Finding Home - August 2026

Shayna and Trace suggested a touring Ireland, so I decided to do a little ancestry side quest while we were there. My Great-Grandmother immigrated to NYC from CIreland in the late 1800s, and I was interested in visiting the area my ancesters lived.

Ellen Flanagan was born in County Cavan in 1863 and came to New York as a teenager. That was about all I knew when I started.

Ellen Flanagan Finn

Then I dug out a family history interview recorded by my brother in 1985. I started chasing names through Irish baptism records, census records and death records. I found some research a cousin had completed on Ancestry.com.

Eventually I found Ellen’s baptism: December 1, 1863, Templeport Parish. Parents John Flanagan and Margaret King. Residence: Ballynamaddoo.

Then I found her brothers and sisters. Six children altogether, all tied to the same tiny townland of Ballynamaddoo.

That was when I got a little obsessed. I wanted to know where they actually lived. Where did Ellen go to church? Where were her parents buried? Could I find the farm? The cemetery research points to St. Peter’s at Port, where Margaret was probably buried after her death in 1920.

St. Peters at Port, Cemetary

The best evidence for the family church points to Holy Trinity at Kildoagh, built in 1796. It may be where Ellen was baptized.

Holy Trinity at Kildoagh, built in 1796 is now abandoned.

Then came the land records. Tailte Éireann sent me 26 old valuation records and maps for Ballynamaddoo. At first they looked like pages of crossed-out names and colored handwriting. Once I learned how the revision system worked, one small holding became very interesting. Christopher Flanagan → John Flanagan → Margaret Flanagan → Michael Flanagan. We already knew from the Irish censuses that Margaret (my Great-Great Grandmother) was living in Ballynamaddoo with her son Michael.  So this little piece of land — holding 2a — may be the family home.

The Flanagan Farm was organized under the Rundale system, where a group of family members shared several plots of farmland in common.

This weekend we leave for Ireland. I’m taking the old maps with me. I’ve arranged to meet local historian Oliver Brady in Bawnboy, a few minutes from Ballynamaddoo. From there we’ll go out into the countryside and see what survives. I want to find the land. I want to stand in the church. I want to walk through the graveyard. And I want to know whether a house, ruin, foundation, lane or stone wall can connect the names in these records to a real place.

I may come home with answers.I may come home with better questions. Either way, the research part of this adventure is over. Now I have to go there.

Ellen Flanagan Finn with her Daughters Mamie and Margie.