McInerney heritage search, Sixmilebridge, Ireland

Day 17

After a good night's sleep and another hearty Irish breakfast, I left the b&b on my mission, leaving Carol to rest happily in the room. I intercepted the Poffster leaving church, and we walked over to the records office next to the rectory. If I'm ever to find any trace of my grandfather it is going to start here, with a baptismal certificate, unless his parents were ex-communicated, which is always a possibility given the McInerney family track record. Be that as it may, Poff turned out to be quite the fountain of information. According to her records, Grandpa Mike was born on the 18th of July in 1889. His father's name was Pat and his mother's Mary, nee Egan. He was the sixth of nine children. The parish at that time was sub-divided into several districts. These McInerneys apparently lived as tenant farmers in the Cooleycasey section, a hilly area just south of Sixmilebridge.

Carol's ankle had repaired enough for her to hobble around the town, so we spent a few hours in the local Sixmilebridge library, a converted church, to continue the research. I found some old photographs of a teacher, Pat McInerney, with his class, taken in the 1920's. Quite possibly my great uncle, but can't be sure until I get more information. From the local records I was able to surmise that the more recent McInerney clan were numerous and on the whole, quite successful. I left the library with more questions than answers; for example, what happened to the old homestead? Are there any direct ancestors still living in Sixmilebridge? Would the title to the farm have reverted to Irish ownership after independence in 1922?

After tea and scones at our cafe on the river, I decided to drive around the Coolycasey area and look around for myself. Unfortunately, things have changed. There aren't any buildings or stores to denote its exact location. From the directions I received it was more of a wave of the hand in a general direction, more an understanding than a defined area. Not surprisingly we did not find any homes or farms with the McInerney name on any signposts or gates.

The next stop was the old graveyard at Ballysheen, a few miles outside Sixmilebridge. Again, we didn't have much luck. There wasn't any family plot, although there were several McInerney's interned there. It was difficult to say if they were the ones I was seeking, or an entirely different branch all together. Considering the level of poverty that my grandfather escaped, I rather doubt that his parents or siblings could ever have afforded a fancy burial and headstone. I just don't know what happened to them. Maybe there's another cemetery where the poorer folks go.

While strolling through the cemetery I thought I remembered my father mentioning when we visited back in 1969 that his grandmother's maiden name was Mary Egan. That fits. But the current problem with all this is that according to the baptismal certificate that I saw, Michael McInerney was born in 1889. This presents a huge problem because that makes him 10 years younger than he should be. In order for everything else I know about him to fit into place, arrival in the US and the birth of his first child, he could not have been born any later than 1879. So, I'm still not sure how next to proceed. Everything fits except for the date of birth. Perhaps somebody will read this and supply the missing data?