I likely would have never stepped foot in the National Library of Ireland (NLI) had it not been for signing up on Donna's tour to Dublin. She managed to ease any of my fears or intimidating feelings of researching within a government building. Monday, October 9th began our first official day of research in Dublin.
DAY 3
Had to kick off another day with a traditional Irish breakfast at Buswells Hotel! This time, I was not alone. Our tour group had a table set aside for us at the back of the restaurant in a little cove. I got to know Janet a little better and met the second Anne in our bunch for the first time. Our breakfasts were included with our hotel stay, so that helped cut down on daily meal costs.
We met up in the lobby at 9:15am and walked as a group across the street to numbers 7/8 Kildare Street, the main entrance to the National Library of Ireland.
There are two sets of locker rooms in the building to store your oversized belongings and coats while viewing any source materials. There's a third set down the street if you're only utilizing the Manuscripts Room. The only materials you're allowed on your person while researching are a laptop, notebook and/or papers, and pencils -- no erasers or pens! We stuffed our purses and jackets into the lockers (which are free to use by entering a code) and met up with Steven Skeldon who runs their Family History Service.
Steven led us a few doors down to number 4 Kildare Street, the director's office! I don't know why this excited me so much, but it's off-limits to the public usually, and the facade resembled the entrance to the Men In Black headquarters. Anyway, we received a private orientation from Steven and a colleague of his in the office due to extensive renovations occurring at the main library. While I already knew most of the information from all of the prep work I had done leading up to the trip, it was nice to get a refresher that was clear in my mind on the day of research! Plus, it made me feel more confident in stopping into each of the different reading rooms on-site.
After our orientation, I picked up my readers' ticket in the main building (this is a free credential you have to apply for ahead of your visit in order to check out any materials through the library system) and headed down the block to the Manuscripts Room (2/3 Kildare St.), where I had preordered 6 folders of estate records. The NLI is a "closed-stack" library, meaning you can't just wander in and take a book off the shelf and start reading, like a public library. You have to browse their catalogue first to find materials (books, newspapers, microfilm, artwork, magazines, etc.) that suit your interest, and then order up to 8 assets to be retrieved by their staff behind the scenes for delivery to the particular reading room they are assigned to on a specific day and time. There are 2 deliveries per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The 6 folders I first ordered from the NLI were all parts of their manuscripts collection, so they were all delivered to the Manuscripts Reading Room and had to be studied in that room only. While you can order up to 8 units per delivery, you may only actively look through 1 at a time. My first pull was a ledger book from the Cuthbert/Franks families' estate files.
The Franks were a family in North Cork in the early 1800s who owned land that my MEADE family had lived on. They were also brutally murdered by a mob of men in 1823, one of which I believe to have been a KEEFFE ancestor of mine. I was curious if this ledger, which contained business transactions by the family, would include any names of my MEADE or KEEFFE ancestors. However, nothing in the book held any genealogical value for me whatsoever. The only benefit to having checked this out was that I got to use the bean bag softener pads to steady the book and help support its spine, which I found intriguing.
The remaining folders I had ordered for the day were all sub-fonds of the Cole-Bowen papers. These holdings were all estate records from the Cole and Bowen families of County Tipperary and County Cork (whom had intermarried to form the Cole-Bowen family). The Bowens owned the land belonging to my KEEFFE ancestors in North Cork.
When researching your poor, or even middle class, ancestors of Ireland, it's important to look through the estate papers of the landed gentry (the wealthier families who owned the land your ancestors farmed), because these are the documents that will stand the test of time and include business transactions or mentions of your family.
These folders all contained loose parchment and papers, which I learned should be studied on the flat desks, rather than on the bean bags used for books. Each desk has its own set of lamps for more light (which I did not discover until my 2nd trip into this room).
