860's for that area which seems very difficult. Anywise, glad you are back at it. If the tourists/genealogists bother you too much Just take them on a run through town!! CHEERS-Reg (O'Regan) Volk-Canada -----Original Message----- From: beara-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:beara-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Riobard O'Dwyer Sent: August 18, 2008 8:21 AM To: beara@rootsweb.com Subject: [BEARA] Researching again. Can't stay away from it !! This should be of some help to those of Beara ancestry who are "lost to the world" trying to find out who their ancestors were. Just to let newcomers to the List know that even though my hair is going grey after circa 50 years of research (although I'll be getting a new haircut tomorrow), hopefully there will be another few years in me before I kick the bucket !! After that you will have a bit of a job endeavouring to trace those you may be able to trace easier now. Anyhow, over to you. Hope you are keeping well. Thankfully, I'm feeling o.k. again. I was running up and down the village the day before I got the "virus" that flattened me temporarily. But, thankfully, I'm on the gallop again ---- ready for the next Olympic Games. ----- Riobard. ----- Original Message ----- From: Riobard O'Dwyer To: Riobard O'Dwyer Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 6:13 PM Subject: Necessary background information re. genealogical queries. Having received a considerable number of genealogical queries over the years about many parts of Ireland, I would like to emphasise that I research ONLY the genealogical ancestries of the Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork (South-West);- ADRIGOLE Parish, ALLIHIES (Copper Mines) Parish (including DURSEY ISLAND), BERE ISLAND Parish, CASTLETOWNBERE Parish, EYERIES Parish (including INISFERNARD ISLAND), and GLENGARRIFF Parish (which also includes the various townlands of the BONANE area, Co. Kerry ----- situated between Glengarriff and Kenmare (on the Kenmare, Co. Kerry, side of the tunnel). The address to which you can write is:- Riobard O'Dwyer (Genealogist). Eyeries Village, Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork, Ireland, or you can email me at:- Beararesearchodwyer@eircom.net ONLY if you feel reasonably sure that your ancestors were from any one of the above Parishes. When forwarding queries to me, what you need to send are certain basic things that might help track down the particular family you are trying to find ----- especially here in Beara (sometimes known in the olden days as Berehaven) where not alone are you dealing with surnames, but with several Branch-Names of a number of those surnames. In the majority of cases in the olden days it was with Branch-Names ONLY that children were put into the Parish Records. For instance, there are approximately 80 different Sullivan/O'Sullivan Branch-Names in the Beara Peninsula, and if you weren't aware of what they were, you may as well be searching through the Amazon Jungle, or looking for a needle in a haystack for your O'Sullivan, if that ancestor was not put into the Parish Records originally under the Sullivan/O'Sullivan surname as such. At times a researcher may find a family in about four or five different townlands within a Parish, or sometimes in a few different Parishes! , because in the olden days tenants were switched around from townland to townland or from Parish to Parish by order of the Landlord or his Agent; or a Tradesman looking for work might move around in similar fashion. Vagueness of information sent with the queries is practically impossible to deal with, e.g. "My grandmother Mary Harrington came from some part of County Cork"; "My grandfather Patrick O'Sullivan threw stones into Bantry Bay"; "Remember I wrote to you 12 years ago about my greatgreatgrandfather John O'Shea (giving no further information as to which one of several hundred John O'Sheas was the man in question)". At times, people would have the idea that their ancestors were married in Beara before they emigrated to the States, whereas it turns out that they married in the States after emigrating. At times, also, people think that the first child of their ancestors was born in Beara before the parents emigrated to the States, etc., but further research might indicate that the parents were married in Beara alright, but the first child was actually born in the States, etc., shortly after the parents had emigrated. Several people have the idea that their ancestor was born in Castletownbere, but often that is only a guide to the fact of their ancestor having been born in SOME part of the Beara Peninsula. Many people don't do enough research on their own first (from marriage records, birth/baptismal records, obituaries, etc.) before coming to a genealogist looking for further-back data. Many people do no prior research ---- but arrive at a genealogist's door expecting him to perform miracles at the drop of a hat, and giving him practically nothing to go on. Sometimes the "ages" or "years of birth" they would have for their ancestors would prove later (after alot of needlessly wasted time) to be years off the mark. The vitally necessary basic information to send with your query to a genealogist would be the name and approx. date of birth of the ancestor; the Christian name of the father and the MAIDEN name of the mother; the name of the ancestral parish in Beara, and better still (if you have it) the townland within that parish; the MAIDEN name and approx. date of birth of the ancestor's wife (and any basic details on her parents ---- in case they also may have come from some part of the Beara Peninsula); to what part of the States or elsewhere did the ancestor emigrate, or in what part settle down; names and approx. dates of birth of ancestor's siblings, and any bit of information on them (marriage or otherwise), and especially if any sibling settled down in the home farm, or nearby, in Beara (and who he/she married). The reason for all this type of necessary preparatory information is:- if a link can be made (for example) between the States, etc. and a particular part of the Beara Peninsula, then (when the ancestry is all sorted out) people can at least visit the home area of their ancestors (even if those families are long gone from the area which, unfortunately, due to emigration, or eviction, was often the case); or, if they are lucky, be able to see and stand inside even the ruins of their ancestral home ---- and I have seen many tears of understandably emotional joy shed on such occasions; or, if luckier still, be able to eventually contact and visit relatives in the Beara Peninsula (organised family reunions of relatives from many parts of the world of Beara ancestry are becoming more and more popular); and even if they are not in a position to travel, they would still be able to contact by letter, email, phone, etc., relatives all over the world, because of all the pl! aces in Ireland, our ancestors from Beara must have sailed "the seven seas" and travelled to every continent on God's earth. Still out there must be thousands who may yet be lucky enough to find the little link that would make the all-important connection to the beautiful, scenic Beara Peninsula --- and to their ancestral home. The wheel at last would have travelled the full circle. ----- Riobard. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BEARA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message