Getting Ready for Ireland 2017

The Quest continues to find Prendergast family in Ireland.

Following my very successful visit to Ireland in 2015 in the quest to find Prendergast ancestors, I have decided to continue my research by travelling back to Ireland in May this year.

I need to conduct further research to help answer the inevitable series of questions that have arisen since my quest began. A number of my blog followers have asked for information regarding the Prendergast ancestors and again I hope to sort the myths from the facts. Several fellow Genealogists have asked me to help them in their quest to find information regarding their families of  Ireland. 

So, I have decided to accompany people living in Australia with Irish ancestors to travel over to Ireland and to visit the repositories in the areas that their families once lived.

The Itinerary for the visit to Ireland in 2017 has been decided and is as follows –

We will depart Proserpine on 9th May, 2017 and fly via Brisbane to Singapore where we will break our trip with an overnight stopover and a visit to the National Orchid Garden.

We will then fly on to London, England where we will stopover for 2 nights and visit the National Archives at Kew as well as have a day trip out of London before flying on to Shannon in Ireland.

Upon arrival at Shannon we will transfer to Nenagh where we will stay at the Abbey court Hotel for the duration of the Conference.

The Conference is titled: Clans and Surnames of Ireland Convention and Conference and is scheduled to be held 15-19 May, 2017 in Nenagh, Tipperary, Ireland. All the details can be found on www.clansandsurnames.com/irishclans.  There is an amazing line-up of the most prestigious names in the genealogy world. 

I am delighted to have been invited to co-host a Workshop with Lorna Moloney scheduled for Thursday 18 May, 2017 entitled “How to take care of your family History” – Conservation and Collection care of your valuable family heirloom and documents. All the conservation research that I have conducted at the State Library of Queensland involving Rachel Spanno and the National Library in Canberra involving Scotia Ashley, as well as the experience I gained during our Library Workshop with our Preservation,Conservation and Restoration Skype will come in very handy for this Workshop.

I will then deliver a Conference paper on The Quest to find Prendergast Ancestry on Friday 19 May, 2017.This paper will detail all the thousands of hours that I have spent over the last three years researching my Australian Prendergast family and my Irish Prendergast family (with the 30 variant spellings of the Prendergast surname) both in Australia and Ireland.

Following the Conference we have been invited to stay for the weekend with Sue’s friends in Ennis, a well liked English doctor whom she worked with in Australia, his lovely Irish wife and beautiful children.This will be a lovely way to wind down before the next busy leg of the trip.

The Monday following we will take a train to Dublin where we will stay at a friendly B&B for 5 nights Archival Research at the Registry of Deeds, National Library, Royal Society of Antiquaries and Marsh’s Library where Dr. Jason McElligott has offered to organise a personal tour of Marsh’s Library for my group.

During our stay in Dublin, we will travel to Belfast for the day to visit Proni where Dr. Desmond McCabe has offered to “put together a nice display of documents for people to get their hands on before they get started” (on the day’s research). How exciting is this – and how privileged are we? If there is time left, we will visit the Linen Hall to check out the history of the Flax growing industry during the 1790s to view documents relating to my 5x Grandfather, John Prendergast.

We will also attend Mass at St. Nicholas of Myra, Francis Street Parish in Dublin in the hope that we can meet some living Prendergast relatives. I would so love to learn their story and find out how our families are related. I will be delighted to visit the lovely Sarah, the church Archivist who was so kind to me and has kept in touch with me since my last visit in 2015.

 

Following our visit to Dublin, we will travel down to Enniscorthy and will be staying at the Anam Cara Hotel.

In Enniscorthy I will meet Prendergast family members following Mass at St.Aidan’s Cathedral. This magnificent Cathedral was designed by Angus Welby Pugin, the famous designer of the Houses of Parliament in London.

I will also pay my respects to the Prendergast Ancestors at the Cemetery in Enniscorthy.

During the week there will be a very exciting event at the Enniscorthy Castle. I can now divulge my plans to host a High Tea at Enniscorthy Castle. Yes, that is right. With the permission of Mary O’Higgins I am hosting a High Tea on May 30, 2017 to thank the people of Enniscorthy for the warm Welcome Home they bestowed upon me in 2015.

This event is taking a lot of planning but I have a wonderful team in Enniscorthy working with me to bring it to fruition. Hopefully it will taste at delicious as the one I enjoyed (above) at Kensington Palace in London in 2015.

Representing the community will be Chairman Wexford County Council Paddy Kavanagh. During my recent road trip down the East Coast of Australia to trace Prendergast family members and Ancestors, I met with the Mayors/Administrators of the areas that my Prendergast family are accredited with being first settlers. They each gave me a warm letter of Welcome and gifts for the occasion.

 

I have a list of guest of those who will attend the High Tea. I will post the names on my blog once the invitations have been accepted. In the meantime, please watch this space as my plans unfold.

 

Our Research visit will end with our flight back to Australia. I will fly out of Dublin to Copenhagen where I will enjoy a two day stopover before continuing on to Singapore for another overnight and  a celebratory high Tea at Raffles with a “Singapore Sling” and then fly home to the Whitsundays

All in all it should be a wonderful adventure and I look forward to discovering more of my families of Ireland’s histories.

Sue, once we say a sad farewell in Dublin, will continue on and is excited about finding out about her family in Wales.I am sure she will have some wonderful tales to tell when she comes back to Australia.

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