Really BIG paper!

Well, the big map is on the wall and there are little green highlights all over it. Now, this may make NO sense to you, but it makes great sense to me. If you know me, you know that I think better with big paper. I love flip chart and markers. We started planning this trip with a flip chart and a small map of Ireland in the middle. Post-its with things to see were scattered all over the paper, then written on the map. Well, that just did not do it for my need for strong visuals. And so, we took down the dart board and with the help of a few pushpins, hung up the Ireland road map. It’s HUGE. Now THAT is big paper. With a green highlighter (fitting, wouldn’t you say?) we have marked all the places that were on our initial list. We can see that the sights are heavily leaning toward a very southern route, but there are a few places that have become “must see” in the northern regions. Lots of blank space in the middle. I sense that the midlands of Ireland are often overlooked. So, we’ll concentrate on those parts of the guidebooks and find some terrific places to see and put more green on the map.

Our hope is to sort of regionalize (I will not use the word “cluster” for obvious reasons!) this trip, creating touring bases in 4-5 areas of the country and then making day trips for a couple of days before moving out and moving on. This will make some things easier, I’m sure as we can have a base to which we can return for several nights before loading up the car and heading for other points. Right now, the regions are looking a little Wexford-Waterford, Cork & Kerry, west coast – The Burren and north, Donegal area. (Don’t confuse north with Northern Ireland as we’re not planning on crossing over that way. It’s all different money and passports and who knows what sort of roadchecks and security?) Now of course, we have to spend some time thinking about the “must sees” vs the “could sees”. John reminded me tonight that this is not a race and part of vacationing is relaxing. That will be easier to do if we’re not shifting daily and setting up “home” in a new place very night. (Kerry and I moved daily – even when we spent two nights in Killarney – and it can be exhausting.)

It does feel good to start seeing some order to this trip. Once we identify, weed through, add to, and generally nail down the sights, we’ll begin putting together our very own “trip-tic” and have a better idea of where / how / for how long things will be.

Of course, in doing that, we’ll finally have to say whether we’ll head north out of Dublin or south out of Dublin. At some point, we’ll end up going through the middle, I suspect. While we know we can’t see everything, we certainly want to see as much as we can – within the bounds of relaxation.

Remember, that “comments” section you see at the bottom of each of these blogposts is a place where you can write back to us. Please do, especially when we’re on the road, so we can keep up with you. Now, remember, whatever you write can be read by whoever is reading. 

Until later… Slán agus beannacht leat*

~~ Dawn

* Slán agus beannacht leat = Goodbye and Blessings with you
(slawn ogg-us ban-ocked lyat)

Isn't everybody Irish?

Fáilte ar ais*

Welcome back!

They say that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. ("THEY" say a lot of stuff and I don't believe most of it!) Well, we're going to be IN Ireland ON St. Paddy's day. That should be interesting, shouldn't it? Now... John talked about being 1/4 Irish. "Walsh" was a family name, but where it all fell in the great grand scheme of things, wasn't quite clear. So... what does one do in a situation like this?.... Of course, what one always does -- GOOGLE! I googled with this wild thought that I would find some incredibly valuable information and present it to him with great fanfare. Yeah, right! Like that was gonna happen!

Well.... I first found John's paternal grandfather, Charles Nicolas Kraft, which lead to his grandmother, Bertha E. Walsh. B-I-N-G-O! We have a winner! Well, now we knew where the last of this line of Walsh-es was. I joined ancestry.com (hey, they have full access to census data both here and in Ireland) and the hunt was on. I think we stayed up, on that Tuesday in January, until close to 2 a.m. In that great way of genealogical sleuthing, we had John, whose father was James Walsh Kraft, whose mother was Bertha Ednetta (?) Walsh, whose father was James T. Walsh, whose mother was Allice / Alice [maiden name unknown] Walsh, born in Ireland, about 1815. At that point... BAM... we hit a brick wall. We don't know Allice's maiden name or her husband's name which really sort of slows things down. We also can't find Allice anywhere except the 1860 census when she was in Pennsylvania, Alleghany County, Pittsburgh. And so, we've spent a lot of time wondering where Allice is. (Oh, Allice... where are you????)

We've spent time tracing back the Kraft side, found tons of info on Curlees and Hunts and Tidwells and the rest. On the Curlee side of my family, I have found two ancestors from Ireland. One is Mary Richardson, born in Ireland, 1739 (where in Ireland, we don't know) and one William Early, born in Donegal, Ireland, in 1622. Eureka... we have at least ONE Ireland destination where we can claim "family". It seems that most of the Walshes came from Tipperary, so, absent some true proof of where Allice and Mr. Walsh came from, we'll call Tipperary "home", as well. You know... it's a long way to Tipperary! (Are you humming yet?)

It's been great fun amidst this family search and heaven knows we're still not done. We'll keep looking and eventually, we'll find another clue. It's bound to come and then we'll have yet another evening of late night staring at the computer screen. What fun!

We'll keep you posted!

Dawn

*folye-teh air ash