My major genealogy goal for 2015 is to organize and document my McDermott family, starting with the children of Peter and Ellen (Roche) McDermott who had emigrated to the United States. This will include, as far as I can tell now, John, Thomas, Richard, Mary, Margaret, and to some extent, David and Catherine.
My grandfather Richard McDermott disappeared from the lives of his children sometime between 1925 and 1930. Following the death of his wife on May 26, 1925, living arrangements became confused and the four children lived with various relatives or with foster parents and no one ever knew what became of Richard. Because we had a copy of his citizenship papers, we knew his full name and birthplace. Since McDermott is not a common name in County Cork, I was hopeful to make a connection.
My work on the McDermotts of Castlewrixon began in 2009 when I Googled my grandfather's name, Richard, and his birthplace, Charleville, County Cork. I turned up an email address for a Fr. Tom McDermott, stationed in Churchtown, but originally from Charleville. I emailed Fr Tom, explaining what I knew of my grandfather and asking about the possibility of being related. Time went on and I waited, but no response. After 3 weeks, I had pretty much forgotten about it, when I opened the reply from Tom, which started Dear Cousin Kathy, your grandfather and my grandfather were brothers!.
Tom went on to detail how he had checked with his uncle Michael and found out that my grandfather had been missing from their family also and they thought he had stayed in America and lost touch. I had been hoping he had returned to Ireland, so we were both disappointed.
As we corresponded it became clear that I needed to make a visit in person. My cousin Mary McDermott and I planned to come the following September and spend a week in Cork and Kerry before driving to Dublin for a research week with TIARA (The Irish American Research Association).
On September 25, the 92nd anniversary of Ellen (Roche) McDermott's death, Mary and I left Boston for Shannon. Thus began the great adventure.
Copyright 2015 Kathleen Sullivan. All Rights Reserved
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