Hiya Peg and Jane,
Thanks for your responses so promptly.
First Jane:
Thank you Jane for your kind offer. We are especially interested in any oral history. It seems that there was communication amongst the family after the initial diaspora to Aust and to USA. We know that our direct descendants sold the farm in Ballynagleragh and left Clare but we hope that there are stories still. In particular we would like to know of any Patrick Mulcahy that would fit oral history at our Aust end. Also, there was an Annie Mulcahy from Killaloe who my great grandmother considered as close as a sister. It seems all the Mulcahy's made one grand family. I or my cousin Mick Livy will be in touch with you directly.
Now Peg:
First DNA - when you get your info from Ancestry, you will also get a list of people whose DNA is a close match to you. We may or not be on your list. However, there is a website called GEDmatch where you can upload your 'raw data' (you can download this from ancestry). The GEDmatch is a free site which then allows you to match your data against anyone else on the site. There are multitudes because it is not only Ancestry who do the DNA testing. We can find each other there and actually see which parts we match...there is also a Mulcahy DNA group - but I don't believe there are any Mulcahy's from our parish there.
Now, some good info for you. My cousin Mick Livy has been researching your Mulcahy's too. This is what he can tell you. There were two Mulcahy families in Ballyhurley, your direct ancestors and the ancestors of a Martin Mulcahy who is buried at the Melbourne General cemetery.
This is what Mick quotes from duchas.ie : "There were two families of the Mulcahys in Ballyhurly at this time Jim and Martin (brothers). Jim was succeeded by his son John, Martin by his son Jimmy. Jimmy died and his family emigrated to Australia. John is succeeded by his son Martin who is without issue." This information was from Sara (Sarah) Mulcahy who was recorded as part of an Ireland wide school intiative whereby school children were asked to speak to people about the local and family history and the local customs. This initiative occurred in the 1930s I think from memory. It is a rich source of information, but can be a painstaking process to read through it all to get the small nuggets of info.
To find Sara(h) Mulcahy, from duchas.ie , click on 'people', enter Mulcahy, enter Clare: there are 3 references to Sara.
To find Ballyhurley Mulcahy's, from duchas.ie, click on 'people', enter P F Lynch, enter Clare: there is the quote above and other bits and pieces. (P F Lynch was the school teacher at the time who was organising the oral history exercise).
Now, it gets confusing. Here is the research my cousin Mick did for you - based on the site Duchas I believe:
"The John mentioned by Sara Mulcahy on the duchas site, married Mary Brann.
The Jimmy mentioned was baptised as Timothy. Timothy married Bridget McMahon in 1867. They had 2 children Martin baptised 1868 and Bridget baptised 1870. Timothy died in 1870.
Timothy's widow Bridget married Thomas Malone in 1872. Bridget and Thomas emigrated to Australia about 1880 with Bridget's 2 children born to her and Timothy Mulcahy plus 4 children born to Bridget and Thomas Malone."
Mick spent quite a bit of time trying to untangle this Ballyhurley Mulcahy mess, he is quite an expert at disentangling our families. I get quite dizzy at it all because while they were separate families, they were obviously very much one large Mulcahy mob in practicality. with the diaspora it sometimes seems that even if you weren't a direct family member, if you were a Mulcahy from Clare in Australia in the 1850s, you were as good as family.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to recreate the families of that time and the lives they lived...
cheers,
Barb
