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Funny/Unusual records

  • 18-08-2017 11:13am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,836 ✭✭✭


    Can we have a thread for funny or unusual records that we come across during our research?

    For instance this entry where the priest was transferred to a new parish in such a hurry that he left without his breakfast!

    6cba83af46.jpeg


«134567

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    I haven't come across anything too funny as far as I can remember. I did come across this record though that made me smile where a priest seemed to have been practicing his box drawing skills in the left corner.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    Dublin Weekly Register, November 24, 1849: "Beheaded himself"


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,836 ✭✭✭BigCon


    Here's another one, Rev Peter Blake was transferred to Roscrea and the parish of Bournea got a new priest (Rev Peter Cleary). When Fr Cleary died 3/4 of the parish transferred to Roscrea (maybe they didn't like the new priest or were very fond of Fr. Blake)!


    8b0b3abbe9.jpeg


  • Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    I thought this census record was funny: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003312648/

    The father was a staunch nationalist. The mother... perhaps not so much?

    On a more sobering note, the oldest son was executed by Tans in 1921.


  • Registered Users Posts: 43 paumurp


    Not funny, but I was surprised to find a Golf Professional whilst looking for someone else in the Little Bray part of Bray in the 1911 census (William Hanna)

    http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Wicklow/Bray_No_1/Donnellans_Cottages/891257/


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  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    I came across a record of a relative's death in America. It's definitely him but the strange thing is that his race is recorded as black. Do you think that it's an error in transcription or an error in recording? They'd hardly be using a term like 'black Irish' in an official document.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,609 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Hmm, I'd get the actual record rather than rely on the transcript. While it's very unlikely, it's not impossible he was black.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    pinkypinky wrote: »
    Hmm, I'd get the actual record rather than rely on the transcript. While it's very unlikely, it's not impossible he was black.

    Yeah you're right. It's hard to make any judgement calls without seeing the actual record since it could be a simple error in transcription.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,587 ✭✭✭DunnoKidz


    srmf5 wrote: »
    I came across a record of a relative's death in America. It's definitely him but the strange thing is that his race is recorded as black. Do you think that it's an error in transcription or an error in recording? They'd hardly be using a term like 'black Irish' in an official document.

    I don't know about death records or if this even applies, but... on stateside census records, a few of my ancestors were listed anywhere from white, mulatto or black on different censuses. I questioned a genealogist, who suggested census takers (at the time) determined race through their own perception (if a farmers skin appeared darkened by the sun, etc), community assumption, or living/working circumstances, rather than asking a person's race directly. This article tends to corroborate the idea. Even present day census takers fail to properly ask racial identification questions, according to CNN............. But on a death record, I've no idea.


  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    DunnoKidz wrote: »
    I don't know about death records or if this even applies, but... on stateside census records, a few of my ancestors were listed anywhere from white, mulatto or black on different censuses. I questioned a genealogist, who suggested census takers (at the time) determined race through their own perception (if a farmers skin appeared darkened by the sun, etc), community assumption, or living/working circumstances, rather than asking a person's race directly. This article tends to corroborate the idea. Even present day census takers fail to properly ask racial identification questions, according to CNN............. But on a death record, I've no idea.

    Thank you for the reply and links. That could be it. He was a retired farmer so he may have been weather-beaten giving him a darker complexion.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    srmf5 wrote: »
    He was a retired farmer so he may have been weather-beaten giving him a darker complexion.

    There is more to race than complexion; afro-hair for example.

    I would say either a mistake, ticking the wrong box or a tick straddling two boxes, or else, he was the result of mixed race parentage. With an Irish surname that would imply white father + black mother. I still think an error is more likely.


  • Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    tabbey wrote: »
    With an Irish surname that would imply white father + black mother.

    Not in America, it wouldn't.


  • Registered Users Posts: 300 ✭✭kildarejohn


    Unusual inscription on a stone in Kildare Cathedral-
    "Underneath lie the remains of the body of John Smith ...erected by his son Dennis Molony in memory of him"
    Was Dennis an illegitimate son, if so seems strange to be declaring it publicly.


  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    tabbey wrote: »
    There is more to race than complexion; afro-hair for example.

    I would say either a mistake, ticking the wrong box or a tick straddling two boxes, or else, he was the result of mixed race parentage. With an Irish surname that would imply white father + black mother. I still think an error is more likely.

    Well I'm fairly certain that neither of his parents were black since he and both of his parents were born in Ireland. I descend from his mother's brother and I have very pale skin that doesn't tan, or burn actually. My grandmother and her siblings were pale too and Anne Greene would have been their grandaunt. Unless it was on the father's side but I know the people that descend from both of John Flynn's parents and they're not dark either.

    Now some members of Patrick Flynn's and Anne Greene's descendants do have very dark curly hair so that could have come from the Flynn side who knows. Maybe that could have been why he was recorded as black.

    I didn't realise it would be just ticking boxes so if that's the case, then more than likely the wrong box was ticked.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    Probably an error. RGM is correct above, an Irish surname could denote an Irish father e.g. a slave owner who recognised an illig. child which took the paternal name.


  • Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭srmf5


    Probably an error. RGM is correct above, an Irish surname could denote an Irish father e.g. a slave owner who recognised an illig. child which took the paternal name.

