The Journey Begins

It has been a long while  since I posted on  this blog.  Not that I've been remiss in my geneologic research.  Far from it.  It's just that the research has slowed down, and "life" has happened: children graduating, selling and buying a new house, moving, traveling hither and yon for work and play.

Now, I'm on my way to Ireland.  My research has come up with a possible location that my ancestors came from:  the town of Ballinhassig in County Cork.  I have several bits and pieces of evidence that points me there.  I found a marriage record for a Cornelius Mahony and Catherine Duggan (my gg grandmother's name) there in 1838 (http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/3bf4290040802), which would more or less coincide with their departure for the US and birth of their first child Margaret in 1841. There is also a baptismal record for Catherine Duggan from Ballinhassig in 1816 (http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/3562470151928) which is within the range of when my gg grandmother was born. Finally, from dna testing , I have a close match with a family of McCarthys who have Ballinhassig connections, but unfortunately, the present-day descendants don't have any information I can use to make any connections.  So now, I'm headed to Ballinhassig to try to find the final piece of evidence that confirms this is where my family is  from.

I will also be going to the annual O'Mahony clan gathering at Kinneigh Round Tower in Castletown Kinneigh Co. Cork later in the week.

I'm excited and a bit scared, scared that this trip will end up as another of the many  dead ends I've hit in my search for my roots.  But like they say, it's not  the destination, it's the journey.

Let the journey begin.