THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

      In my last post, I was discussing my Grandparents' (Charles and Theresa Sherlock) trip to Ireland in 1961. Even though they only spent two days there, they met a lot of relatives and visited a number of their homes. Charles and Theresa  visited the old homestead of Bryan Sherlock and Margaret Caffrey Sherlock in Demailestown, Meath, Ireland where Charles' father Edward Sherlock was raised. Edward died when Charles was just a baby so I am sure that this visit to the old homestead was rather emotional for Charles.

      According to Grandma Theresa's diary, after visiting the homestead, they went to Pat Sherlock's home for lunch.  They saw his land and cattle.  The above photo shows Pat and Theresa out in the field with some of his cows. Then they visited the Carey's and Lady Ruth's home [I have no idea who these people are].  After stopping to pick up Pat's wife, they went to visit Agnes, her husband and their 9 children.  [I think Agnes is Agnes Sherlock mentioned earlier in the diary].  Finally they visited Mary Glacken [who was also mentioned previously in the diary] in Navan, Meath, Ireland.

      So, I now know who they visited and where they went but the question that remains is how are these people related to my Grandpa Charlie [and therefore to me]?   Let me do a quick review of the family tree -- Bryan Sherlock and Margaret Caffrey Sherlock had at least 8 children -- Nicholas, Mary, Bernard, Christopher, Edward, Bridget, John Joseph, and Patrick Joseph.  According to my research Nicholas died at age 36 in Australia and Bernard died at age 20 in Ireland, while both Christopher and John Joseph immigrated to Boston. I don't have any further information (except for birth dates) for Mary and Bridget.  Patrick had one son named Patrick or Paddy.  I think the Patrick that graciously chauffeured my grandparents around Ireland was Paddy. I don't know how Christian Sherlock, Mary Glacken, Agnes Sherlock or other people in my photos are related to me.  Perhaps posting some of these photos on my blog might help me find answers. One can hope!

PUTTING TOGETHER THE IRISH PUZZLE

      The past two days I have been reading Grandma Theresa's travel journal and trying to match her entries with the photos that I have of their trip to Ireland.  Now, I know that I did complain a lot about "slides" in a previous post, but there are distinct advantages.  One advantage is that the picture for the most part has not degraded as much as those "lovely" photos from the 1970's and 1980's.  You know the ones that have that orange color!  A few of the slides do have some black dots on them but I can live with that.

        Another advantage is that they have the number of the image on the back of the slide.  So, while I can't tell what roll of film they belonged to, I can put them in order according to image number.   Now, why is that important?  Well, when Grandma Theresa mentions she has visited several people and several locations, I can try and see if I can determine the location by the order of the images. For example, she wrote on 5/26/1961 that Patrick Sherlock picked them up and went for a ride in the country.  Then they visited more Sherlocks (Christian and his wife).  Since Patrick was their "chauffeur" for their Ireland trip, he must be the guy in almost all of the photos.  After visiting Christian and his wife, they went to visit Charles'  father's family old homestead.

     When I read they visited the childhood homestead of Edward Sherlock, I was delighted.  I absolutely love to see photos of the houses my ancestors lived in.  In the journal, Theresa continues, "The people who lived there did some changes, but the lady let us take pictures and look around. There was over 60 acres and what land all green."

      Okay, that gave me some more clues -- there would be multiple photos of this house as compared to only a few of some other relatives' home.  There would be a lot of land around the house.  There would probably most definitely be a photo of Grandpa Charlie next to this house since it belonged originally to his grandparents.   With all of these clues and some jiggling of the puzzle pieces on my part, I deduced that the above photo is of  Patrick Sherlock, Christian's wife and Christian and Grandma Theresa at the old homestead in Demailestown, Meath, Ireland.  The photo below of Charles at the homestead confirms to me that this is indeed the house. It obviously was so important to him that he was the only one in the photo.

      One more comment before I go -- Without knowing, the photo I selected for my last post was taken at the old homestead.  I have posted the photo again below.  Grandma Theresa was right, it was absolutely beautiful and green!