So I finally embarked on doing a little Genealogical research! My first step was to compile all of the information that I knew existed online. Everyone in every generation seems to have had a gazillion kids, so there are a lot of people involved, yet, comparatively, much fewer names because the people kept naming their kids after their siblings and aunts and uncles! So it's hard to keep track.

My first stop was the National Library of Ireland Genealogy Service. They gave me a few ideas of where to look for information. But I have to admit that it's all pretty confusing. We first tried to look at the marriage and baptismal records for the Parish where my ancestors lived, but holy moly the script was incredibly difficult to decipher, and you have to keep focusing the lens on the microfiche. After about an hour, we gave up.

I'm most curious about my Great Great Grandfather, Patrick Thomas Noonan. His wife and one of his sons (my great grandfather) immigrated to America in the 1880s, but we have no idea what happened to him. There is a family tale that he beat a stable boy to death for mistreating a horse. However there was also a family tale that he was a "rich land-owner," and thanks to the Griffiths Valuations, I now know that he rented his property and definitely did not own it. But there seems to be a persistent idea that he was committed of a crime and shipped to Australia. However in those days you could be shipped to Australia for very little. I have searched exhaustively many Irish Newspapers and haven't come up with anything. If he did something terribly wrong, it would probably be in the Newspapers, but I'm going to check some other court and transportation records. I have vowed to determine what became of Patrick Noonan! Sadly it's a bit of a common name so I have my work cut out for me.

I'll post any new discoveries!