This was a lovely visit to Ann's home this morning. Alison had been communicating with her for some time now on Facebook, but this was their first face to face meeting. They had a lot of information to share on the Feerick side of the family, with regard to the family who lived in the Ballinrobe area, where Ann herself came from. Ann's family actually still live there, and we had visited there on Alison's previous visit to Ireland in 2010.
After leaving Ann's in Loughrea, we continued on our way to the Ballinasloe area where the other side of Alison's family came from. We had a good deal of information but were not certain of the name of the townland where they lived. We knew that it was near Ballinasloe Golf Club so we made for there first of all. Nobody recognised the townland name but then when we mentioned Glan, an abbreviated version of the long name we had, we had instant recognition and we were on our way. We did not have far to go and in a short time we had found St Matthew's church where John Walshe had married Isabelle Howie back in 1845. This was Alison's great grandfather and once again we had struck gold.In the picture above you see Alison at the entrance to the church in Glan.
The plaque on the wall at St Matthew's church in Glan.
St Matthew's, high on the hill overlooking a long valley. This turned out to be a great day all in all and we were well satisfied with our discoveries. Tomorrow we head south to Cobh, the harbour in Cork from where the vast majority of our emigrants departed for the USA. Once again we may be following in the footsteps of Alison's ancestors.
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