Slides from John Tierney's talk on exploring the heritage of Ardmore in the era of digital research and publication. This talk is part of the www.reyndr.com project being developed by Eachtra in association with a number of community groups.

1. Ardmore Names
People & Place
Carved in stone
John Tierney
0872312107
john@eachtra.ie
http://goo.gl/HMqYDB
July 2013

2. In Thiepval my great
grandfathers name is carved
in stone overlooking that N
French landscape - here my
father sees his grandfathers
name - the first family
member to do so since John
Mahers death in July 1916.
Names carved in stone are
powerful connectors to
place.

3. Context by 2
• Community Genealogy
– The Gathering
– Ireland XO
– Historic Graves
• Over 30,000 historic grave memorials in last 3 years
• Working with community groups in heritage surveys

4. www.historicgraves.ie
In the past three years we have learned many lessons in community
heritage projects focussed on historic graveyards.

6. Powerful technologies are now
available to communities and
can be leveraged for community-
led purposes

7. The first Historic Graves work
was done here in Ardmore, with
Gerry O’Mahoney, Tommy
Mooney and Billy Harty
participating

8. Geotagged datasets
• Buildings
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouth_Heritage_Trail
– Bridges
– National Schools
– Secondary Schools
– Shops/shopfronts
– Factories
– Forges/smithys
• Places with family names attached – rich
memories
We now aim to apply the lessons
learned in geotagged surveys of
graveyards to other heritage
sites and places

9. 9
Modern smartphones with GPS built-in
allow us develop immersive heritage
tourism experiences -walk in the
footsteps of our forebears

10. Audio recorder
Zoom H2
GPS Camera
Sony HX GPS
Digital tools for local historians

12. We can take the Who was
Who approach and make a
record of every Waterford person
appearing in the historical record

13. We have built a digital system at www.reyndr.com
to enable groups and individuals to publish their
local histories - watch us build Explore Ardmore
http://reyndr.com/group/2170

14. Family names carved in stone
are primary historical sources -
here we see the names of
Ardmore families

16. Grange family names

17. Grange family names continued

18. Names & genealogical heritage and
tourism
Local
• Family names
• Placenames
• Crossroads
• Bridges
• Kilns
• Rivers & streams
• Cliffs & rocks
International
• Soldiers
• Teachers
• Nurses
• Police
• Coastguard
• Miners
• Clergy

19. Goldmines for genealogy and
local history - there are many
free resources which can be
used

20. National Archives - Sources

21. National Archives – Calendar of wills

22. Down Survey late 1600s – following the 11 year war

25. James Fitzgerald – Waterford properties
James Fitzgerald – Kildare properties

26. Landed Estates Project- Sources

27. http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

28. Griffiths Valuation
Ardmore Parish
Approx 1860
N=1350
A simple frequency analysis - the
bigger the surname the more
frequently it occurs in the dataset
(using wordle.net)

29. Griffiths Valuation
Grange Parish
Approx 301

30. Griffiths Valuation
Clashmore Parish
Approx 517

31. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

32. National Archives – Census 1901 -1911
These are the Gradys of Curragh in 1901

33. National Archives – Census 1901 -1911
Location of Gradys rocks – seaweed bed?
Local knowledge combined with
digital datasets - the red cross
marks the location of Gradys
rocks -remnant of 19th century
seaweed cultivation

34. 1901 Census
Lissarow townland

35. 1901 Census
Ballynagleragh (Clarkstown) townland

36. 1901 Census
Crushea townland

37. 1901 Census
Curragh townland

38. 1911 Census
Curragh townland

39. 1901 Census
Monea Townland
14 houses (excluding convent – 5 names)

40. 1901 Census
Kilknockan townland

41. 1901 Census
Ardmore village
CoI religious denomination

42. Is this a barracks?
Des Fitzgerald confirms PH is his
great grandfather P Hassett and
that this is the Constabulary
Barracks (RIC)

43. Stories & Narratives
Do not shirk the hard questions.
1918 Flu Epidemic
1920s epidemic TB?
-Poverty and health
War of Independence
Religious differences - cooperation and conflict.
Sectarianism? Class?

44. The ruined dwellings of our Irish
countryside are a resource for
local history and genealogical
tourism - bring the diaspora back
to see the home place

45. Griffiths Valuation tells us
Keanes and Barrons lived in
these structures in the 1860s

46. Patrick Keane
Duffcarrick
1860
Do this for all ruined houses in
the parish - local families know
who lived in many of these
homes

47. Aspire to do this for every historic
structure in the parish
add the layers of family names
attached to each home
eg. 2013-1950 – Whelans
1925-50 – Grady
1870-1919 - Troy

48. Other sources – UK National Arhcives

49. Ardmore men who joined
The Royal Navy in late 1800s
N-25

50. Coastguard station built early
19th
century Griffiths Valuation of approx
1860s seems to indicate the
following were living
adjacent to the station in
Duffcarrick. Combined with
their surnames does this
indicate these are the
coastguard families?
Peter Greene
Samuel Pyle
Anne Lawler
John Jones
Albertine Zehender
There is a headstone in the
roundtower graveyard
erected by Samuel Pile,
chief boatman of the
coastguard, to three of his
children who died in the
1840s.

