Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday - A McTiernan Family

In October, I took a trip to Saint Bernard's Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.  It's a very old cemetery that contains, among other types, many late 19th century headstones for Irish families.  What's so special about these Irish headstones?  Many if not most of them include both the county and parish of birth back in Ireland of at least one of the family members.  Sadly, the cemetery is also suffering from severe vandalism, and this wealth of information may be lost in a matter of several more decades.

While at Saint Bernard's I took the following photographs of a McTiernan family from Drumreilly, county Leitrim, Ireland.  They are not my ancestors, but I do have McTiernan ancestry from either Leitrim or Roscommon that settled in New Haven.  Therefore, I may share common ancestry with this family.  Sometimes it's important to look at collateral relatives or potential cousins to connect the dots and find your own past.

My camera was malfunctioning, so I was unable to get a photograph of the bottom portion of the back side of the obelisk, which contains information on Margaret McTiernan, most likely the wife of Patrick Brady.


Main face of the McTiernan stone.
Photograph Copyright 2012.

Photograph Copyright 2012.
 In memory of
JOHN McTIERNAN
WHO DIED
Oct. 3, 1866.
AE 51.
He was born in 
Ballanaglaragh,
Parish of
Drumreilly,
Co. Leitrim, Ireland
May he rest in peace
amen.
ERECTED BY
his affectionate Sister
ROSE.


Right side of the stone. Presumably John's sister.
Photograph Copyright 2012.

Photograph Copyright 2012.
 IN MEMORY OF
ROSE McTIERNAN
WIFE OF
PATRICK DOLAN
DIED
NOV. 14, 1880[?].
AE. 72.
BORN IN THE PARISH
OF DRUMREILLY,
CO. LEITRIM, IRELAND
MAY SHE REST IN
PEACE.

IN MEMORY OF
MARK NEARY
Born Aug 10, 1865
Died April 20, 1889
May his soul rest in
peace, Amen.


Back side of the headstone.
Photograph Copyright 2012.
In Memory of
PATRICK E. BRADY
Born.
Jan. 13, 1844
Died.
March 29, 1882

MARGARET McTIERNAN
[...]

1 comment:

  1. Hello!

    I stumbled upon your post here by Googling for McTiernan and Leitrim, and thought I'd just leave a quick note.

    I'm a Tierney trying to figure out where my Great-grandfather Michael Tierney came from in Ireland. He came over to NY about 1880 and I've found quite a few documents for him so far, but nothing more specific than "Ireland" for an origin location.

    A family story mentions Roscommon but we have no evidence for that at all.

    My Family Tree paternal Y-DNA results have me most closely related to several McTiernans in that DNA surname group. My closest matches don't happen to know exactly where their families came from either, but some of the slightly more distant ones appear to be from the Leitrim areas you have in this post.

    Don't know where I'm going here, but thought I'd just wave and say Hi!

    I've written a couple of blog posts on my GGF, which you can read here:
    http://currach.johnjtierney.com/2010/10/michael-tierney-ny-policeman-part-1/

    Regards,
    John Tierney
    I'm also JJT over on The Twitter.

    ReplyDelete