Kerry Chronicles: Nohoval Cemetery

In 2019, our brother Patrick Moynahan sponsored our very first trip to Ireland so that we could walk in the footsteps of our ancestors. Back home in Canada, our research has continued and the stories we find are being shared under the banner "The Kerry Chronicles".

My brother Patrick at the Rathmore cemetery in Kerry, Ireland in spring of 2019

Our visit to three cemeteries in Kerry, Ireland was unplanned. Nohoval Cemetery was the third cemetery we visited, wildly overgrown and extremely difficult to walk through. 

 

The three cemeteries in Ireland that we visited in 2019

 

We found many more Moynihans / "Moynahans" on that 2019 visit.

Since then, I have learned some new facts that I wished that I would have known before our visit ... and that I want to share now.

My brother inspects the headstone of Daniel D. Moynihan of Shinnagh Aged 92 (1816-1908) and his beloved wife Annie (Buckley) Moynihan (1826-1900)

I have pulled from many sources to write this Nohoval cemetery blog post: photographs from our 2019 Ireland trip; the Casey Collection known as “O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and the Upper Blackwater"; The Irish National Folklore Collection; Ancestry Trees and information from paternal atDNA and Y-DNA  testing results.

Remember Them November 11

My genealogical research has provided me with many details about the role that many of my ancestors played in the two world wars as well as wars prior to the First World War. I try to imagine the impact this military service had on the ancestors as well as their families at home.

• A widow in Windsor awaits word after being notified that her only son, Leo Joseph Martin Broderick, is missing in action after his plane was shot down over Germany. He never made it home to Windsor, Ontario and is buried in Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
  
• A young man, James Coveny, enlists at eighteen years of age naming his sixteen year old sister as his only next of kin. Probably due to his skill with horses, he is assigned to the 5th Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles. He arrived in England in May 1916 and while riding through Remy Wood on his horse August 1918 he was "severely wounded by shell fire", was evacuated by No.4 Field Ambulance where he died. He never made it home to Tilbury, Ontario and is buried in Achicourt Road Cemetery, France.
  

When November 11 comes every year, I remember them. The ancestors who never made it home and those who made it home and were changed forever by their experience.

This is part of Leo Joseph Martin Broderick's file that I was given for review when I visited the Library and Archives of Canada in 2014.

"Knowing about an ancestor who served (in the military) and learning about the role they played and how war impacted their life can be an emotional experience that brings relevance to Remembrance commemorations." (Lesley Anderson, spokesperson for Ancestry)

In November, the Canadian War Museum offered "Researching Family Military History: How to Start" with tips for research in each of the following four categories.

• Pre-First World War (PFWW)
  
• First World War: 1914 - 1918 (FWW)
  
• Second World War: 1939-1945 (SWW)
• Post Second World War (PSWW)
  

Do you know the names of any of your ancestors who served in any of those periods? Would you like to learn more?

A One-Name Study: The Annal Family

My Wallaceburg, Ontario Annal Family (Left to right: Back: Joe Hess, John Annal, William Annal, Gabriel Hess; Front: Mary Jane Annal, Mary (Hess) Annal, James Henry Allan Annal, unknown, Elizabeth Annal)

Lifelines Research (aka David Annal) tweeted that his "Great Aunt, Margaret Sinclair ANNAL, was born on 3 November 1904. She became the keeper of the family stories and I was always told when I asked questions about the family that Aunty Margaret would have known. Unfortunately she had died in 1973." to which I tweeted back (replied),  "I have Annals and Sinclairs in my family as well ...." 

This casual twitter exchange continued and eventually led me to David's website:  "The Annals of the Annals" which David writes: 

"Welcome to The Annals of the Annals, a website dedicated to research into the Annal surname. The site was first launched in 2002 and was relaunched in October 2017 as an 84th birthday present for my father, Eric Annal.

The aim of the site is to provide a home for the research that I’ve carried out over the past 40 years but also to act as a focal point for all researchers who have a shared interest in the name and its origins."

After looking quickly at David's website, I immediately learned that my Annal family tree is found in David's Group G of his Annal family groupings from A to P.

Today's blog post looks at what I learned today and the benefits of doing a one name (or one-surname) study such as the one David has done for the past forty years.