Breakthrough

johnny_doyle

Just wanted to share a breakthrough on one of my areas of research that has been stalled for quite some time.

A few years ago I had a minor breakthough in the search for my Gt Gt Grandfather Hugh Niland from Dublin. I knew he was a cooper at Guinness in the late 1800's from the Guinness Archives and from the Coopers Guild records at UCD. Subsequently found that he had served with the Honourable East India Company in India from 1854 to 1859 and that after returning to Ireland he disappeared to Canada in 1862, returning to Ireland once more in 1865. For many years now the trail has been stone cold.

After briefly touching on him on a thread on boards.ie last week I had another go at Ancestry to see if there were any new records. Sure enough a new record came up re a US Navy record for someone of the same name. Couldn't see the record as it required a different subscription. Had a quick look at familysearch and up came an enlistment record for Hugh Niland into the US Navy in November 1862, a cooper from Ireland with a description that matched the India records.

Then had a look at the US site fold3.com which was running a free trial. Hit the jackpot with a 49 page document recording his wife's application for a pension from the US Navy in 1895. Hugh died December 1894. Affadavits from a number of people who knew them, dates of the marriage, dates of the children's birth, his death certificate and a few details of his service in the US Navy to December 1864 and his parents names. Tied some of this info in with the irishgenealogy.ie site finding a number of additional records (and surname variations).

Now have the date of birth of my Gt Grandfather who's birth was recorded as Joseph Nighland in September 1872 rather than Niland. also have the grave record for Hugh from the Glasnevin website as well as for his wife, daughter in law and granddaughter.

Jellybaby1

That's great news. You must be chuffed! It gives me hope that one day there will be a crack appearing in one of my many brick walls!

rhapsody

Wow thats great It also gives me hope! Well done on persevering

P. Breathnach

We often speak of trawling through records. Adopting that metaphor, it might be said that this time you filled your net with quality fish. Great catch.

pinkypinky

That's a brilliant success. It's these sort of breakthroughs that make all the squinting at microfilms worthwhile.

johnny_doyle

it's been a while since I've used microfilm (and microfiche) - the Internet is a brilliant resource (if a bit expensive for some services). These breakthroughs really give a buzz.

I doubt that I'll get too much further with my Niland line but I feel a bit nearer to proving/disproving a link to Thomas Niland, another Guinness cooper, who emigrated to Australia in 1841.

dido2

Thats great to hear!! Would love to get a gem of info like that!!

johnny_doyle

had another breakthrough last night that came about as a result of a query re records of the Irish Volunteers at Fron-Goch that was posted on the Great War Forum. One of the wife's gt uncles was at Fron-Goch while her grandfather and the other uncle were involved in the various activities to do with the War of Independence.

I'd done a bit of research on them but never made any headway in the UK archives which was the gist of my reply on the Great War Forum. However, it made me think that maybe I should try some googling and see if there was anything new that I hadn't pursued.

I didn't come up with anything re the above but totally by chance stumbled upon this page re the war dead from Portaferry, Co Down :

http://www.ulsterwarmemorials.net/html/portaferry__county_down.html

which was of interest as my Gt Grandmother Jane Maria McCullen was born there. Noticed the names related to John D Sumner and some genealogical jigsaw pieces that I'd collected over the years suddenly clocked into place. The Mr C A E M'Cullen mentioned in the text is my maternal Gt Gt Grandfather Charles Augustus Edward McCullen and I now have some extra leads to research.