Dear Uncle Selah,
Forgive me for not writing sooner, but surely you understand from all that has been happening these months. In any event I am writing to let you know of the discoveries that I've made on the Irish side of the family.
You know that the lack of information has driven me to distraction and on more than one occassion has had me cussing like a sailor. It seemed like just when I thought that I had the right individual it was the wrong individual...again.
Uncle, you of all people know how much I value tradition and honoring ancestors, and how much I try to impart the feelings of love and devotion to all the generations but....ah yes, the BUT. BUT the naming traditions along with the large families on the Irish side and the people marrying neighbors in their villages who both had cousins of the same name in another village and they married each other, not to mention the brothers and sisters of one family marrying the brothers and sisters of the other family, and the charts I did just to keep them all straight, and I know you may be laughing but it didn't seem quite so difficult when I was doing the English side.
Then again maybe it was.
Well the discoveries are these: Patrick Morris and Julia McNulty [3rd great grandparents] were from county Mayo. Thank the Lord I've finally made the Mayo connection. Patrick Morris was actually Patrick
Morrisroe from Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland.
Thankfully through the wonderful world of Familysearch.org, and Ancestry.com and Google and the help of some new found "cousins" we have pieced together the Moran-Greene line of the family and it goes like this:
Helen Mae Greene daughter of William B. Greene and Ellen [Mary Ann] Moran.
Ellen [Mary Ann] Moran was the daughter of Martin T. Moran and Ellen Morris.
Ellen Morris was the daughter of Patrick Morris[roe] and Julia McNulty. Patrick and Julia had several children.
Now I don't know if you remember the problem that I had a while back as all I knew was that a Patrick Morris had a wife Julia and some alluded to her last name as being Mac-something. Thanks to Familysearch and their records we've connected a few things up. Thanks to Google, which makes life so much easier, I know where Swinford in County Mayo is and a bit of the history. Thanks to Ancestry for the clues and connections to link "cousins" and things up. Oh and before I forget Uncle, having Brian Mitchells "A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland", has been fantastic! I've been able to get right down into the townships and villages and parishes and Baronys and all the divisions therein.
How I wish I had had all of this information 30 years ago. I need to be younger again to discover all that I seek to know. I know the Irish side is smiling now that we've made some headway. And it's very nice to know that when we stopped by the cemetery those many years ago and shouted out loud "Hello! We're here! We've come to find you all!" that I've kept that promise as best I could, that I've been relentless in finding the families and that they are now on our tree with names and dates and places and are not forgotten.
Until next time,
Your devoted niece