I spent more than 4 hours thumbing through personal letters, random scraps of paper, rent rolls, receipts, business correspondence, and old maps not really finding too much of interest. That is the downside to having to research an entirely different family to find anything mentioning your own family! It was mostly all Cole-Bowen-centric stuff in these folders as well as maps of their land in County Tipperary -- not even of Bowen's Court in County Cork where my research was focused. And I made matters worse by photographing any piece of material that even slightly mentioned a name or place that I recognized. This really slowed me down, but I knew I didn't have enough time in this one week to thoroughly study all of my finds in person. Instead, I'd need to photograph my finds and study them at a later date, maximizing my time in Dublin, as nothing in these estate files is digitized and available online. Plus, the library requires that you document and report each item you are photographing (their attempt at avoiding copyright infringement issues), so that stole a bit of time from my research as well.
It wasn't until I reached the very last piece of paper at the very bottom of the 6th folder of the day did I find what I was looking for! The paper was extremely delicate with rips and tears, frayed edges, and worn print, easily identifiable as an antique. The library had placed it in an archival plastic sleeve for added safety from further decay. It was a map dated 1754!
The map was a survey of part of the lands of Farryhy (now typically spelled Farahy on modern maps) set and laid out in farms by Lewellin Nash Esquire, containing 517 acres, 3 roods, & 25 perches on 23 March 1754. The cartographer was John Holland. The scale of the map was done at 40 perches to an inch. Lewellin Nash's name was no stranger to me, as he had been a predominant figure in Elizabeth Bowen's novel Bowen's Court.
My ancestor of interest, my 4th great grandfather Terence Keeffe, wasn't yet alive in 1754. He was born circa 1804. But the map named 2 men with his same surname, Michael Keeffe and William Keeffe. At least one is beyond reasonable doubt to be an ancestor of Terence, possibly a grandfather of his.
The map displayed every plantation that was bordered to the north by Donerale Road, to the east by the Farrahy River, to the south by Meads Town Road, and to the west by the townland of Shanballymore. Each plantation was labelled with its acreage as well as either its tenant's name or the name it was most commonly known by.
Though spelled different on the map from every other iteration I had seen previously, I spotted my target location instantly: Lissmonaheen! The spelling variation I have come to use for this place is Lismonihis, due to its more frequent appearance in the local church books of the mid 1800s. Yet, I had never been able to locate this neighborhood on an actual map, since Farahy was chosen in the 1830s as the official townland name in this area, when townland names were standardized across the island of Ireland. Terence Keeffe was known to be "of Lismonihis" which was my driving factor in determining exactly where it fell on a map. By knowing where Lismonihis was, I would know exactly where Terence had lived. And now, I had found it!
I had 2 main goals going into this research trip: 1) Find Terence listed on rent rolls of the Bowen estate papers, and 2) Locate the area of Lismonihis on a map. And, success! On my very first day researching in Dublin, I was able to cross #2 off my checklist -- something I had not been able to accomplish online! Spoiler alert for this blog series: On this trip I never did find Terence listed on any paperwork.
Lissmonaheen was exactly where it ought to be on the map. Prior to my trip, a local in County Cork volunteered to go in hunt of Lismonihis for me. They physically went door to door and found 2 houses in the area which had used Lismonihis in their mailing addresses up until a couple years ago. The homeowners no longer use it, and since the name is not printed on any modern maps, the placename will certainly be completely forgotten to time within the next 100 years. Sure enough, the 2 homes mentioned fell right where the 1754 map named Lissmonaheen. It sat on Donerale Road, which is now the Mallow-Dublin Rd, or Route N73, about half-way between Mallow and Mitchelstown (just to the west of Kildorrery).
Interestingly, the plantation that shared Lissmonaheen's entire easterly border was the 16-plus acres farmed by Michael Keeffe. This makes me inclined to think Michael was the likelier of the 2 Keeffe men on this map to be Terence's direct ancestor, but of course, there's no way to make that prediction at this time without plenty of more evidence to support the relationship. The other Keeffe on the map, William, was listed with a man named Daniel Hanlon on a 42-plus acre allotment four plots of land southeast from Lissmonaheen, so essentially also "right next door." Knowing the names of all of these men situated on the land about 50 years before Terence's time is quite a breakthrough and will be such a help in unlocking the mystery of who Terence's parents were!
