Hayes Family

Hi Margaret,

Thank you very much for your message. I hope that someone who is connected to this family contacts you and help you with your research.

Given the dates you have mentioned in your message you should be able to find Patrick and Mary?s marriage certificate and Delia?s birth certificate in civil records as civil registration began in Ireland in  1864. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records up to 1958 online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

You could also try looking in Church records. You may be able to find Patrick and Margaret?s birth/baptismal records here. Also, it may be useful to see who acted as sponsors at Delia?s baptism. Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Killaloe  parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Clare&parish=Killaloe&churchid=793

As you can see from the above link there are copies available at Clare Heritage Centre. Here is their email if you would like to contact them however a fee may apply: clareheritage@eircom.net

Also, have you tried looking in the 1901 census records to see if you can find Delia? I did a search for Delia Hayes in Co. Clare and here is what came back:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=hayes&firstname=delia&county=Clare&townland=&ded=&age=&sex=&search=Search&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=

Clare Library?s Local Studies Department have an excellent collection of resources pertaining to Clare, it may be a idea to contact them or visit their website:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/genealog.htm

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/library/local-studies/locstudi1.htm

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Family Search: www.familysearch.org

Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/clare/index.html

I hope some of this is helpful. Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,    

Genealogy Support

Hi Margaret,  The Thomasina which you are referring to is my aunty her name was Thomasina McKeogh she was my fathers sister.   Your great great  grandparents were William McKeogh and Bridget Healy and Mary Mckeogh was my great grandfathers sister.  Regarding the question you asked about Lua Niall his grandmother was Honara Niall and she was Mary and Michael McKeoghs sister.  My grandmother lived on the phibsboro Road and there used to be a lady, her daughter and son in law and grandchild which used to visit her they were from Australia and they used to also go to Killaloe.  Two of there names was Margaret but I am unsure of the other 2's names.  Hanora Nialls son was called Mitchell Niall but he was christened Michael J Niall.  there was a child that he reared and she went to Australia so I presume that was the child Delia Hayes Fritas my family alsways spoke about her and her husband drowned in the Mail boat ship in Dublin he is buried in Grangegorman Cemetry Blackhorse Avenue Dublin 7.  You can view his grave on the website for free.  My grandfather was Jack Mckeogh.  If you would like to get in touch with me you can.  I have a lot more information which I can give you.  Kind Regards Jean 

Hi Jean. Thank you so much for the information you have just sent.  Wow, I can't believe the timing to your post re my family from Ireland, as I am coming to Ireland next month!  I am aware of the Australians who did visit Ireland many years ago, they would have been my grand parents, my aunt and her young daughter.  A very long story short is that my aunt and cousin (who both live in the USA) were given, as a Christmas gift surprise from my cousins husband, a trip to Ireland. I was talking to them on the phone about 10 days ago and they said "come with us". I said no ...it is too far, 36 hours of travel. But I have changed my mind. So without them knowing I have actually arranged a trip to Ireland (I finalise all the travel details today). I have decided to surprise them and catch up with them in Ireland. I fly into Shannon airport on the 8th February late in the afternoon....and they arrive early the next morning. We are staying in Newmarket on Fergus. As I said they do not know that I am coming to Ireland, so I do not know if they have a planned itinerary, but the reason for their visit is to research more about our ancestors. I haven't even asked ....are you living in Ireland?  If so, would we be able to catch up by phone or in person? We all leave on the 12th. They are returning to the USA and I am going on to Europe. Once more thank you for your information and I look forward to hearing back from you.  Kind regards from Australia,  Marg

Hi Margaret. Yes I live in Dublin Ireland. Would love to meet up with you when your over. I have lots of information I can give you. If you would like to email me directly and then we can exchange phone numbers and organise meeting up when you arrive to Ireland. My email is jeandoyle0@gmail.com look forward to hearing from you. Take care Jean

Hi Margaret, I see you met my cousin Jean. Thomasina was also my Aunt. I'm Kieron mc Keogh, son of Tony mc keogh who was a young brother of Thomasina. I received a cache of documents last year, some letters from Delia Freitas I think. Attached is one. Let me know if you get this?   

Kieron here again.

Is this you in the picture? -

Hello Kieran,

I am so sorry I am only responding to your messages now....but I have only just found them. My aunt Barabara in America has been talking to Jean in Dublin and she told me that there were messages, but every time I went on to Ireland Reaching Out I could only see Jean's message. After searching I finally found your message and photos.

