Ireland: Day 5 – Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Today I spent the day researching my genealogy at the library. From the central library I was pointed to the reference library down the street, and from there I was pointed to the HSE where the birth certificates are kept. The birth certificate confirmed what I already knew about the location, but changed the birth date of my grandfather significantly. The “queue” for the certificate office is in the waiting room of the county dental clinic, strangely enough. It’s also where they register new births, so there was a screaming baby ahead of me in line. There was a machine that you pressed a green button on and it printed a “now serving” number, and a chime was played whenever they incremented the number on the sign above the door.

Back at the reference library I examined several sources, including the 1901 Census on microfilm, the Griffith Valuation for Dromore West (1857), and the four previous censuses from 1659-1861. From these I was able to gather that the Feeney surname once existed a bit east in the Barony of Tireril (that is, the area around Ballysadare) in the form of six family members using the O’Feeny name around 1659, and migrated westward towards Easky parish into the Barony of Tireragh, dropping the O prefix by 1857. There was also a good increase in the number of Feeney’s by this time. The Feeney’s in Owenbeg all added the extra “e” before the “y” between 1857 and 1901.

The library closes from 12:45-2:00pm for lunch so I spent the time browsing stores in Sligo town. I found a medium sized Sligo flag for 5 euro at the sports shop on the river, and a large Sligo magnet for 2.95 euro in the gift shop on O’Connell Street. I also printed photos at a kiosk in the Kodak one hour shop in the indoor strip mall off that street for about 50 cents a photo. The post office, at the north end of that street, is the first one I’ve found in Europe to have a good variety of special issue stamps.

I also discovered that both the reference and central libraries offer Internet access to the public for free if you happen to be in the area when they’re open. Just put down “visitor” in the library card number space on the sign-in booklet and have a seat.