Tom and Laura meeting long lost relatives in Connemara

Today was a most exciting day, as this was our day to visit Inverin in Connemara. This was the place Tom's family left behind when they emigrated to the USA back in the eighteen hundreds. We had very little information, but the fact that i am from the Galway region some twenty miles from Inverin, i at least knew where Inverin was. 

The first place i stopped off at was the church in Tully, near Inverin, as i felt that this church was the closest one to where the family may have come from. In the picture above, we have Tom standing outside the church.

I have a friend living not far from Inverin, and he knew of one family by the name of Tom's Inverin relatives who had lived in that area. He gave me a rough idea of where they might have lived, and we set off in search of that place.

We made our way there and we drove down a narrow side road towards the shore line of Galway Bay. The day was beautiful, and the views from this place were just magnificent, with the calm blue waters of Galway Bay, stretching over to the hills of county Clare, and the Burren, and the Aran islands, clearly visible at the mouth of the bay. What a wonderful place Tom's family left behind.

Then the miracles began to happen. The lady in the second house i called to, was so nice and friendly, and after giving her the small bit of information we had, we discovered that we were at the right house. We had found Tom's cousin Ann.

In the picture above we have, from the left, Tom, his newly found cousin Ann, and Tom's wife Laura.

Ann welcomed us into her home, and was just as excited as the rest of us at this wonderful story unfolding. She made tea for us, and there was cake, and she and Tom talked about all that they knew of the family's history, which was not easy, as their ancestors had left back in the eighteen hundreds.

Ann told us that her husband, Oliver would know a lot more than she did about the family, as he had done some research on the family history, and she invited us to return tomorrow and meet Oliver, and he would be only delighted to fill Tom in on all that he knew. 

What a miraculous day this was, and i know that Tom just could not believe what had happened. 

Tomorrow should be another great day for Tom and Laura, and we are all looking forward to our return visit.