52. Born in Ardmore, preceded by
sisters who died young and are
buried in Ardmore graveyard.
Sandy hair, blue eyes and 5.6 in
height. Samuel Pile died,
perhaps drowned, in the
Medway River in Kent in 1890

53. The headstone erected in
Ardmore graveyard by Samuel
Pile’s father for his deceased
daughter. Very high quality
memorial stone.

54. Other families with links to the
British Royal Navy.

56. Michael Mulcahy died on the
Indefatigable in May 1916
when she was sunk during
the Battle of Jutland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS

58. Every page in Tommy Mooneys
book on the War of
Independence in West Waterford
has details of people and places
where events took place.

59. Placenames

65. We can follow established
methodologies - like this field
naming project in Co. Kilkenny

66. or a county-wide survey in Meath
involving local historical societies

68. I always took this to be a
farmer’s pumphouse but it
seems to be the site of
Tobarnaveakle

69. Picnic spot at the tea
flag

70. Site of most name cuttings

72. Visick?

73. Appears to be K Gallagher 53 -
possibly done by local journalist

74. The Musgraves were very big
landowners in 19th century
Waterford
The O’Briens and Mulcahys
were local mixed farming &
fishing families

75. The Merricks had a shopping
arcade in Youghal -are there
from that branch of the family?
We need to double check the
date - is it 1858 or 1958?

76. Great grandfather to Tommy
Mooney (author of Cry of the
Curlew)

77. A family group of Foleys - where
are they all now?

78. 1797 may be the earliest
date

79. The e and the i of Tierney
are reversed. There is a hint
of a cross used as a
punctuation - could this be a
memorial inscription?

80. A key figure in the War of
Independence - George Lennon
is believed to have been
recuperating in Ardmore around
1922.

81. Local historian Siobhan Lincoln

82. 82
Connect with Waterford’s Diaspora
– A shared geolocated multimedia historical/genealogical database
• Using state, county and local datasets to list people (collaborate)
• Linking the data/people to places such as memorial stones, parade
grounds, barracks, factories, schools
• Enriched with video and audio stories

83. 83
Tourism Markets
– A decade of people focused commemoration
– Irish Diaspora
• By taking genealogical datasets into the real world we open up
the chance to follow in our forebears footsteps
– Commonwealth Diaspora
• Garrison Records have tens (and tens) of thousands of names linking
back to the UK and out to the broad Commonwealth
• Bring the Commonwealth Diaspora to Waterford to follow in their
forebears footsteps
• Phased extension to Irish diaspora related datasets
– Home
• Census Records
– Extract family names from the address records

84. 84
A Collaborative Strategy
– A collaboration between partners; local
authority, statutory authority, County Museum,
communities
– Personalise the story and differentiate
the experience. Engage communities and
visitors alike
– Local stories, local voices – a rich belonging
and a common heritage

85. Conclusions
• Heritage media creates a sense of place and identity for
community & visitor
• Build our own digital dataset using a Core spreadsheet
• Quality matters – medium quality images will suffice for
websites but you need high-quality photographs and
audio files for broadcast or print publication.
• Store all media (text, audio, video) in nested folders by
county/town/street
• Publish datasets for a variety of social media and tourism
oriented sites.

86. Conclusions
•Names carved in stone
•And printed in ink
•Local knowledge
•Genealogical datasets
•Leverage technology
•Community led

87. Ardmore Names - People and Place
St. Declan's Ardmore Pattern Festival is over a 1000 years old. Mid-Summer festivals like this take place all
over Ireland, and some even have their origins in prehistoric times. Such long-running festivals are rooted
in the community and the continuity in observance of the importance to St. Declan goes hand in glove with
other continuities. It is highly likely that a high proportion of the population of Ardmore and the surrounding
Drum hills have been living in this part of west Waterford for a very, very long time.
By exploring the family names, where people lived, schooled, worked, died and are buried we can develop
a rich understanding of who we are as a community. For example, who are the Quinns of Ballyquinn?
Where are the Martins of Ballynamertinagh? Who was the Aodh remembered in Crushea? John Tierney,
local digital archaeologist, will present some answers to these and other questions but also looks to the
community for help in recording the knowledge they have, aiming to pass it on to future generations.
As people lived within this coastal landscape what names did they give to their fields, farms, hills, streams
and beaches? Have the old names survived and to what extent? What names do the farming families of
Ardmore and surrounding area give to their places of work?
This talk is part of an ongoing exploration of the Ardmore landscape and its people. It builds on the work of
a previous generation of local historians but also aims to collect new information today. We will attach the
documentary evidence of placenames and family names to the landscape and augment this paper record
with the rich knowledge of the local people.
During the Pattern festival week John Tierney aims to work with members of the community to record the
names of places and the people of Ardmore, Grange and even deeper into the Drum Hills. The data will be
collated in an offline archive but will also build a freely available public database on
www.reyndr.com/exploreardmore. The broad range of evidence will be investigated at 6.00pm in the
Ardmore Round Tower Hotel on Thursday 25th July.