I am absolutely blown away that you have letters and photos that my Great Grandmother Delia sent back to Ireland, and that you have a photo of me at 9 years of age, that was nearly 50 years ago. WOW. 

I had never seen a photo of my grandmother and her brother Michael together, so thank you so much. I have forwarded these on to Barbara. 

My aunt, Barbara, who lives in Texas USA knows a lot more of the Irish side of our family than I do.

Our side of the family is that we are descendents of Delia Freitas, who was the daughter of Patrick and Mary (nee McKeogh) Hayes. Delia was born in 1883 and stayed in Ireland with the McKeogh family when her parents went to Australia in 1894. Sadly her mother died in 1891 and Delia came out to Australia in 1902. She married Leonce Brault aka Peter Freitas in 1905. Peter was in WW1 and was on the Leinster ship that was torpedoed in the Irish Sea in October 1918 and he is buried in Grangegorman Cemetery Dublin. Delia never went back to ireland and died in 1968 in Sydney Australia. Delia and Peter had 3 children. Their first child William died aged 3 months, then there was Michael and then my grandmother (Barabara's mother) Mary aka Marie. Michael passed away at the age of 27 from cancer in 1937. My grandmother had 3 daughters, my mother Noni, Patricia and Barbara. 

I am sorry I can not send more info at the moment, but I have to get off to work in 10 mins. But once more thank you so much for the photos and info. I can't believe that you and your family have kept them for so long...especially when you don't us. THANK YOU

Margaret Nelson

Dear Noni, Kieron & Jean:

I am delighted to see that you have all made a family connection through the Ireland Reaching Out message board and it is wonderful to read the comments that you have shared with one another.

I was wondering if you would consider creating an Ancestor profile of some of the family whose photos you have shared.  There appears to be a wonderful story about the letters that were sent back to Killaloe from America.  You can create a profile at the link at the top of the page marked "XO Chronicles" and then go to the section about People.  You can create an ancestor (or as many as you wish) from that section.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please let me know.  My email address is:  jhalloranryan@irelandxo.com.

Kind regards,

Jane.

My Pleasure Margaret. The Picture of Michael and Mary is funny. Their angle of their head seems a bit stiff.I thinks thats because the photographer used a "posing stand" to keep the subjects head steady. Im just just glad you finally got to be reunited with these artifacts from your family. It can be bit demoralising scanning in so many picture and letters not knowing if anyone will ever see or recognise and remember them. Can you write me your email address please? I have these photos and more in a "Google Photo" archive waiting for you to access. I just need to give you access priveleges as I have Jean and my brother Aidan.

Yours Kieron mc Keogh

Hello again Kieron,

I have had the hardest time finding your messages again!!! I have no idea why. I must be going through a "blonde" "senior" moment!!!

Anyway before I forget, as requested,  my email address is margmn60@gmail.com

Since I last messaged you I have been to the Texas USA  (in May) to see Barbara, Christi and Omar. They told me all about you all meeting up in Ireland. They said it was all so much fun. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you in Ireland. They had invited me, but I had already booked a 3 week holiday to Alaska and then a week in Texas... I couldn't quite fit in a side trip to Ireland. 

I think it is strange that over 100 years after my great grandparents left their families in Ireland that we are all able to reach out and connect the dots. I have been doing my family ancestry research on Ancestry.com for the past 6 years or so. It has been absolutely fascinating. As I said to Christi, most of her/my ancestors went to their graves with their secrets hidden....and now the internet has enabled me to unearth a lot of their stories. 

Of all my family research the Hayes/ McKeogh's were the most familiar to me as my grandmother, Marie Todd, had already known most of the information, and had told her daughters. So a lot was word of mouth.

Being in Australia can make it a little hard to do research as our country is only a couple of hundred years old so most of my research has to be found in overseas data bases.  Sometimes I'll being following a promising lead and then realise I have made a wrong turn....d'oh. 

Anyway Kieren I just wanted to thank  you for the wonderful photos, and I agree the photo of my grandmother and her brother look very bizarre. 

And please let me know if you and/ or your family come out to Australia, I live in a very popular tourist spot called the Gold Coast. My city looks like a cross between Hawaii and southern California and we have the most beautiful beaches on the Pacific Ocean, I'd be glad to show anyone around.

Marg