A Very Occasional Blog

I’m a genealogist by profession, and a Fellow of the Accredited Genealogists Ireland,(AGI) I also dabble in local history and the history of Irish golfers, and I’m always writing something!

Accredited Geneologists Ireland

A Slideshow of Recent Posts

Gorry Research introductory video now online

by | 22/01/2024 | Accredited Genealogists Ireland, AGI, Baltinglass, Carlow, Family History, Filmmaking, Genealogical Virus, Genealogy, Gorry Research, Graveyards, Keadeen, Kildare, Local History, Parkmore Studios, Professional Genealogists, Uncategorized, Wicklow, Wicklow Marketplace | 5 Comments

This blogpost is to let you know that there is a new introductory video about my research business, Gorry Research.  Maybe you’d like to take a look.  The one-minute ‘teaser’ is here and the full video (17 min.) will be found on the homepage of our website (just...
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Hungry Hill: Daphne du Maurier’s Fantasy Ireland

by | 06/01/2022 | Allihies, Beara Peninsula, Books, Castletownbere, Cork, Daphne du Maurier, Family History, Genealogy, Hungry Hill, Hungry Hill, Local History, Puxley Family, West Cork | 7 Comments

A few months ago I spent a weekend with friends on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork.  On our way from Glengarriff to Castletownbere we drove along the base of the bleak looking Hungry Hill.  It’s the highest mountain on the peninsula.  During our few days we visited...
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The Anglo-Irish Treaty’s Ancestor

by | 08/12/2021 | 1916, Easter Rising, Family History, Genealogy, Kildare, Merrion Press, Rootsireland.ie, Seven Signatories, War of Independence | 0 Comments

The signing, a century ago this week, of the Anglo-Irish Treaty echoed the signing of another document five years earlier.  The Proclamation of the Irish Republic was signed by seven men in Easter Week 1916.  It was, in a sense, an ancestor of the Anglo-Irish Treaty....
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My Name is Aloysius

by | 22/11/2021 | Aloysius, Aloysius Gonzaga, Aloysius O'Kelly, Forenames, James Joyce, John A Costello, Roman Catholics | 6 Comments

My second forename is Aloysius.  Throughout my childhood, youth and middle age I kept it hidden from most people.  I was embarrassed by it and I wasn’t a bit happy that my parents thought to lumber me with such an oddity.  It took decades for me to come to terms with...
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The Day My Grandfather Didn’t Become a Golf Champion

by | 08/09/2021 | Cecil Leitch, Ernest Carter, Family History, Golf History, Great War, Hezlet Family, Irish Golf History, Irish Golfers, Joseph Gorry, Kildare, Lionel Munn, Naas, Royal Co. Down, Vagliano Trophy, War of Independence | 0 Comments

A hundred years ago this very day my grandfather, Joseph Gorry, reached the zenith of his amateur golfing career.  Very probably for him it felt like failure.  The events of that day became the stuff of golfing legend in the family.  His daughter, Joan Gorry, was...
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Gordon Bennett!

by | 21/05/2021 | Gordon Bennett, Joseph Gorry, Kildare, Local History, Motor Racing, Naas | 0 Comments

Gordon Bennett !!!  This photograph was taken on Wednesday 1 July 1903 in South Main Street, Naas, Co. Kildare. What was happening was the weighing of the cars for the 4th Gordon Bennett Cup Race, the first to be held outside of France. The race took place the...
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Greer Garson’s Irish Credentials

by | 04/01/2024 | Butlers Bridge, Castlewellan, Cavan, Derry, Down, Drumalure, Family History, Genealogy, Greer Garson, Hollywood Stars, Kilrea, Kilrea, Londonderry, Timaconway, Timaconway | 0 Comments

Greer Garson was one of the great stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.  She was an Oscar nominee seven times, winning for Mrs. Miniver (1942).  Years ago the official story was that she was born in County Down in September 1908.  The studios often invented back...
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Resurrection! Baltinglass Chronicles – Back to Life

by | 27/09/2023 | Baltinglass, Baltinglass Chronicles 1851-2001, Local History, The History Press, Wicklow, Wicklow Marketplace | 0 Comments

Just look at what arrived today, in the middle of Storm Agnes! Back in December 2022, I posted about the demise of my book Baltinglass Chronicles, 1851-2001.  The last copies had been sold and it was now only available in the form of second-hand copies that might...
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IT’S BEEN A WHILE – Like 32 years!

by | 13/07/2023 | Computer Problems, Floppy disks, Genealogy, Mona Germaine | 0 Comments

In genealogy, you never know when an old client will reappear.  Often you have someone come back several times in a short space of time, leading to a succession of searches over a period of a few years.  Occasionally a client who had a single search done may return...
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Baltinglass Chronicles Consigned to History

by | 19/12/2022 | Baltinglass, Baltinglass Chronicles 1851-2001, Battle of Baltinglass, Books, Claude Chavasse, The Story of Baltinglass, West Wicklow Historical Society, Wicklow, Wicklow Marketplace | 1 Comment

On 16 December 2022 I sold my last copy of Baltinglass Chronicles 1851-2001.  What that means is that it’s now more or less out of print after a sixteen-year span.  On 14 December I received an order for a copy on the Wicklow Marketplace.  That went to someone in the...
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Time Travel – it’s 1975 again!

by | 11/03/2022 | Baltinglass, Baltinglass Chronicles 1851-2001, Claude Chavasse, Halloween, Juggies, The Story of Baltinglass | 0 Comments

Today (11 March 2022) my friend Cora Crampton showed me a photograph of a sheet of paper – the one in the image here.  It was in the back of a copy of Claude Chavasse’s The Story of Baltinglass (1970) which I gave her (or so she says) several years ago.  She...
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Talbotstown Church – something of a West Wicklow gem

Talbotstown Church – something of a West Wicklow gem

by | Nov 30, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

St. Brigid’s Church, Talbotstown, has a really beautiful backdrop, with the twin mountains of Keadeen and Carrig dominating the view.  The small car park beside the church is one of the best vantage points for admiring those mountains and for seeing Finn McCool and...

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The Eleven (or so) Daughters of John and Martha Stratford

The Eleven (or so) Daughters of John and Martha Stratford

by | Nov 19, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

There must have been much rejoicing when John and Martha Stratford’s eighth child arrived in the mid-1730s, about a decade into their marriage.  According to Martha’s second cousin, Pole Cosby, that eighth child, Edward, was their first son.  It is said that John and...

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McAllister – a monument with history

McAllister – a monument with history

by | Jul 6, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

At the age of 116, Sam McAllister is the oldest resident of Baltinglass.  He has stood at the centre of Main Street since his unveiling on 8 May 1904.  He has become a symbol of Baltinglass and even a minor place-name.  People often meet ‘at McAllister’.  Pop-up...

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Genealogy in the Time of Coronavirus

Genealogy in the Time of Coronavirus

by | May 19, 2020 | , , , , , , , , , | 0 Comments

  ​I haven’t been in a record repository for over two months.  That hasn’t happened to me since the mid-1980s, when I took six months off to supervise a parish register indexing project.  Even then I managed the odd trip to Dublin to feed my habit.  Right now I’m...

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Gorry Research,
Baltinglass,
Co. Wicklow,
Ireland
info@gorryresearch.ie

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