Corr Family from Ireland, part 2

I was planning to post a few days ago but my asthma has been getting the better of me.  Sometimes I feel as if my nebulizer is just an extension of my body.  Anyway, enough about me.


Well as you know, I found Thomas Leo Corr on the passenger list landing in New York.  Showing this to the grand kids they thought maybe he lied about his age he should be older then is listed.  He was running from the law for supplying the "bad" army with guns.  I figured it was possible, people didn't always know their birthdays others just lied.  I guess having huge "Sweet Sixteen" parties back then wasn't as important as it seems to be today.  The gun supplying thing I could look into...maybe there was a warrant out or something.


I figured if I could find a birth record or something.  Little did I know how much was missing in Ireland records.  So much was destroyed over the years during wars with England and the religious wars.  Yes, Ireland took a census every year for many years some were even very detailed.  The only ones left after everything is 1901 and 1911.  To think I complain about the U.S. 1890 census being destroyed at least we have all the others.


I took a chance and looked in the county he had listed on the passenger list.  In 1911 in County Monaghan, house #5 in Church Square in the town of Monaghan you will find the James Corr family with a 6 year old child Thomas Leo Corr.  This age would put his birth about 1904 which agrees with the ship passenger record.  This census also gives me information about the rest of the family.


Check out the links in order to see the wonderful information found to help me along with this families history search.

1911 Census of Ireland

As you can see the father James Corr (which was the name they had listed in the family bible) was a Cattle Dealer and Victualler.  Not sure what a victualler was I had to look it up.  One definition was, a person who sells provisions to an army another was Grocer.  Which would go along with supplying things to the "bad army" like the grand kids thought.  I think providing the enemy with anything even beef/meat would be looked down on.  On the next page, Form B - House and Building Return, it shows (# 5) had a "shop" on their property.  So he probably had a butcher shop or something similar.

1911 Census - House and Building Return

I was happy to report my 1911 census findings to the grand children and they seemed very happy with what I found for them so far.

I am doing a lot of reading about Ireland and the area the family came from in order to better understand where they are coming from.  Would you know it I found a mess of Reilly's living by the Corr family.  It would be funny if that ends up being my hubby's family.  His Reilly's haven't been in this country very long either. Hhhmmm.  

Corr Family from Ireland

Here they are the couple that started this quest for family history knowledge by their boys.

Well, after a few weeks again of not hearing anything and just about giving up on the Corr family I was contacted once again. Debbie Corr, Matt's wife ran over to my home with an old family bible in hand. She turned it over trusting me to take great care of it since it is falling apart. She tried to photocopy it - but it just didn't work. I took the Bible and promised to be careful.

The first thing I did after was sit it down on the table and take digital pictures of the opening pages that let us know when and where it was made. I then turned to the family info pages and took pictures of each page. Then the family treasure was closed up and placed it inside an archival storage box I had. I figure it should be safe in there till I get it back to the family. I plan to give them the box to help keep it safe.

I am posting the pictures of some of the family pages just incase someone reads this and can find a link to help share history with me and other members of the family.

After entering all the names and information into my FTM program, I started a quick search on Thomas Leo Corr who was the Corr family known to have immigrated to good old USA. It didn't take very long for a ship passenger manifest to come up. There he was the first name on the list Thomas Leo Corr, last residence was Managhan, Ireland and his father is James Corr just like the family bible said. I quick saved that to a file and shot a quick email to both Matt and Joe Corr telling them about what I did with their bible and the attached first bit of information I was able to find on their Corr family.



I will update more on my searches in the morning. Have a wonderful genealogy dream filled night.

On the Principle "Anything is Better than Nothing"

Home Decorating - by a Genealogist

Well you are probably scratching your head wondering, "How does someone obsessed with family history decorate?"  OK, probably not but I figured I would show you anyway. 

Lets start with the dining room.  Some people might think it a bit strange to have pictures of tombstones hanging up near a dining table.  I believe tombstones are "art" in a way and a lasting memorial to all the ones we love.  The small collection of gravestone pictures are from both my family and my husbands.  The heart shaped stone in the middle is for my father-in-law who only lived to be 26 years old before he was taken away from his family to be with our heavenly father. You will see him in the top left picture playing with his train set.  That is one thing my husband remembers about him.  His love of trains. He shares the stone with his father who passed away eleven years later. The young man in the picture below my father-in-law was his older brother Michael Reilly.  Mike passed away at a young age also.  He was only 19 years old when he died.  I just couldn't imagine being their parents watching their two young sons die before they really had a chance at life.  I pray all the time that I will never have to deal with that heartache.

The next spot is my "reading area"  it is in the room next to the dining room.  I picked up this wonderful "FAMILY" picture at Boscovs for only $17 and thought it would be a perfect addition to my reading room.  Yes, on the floor next to my chair is the doggie bed.  They just have to be by me at all times so they get their own little spot.  You say, "What does a genealogist read?"  Well, reference books on genealogy, of course.    also have a good amount of history books to help place my ancestor in certain time periods.  My imagination sometimes runs wild thinking about how gg-grandpa or ggg-grandma fit in to certain eras.  That side table is also a file cabinet.  I keep all the "Ancestors" I am researching at the moment in that drawer so I can pull them out and look over the notes and sources I have on them.

The rest of the wall displays are throughout my house.  On top of the piano you will see pictures of my son and nephew along with pictures of me and hubby when we were little.  Oh yeah, can't forget "Hamburger" the fish.  Johnny named him, what a silly name for a fish.  I am not very artistic so I use decals on the wall to imitate painting or stenciling.

My "Family marriage" wall ends with present generation with hubby and I in the middle.  Our parents are next up, grandparents and then great grandparents.  I didn't have wedding photos for everyone but dug up the couples pictures I was looking for to include on my wall.  I do have a few more I would like to add.  I am afraid it would overcrowd the wall so I might start another collection of the older generations. 

We have been in this house for 3 years now.  I am still not finished with all the rooms.  It takes me a while to decide on furniture, carpeting, etc.  Every room will be decorated with personal meaning and family.  I plan to decorate my husbands office with a large "Antique" world map.  He travels a lot with business and this way he can mark all the countries and states he has been.  He is also a marathon runner and I plan make a few shadow boxes to display his medals, certifcates, finish line pictures, runners bibs, etc.    We just picked out the furniture we were getting just have to find a truck to borrow to pick it up.  I also have the area rug picked out just need to have it delivered as well.

That is my home decorating for now.  I do have a few other "family" walls and such but I didn't want to completely put you to sleep. 

Thanks for reading.