After my fantastic discovery, I marched back up Kildare Street to the Main Reading Room where I had preordered 2 rolls of microfilm (my first time ever working with this medium).
One of the staff librarians gave me a brief tutorial on how to thread the spools of film through the microfilm reader (it really brought me back to my film projector threading days when I worked at a movie theatre!). The reels are then hooked up to a computer which allows you to scroll through the images on a vertical monitor using a mouse. For some odd reason my machine wouldn't show an entire page, but the librarian showed me how to adjust it manually to be able to see more of the left or right side if I needed to. His troubleshooting actually helped me in seeing exactly how to work with the machine further on down the week when I was alone. Figuring out how to fix a technical problem has always been one of my strong suits!
I paged through one of the reels and only began finding the records I was seeking once the clock signaled the end of the day!
Since microfilm does not have any page numbers you can mark, I took a photo of the reel on the spool, so I'd have a general idea of how far into the reel I had scanned through already for my return to the library to finish my work later that week.
I also took a mental note (and physical photo) of the image I had left off at. I had finally stumbled upon the "Return of Rent and Arrear Furnished by William Godwey due to Henry Cole Bowen." These would be the rental rolls for Henry Cole-Bowen's estates in both County Tipperary and County Cork. My goal was to find Terence Keeffe listed on the County Cork rolls (though I never did). Further in the series, I will touch on what I did find in his place.
I was nearly the last to leave the Main Reading Room that day. On my way out and down the stairs, Steven (from their Family History Service who gave us the orientation in the morning) caught me and asked how I got along. I explained my earlier manuscript find of the day and my abrupt end with the microfilm reader. I hadn't had a chance to pop into his Genealogy Room but said I would swing by later in the week.
As I crossed the street back to the hotel, news cameramen were already setting up in preparation (I thought) for the expected protests the following morning outside the Parliament building (next door to the NLI). We had been warned that Ireland's 2024 budget was to be released Tuesday morning, and in the weeks preceding, the general public had become concerned about some of the decisions being made. About a week prior to our trip, the protestors had become too rowdy and had allegedly thrown a bottle of urine within the gates. This prompted the NLI to preemptively announce a shut down of its services the morning of the budget release. Lucky for our tour group, we had already planned to be at the National Archives that day rather than back at the NLI.
However, in the next half hour, it became apparent that the news stations were not there to cover the budget protests, but instead, were filming a growing crowd of supporters for Palestine. In the days leading up to my trip, the militant group Hamas had committed terrorist attacks against Israel and had taken many Israelis hostage. In response, Israel had begun airstrikes on the Gaza strip, which mainly houses civilian Palestinian citizens. The people outside the Parliament gates were raising the Palestine flag and preparing to hold an organized march.
That evening, I went out to dinner with some ladies from my research group: Anne, Janet, Kathy, and Mary. We walked a few blocks over to Lincoln's Inn, which was established in 1822. I had terrific cajun chicken strips and "chips" with garlic mayo. If you're a fan of James Joyce, this restaurant might sound familiar, as it's where he first spotted the love of his life, Nora, when she stepped out of Finn's Hotel next door after work. Many of his famous stories revolved around this part of the city.
During our dinner, the Palestinian supporters came marching and chanting down the street, shutting down traffic, with police escorts. The march appeared very peaceful, though back at my hotel later that night I could hear what sounded like gunshots or poppers, and I learned the Luas (Dublin's tram system) green and red lines had all been shut down and evacuated during the 6pm rush hour due to a call about a potentially suspicious device found. Security officials searched every tram car and deemed there to be no real threat. Services resumed within a couple hours.
It was quite an exciting first day of research! I was very curious how the next day would transpire, knowing the budget was to be released around 10 in the morning right outside our front door. Just in case I had to prove I was staying at Buswells, I snapped a photo of me in my room! Stay tuned for my report on Day 4's research...
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