Baseball and Softball Collection

While on my bicycle each morning I am amazed by the assorted junk that is found in the street. Small things that I find such as coins, keys, broken cell phones, etc I save in an empty coffee can. One of these days I will lay it out and take a picture of that collection.  Because I ride through a couple of parks and schools I find quite a few baseballs and softballs. Here is my baseball/softball collection laid out in my garage.

This collection consists of thirty-four softballs, fifty-one baseballs, and one soccer ball. The soccer ball I found in the bushes beside the bike trail next to Lynn University. The most I have ever collected in a single morning was sixteen baseballs across the street from Parch Reef Park in Boca Raton. Because I had them stuffed in my shorts I had to go home to drop them off before continuing my ride. If I didn't, my shorts probably would have fallen off.

Bridget Hanley at Ellis Island

For the last couple of months the Ellis Island web site have had problems displaying the actual ships' manifests but today I noticed that it was working again. To get a copy of the manifest you have to purchase a copy for $29 or find a way to download it. The normal way to download a page is to right click and "Save page as ..." unless that function has been disabled. It is possible to just ignore the 'disabled' message and continue to download it. I have been able to do it using an Epiphany, a Linux web browser. Here is a copy of the manifest:

Bridget is passenger number 396. The manifest is from the SS Campania (a Cunard ship) that arrived in Ellis Island on June 22, 1895 from Queenstown, Ireland. Today Queenstown in Co. Cork is called Cobh.

Griffith's Valuation and the Hanleys

Griffith's Valuation was a survey of Ireland completed in 1868 by Richard Griffith, British Commissioner of Valuation. Because there are no true Irish census prior to 1901, Griffith's Valuation is the closest we have to a census for Ireland in the 19th century. In County Limerick the survey was completed at the end of June in 1853.

In Griffith's Valuation the townland of Glensharrold in Co. Limerick lists twenty-nine households and among them was a household whose head was Mary Hanley. Without a doubt this Mary Hanley was a relative of mine and probably a direct ancestor. If I had to guess I would probably guess that this Mary Hanley was the mother or grandmother of Thomas Hanley, my great-grandfather.

In the description of the tenement, some included just a house, others house and land, and others house and bog. The tenement held by Mary Hanley was described as just a house. The immediate lessor, that is the actual owner of the land upon Mary's house sat was Thomas Carroll. Most of the land in Glensharrold was owned by Richard M. Yielding. Mary's house was valued at nine shillings.

Among Mary's neighbors in Glensharrold were a few Aherns that we have seen in the census for both 1901 and 1911. In addition, one of her neighbors was an Egan - Bryan Egan.  (Another one that misspelled their name!)

A copy of the original sheet from the valuation may be found here.

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Sixty-five Years Ago Today

Sixty-five years ago today I was at a cottage near Braddock Bay with my family and my Aunt May and Uncle Eddie O'Brien. Sometime during the day the sirens at the fire house went off, cars driving down the street (probably Edgemere Drive) blowing their horns. The war was over!

I was probably not totally aware of what was going on as I was only six years old but I knew that it was big. Later that evening my father, aunt and uncle went downtown to see what was happening on Main Street. I'm sure that there were goings on there.

It is hard to believe that has been sixty-five years since World War II ended.