How I found my family in the 1911 census

There is no lovelier joy than finding my long dead family members, and to find them forever young

His details as "boarder" (term used if one is in someone else's house on census night at a certain time, according to accompanying notes),are that he was 23-years-old and was married with one child of a year old. He could read and write and speak Irish and English.

The child was my uncle Jerry, and my mother and his other sister and brother were not yet born.

Because he was not at home, his own census form was not filled out, I suppose owing to fact the head of the house was absent. (Feminists take note.)

Bob Lynch, like the Sullivans, was involved in the "Troubles,” and once for his pains was sent in handcuffs to an internment camp at Ballykinlar, County Down.

A patriotic endeavor

This document, discovered and pored over until often five o'clock in the morning, is a joy to possess, and while it would be unwise to consider that long ago period was some kind of golden era in which to have lived, it is indeed a treasure, and brings local history alive.

The undertaking of this labor of patriotic endeavor by the compilers is highly commendable.

This is who I am - who we all are - the children of courageous grandparents, who must have sometimes felt, as we all do, that life and its difficulties had become so hard to cope with.

Yet they went on, because they knew they must. Time doesn't change the way we are emotionally attached to our bloodline, and should we wish to express gratitude to our forebears, then a fleeting thought warmly felt, suffices.

I am so glad to have been involved in unearthing the little gems of family information which are available at the click of a computer mouse.

There is no lovelier joy as I approach the twilight of my own life, than to meet with my long dead family members, and to find them forever young.

It is a rewarding and moving experience to discover the nearness of those who have gone before us.

It is indeed as if they are only in the next room, and if we call out they will hear us.

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Nster.com