    Definitely not in this case though since John and both parents were Irish and he was from Ireland.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    A cure for rheumatism here . It does not state if it is to be used topically or orally, so be careful before you try it!


  • Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    Someone doodling on the memorial of deeds here http://bit.ly/2eSSjx5 wonder who Bill Snooks was?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 568 ✭✭✭mikeymouse


    srmf5 wrote: »
    I came across a record of a relative's death in America. It's definitely him but the strange thing is that his race is recorded as black. Do you think that it's an error in transcription or an error in recording? They'd hardly be using a term like 'black Irish' in an official document.

    Watched this film again last night and remembered this post.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    A cure for rheumatism here . It does not state if it is to be used topically or orally, so be careful before you try it!
    "Bill Snooks" used to be one of those names like "John Smith" or "Sean Citizen" who represented an ordinary, unremarkable person although Bill, for some reason, was usually an unremarkable person in a faintly ridiculous situation. He used to turn up occasionally in law textbooks where he would, e.g., suffer some injury or indignity in the street and the student was then invited to consider whether he could recover in nuisance, or he would leave his umbrella at his club and somebody else would take it and the possibility of actions for trover, detinue and conversion would be discussed at length. (The student who made the point that buying a new umbrella would be cheaper would receive a failing grade.)

    But Bill turned up other than in law books. If a young gentleman in high spirits was arrested for being drunk and disorderly in London, and was brought up before the magistrates, if he wished to avoid being expelled from his Oxford or Cambridge college it was prudent to exercise a certain latitude when giving his name and address to the court, and "Bill Snooks" was one of the names occasionally employed in this context.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    Probably an error. RGM is correct above, an Irish surname could denote an Irish father e.g. a slave owner who recognised an illig. child which took the paternal name.

    I don't think that's what I said. In America, an Irish surname does not necessarily denote anything, especially not in the context of black Americans. Irish surnames were taken on by black American families for a number of different reasons. Biological descent from an Irishman, or line of Irish origin, could not be assumed.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    "Bill Snooks" used to be one of those names like "John Smith" or "Sean Citizen" who represented an ordinary, unremarkable person .....
    Poor old Bill, he died with the coming of the motor and was replaced by the man on the Clapham omnibus!


  • Registered Users Posts: 221 ✭✭Mossy


    Jeremiah Sullivan, who was 30 in 1901, aged 25 years between then and 1911, probably in an attempt to get the pension early. Fortunately for him his wife only aged 13 years in the same length of time.

    You can see in the Household Return form that he wrote "50" to start with, and then crossed out the "0" and replaced it with a "5". No point in doing things by halves.

    http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Limerick/Feenagh/Feenagh__Village_/1510284/

    http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Limerick/Feenagh/Feenagh/638910/


  • Registered Users Posts: 221 ✭✭Mossy


    The baptism of a child of John Frost and Catherine Frieze

    https://search.findmypast.ie/record?id=ire%2fprs%2fbap%2f4810153


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    Mossy wrote: »
    Jeremiah Sullivan, who was 30 in 1901, aged 25 years between then and 1911, probably in an attempt to get the pension early. Fortunately for him his wife only aged 13 years in the same length of time.

    You can see in the Household Return form that he wrote "50" to start with, and then crossed out the "0" and replaced it with a "5". No point in doing things by halves.

    http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Limerick/Feenagh/Feenagh__Village_/1510284/

    http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Limerick/Feenagh/Feenagh/638910/

    Jeremiah Sullivan also almost forgot how many children he had! :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    Mossy wrote: »
    The baptism of a child of John Frost and Catherine Frieze

    https://search.findmypast.ie/record?id=ire%2fprs%2fbap%2f4810153

    Can't access - no sub!


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,291 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    No need for a sub - just consider how apt if Mr. Frost and Ms. Frieze had been from Birr.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    Jellybaby1 wrote: »
    Can't access - no sub!

    Here it is on the NLI site:
    https://registers.nli.ie//registers/vtls000635018#page/63/mode/1up


  • Registered Users Posts: 221 ✭✭Mossy


    Jellybaby1 wrote: »
    Can't access - no sub!

    Sorry. No sub required, but you do need to register.
    First name(s)	Anne
    Last name	Frost
    Birth year	-
    Baptism year	1819
    Baptism date	06 Sep 1819
    Parish	St. Mary's, Limerick City
    Alternative parish names	St. Mary's, Limerick
    Diocese	Limerick
    County	Limerick
    Country	Ireland
    Father's first name(s)	John
    Father's last name	[b]Frost[/b]
    Mother's first name(s)	Catharine
    Mother's last name	[b]Frieze[/b]
    Repository	National Library of Ireland
    National Library of Ireland link	[URL="https://registers.nli.ie//registers/vtls000635018#page/63/mode/1up"]https://registers.nli.ie//registers/vtls000635018#page/63/mode/1up[/URL]
    


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  • Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    Hi Mossy

    Just to point out that the registers are freely accessible at https://registers.nli.ie/, but not searchable.

    Findmypast, RootIreland, Ancestry have searchable access to the registers, with transcriptions - not all transcriptions reliable. If you find links to your ancestors you can check the image on NLI without having to register with any of the paid up sites.


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