Cousin Robert Barry from Rathcormac, County Cork, just sent me some interesting details he’s recently turned up on a common ancestor.<\/p>\n
Ellen (nee O’Connor) Arnold was married to Bartholomew Arnold. It appears that he did not survive The Famine. On the Griffith’s Valuation (basically, a tax census) for 1852, we find multiple entries for Ellen! It looks like she was renting tacts of land from the local landlord and sub-letting them! I now have five records of this taking place. Not a bad way for a young widow to make a living.<\/p>\n
This is my father’s mother’s maternal great-grandmother! That is getting pretty far back there for my tree. I know that some of you have trees stretching back to the early days of Rome, but that isn’t me! So, I am pretty excited about this discovery.<\/p>\n
The name Arnold seems to be an Anglicized version of Arnell, which is still in fairly common use in the area. At first blush, this appears French, no? Well, it is. Norman-French, actually. Which in the south of Ireland (Cork) would make lots of sense and not be at all out of place. But, it is also an Anglo-Saxon name, stemming from the German words for “eagle” and “rule”. BUT, it is also an Anglicized spelling of an IRISH name! This time coming from O’Neil, the famous Irish Clan that all the DNA testing says I belong to. But, if you know your basic Irish history, you would scratch your head and wonder how this particular spelling of O’Neil came to find itself in Cork. The O’Neils were based in Ulster (NOT Northern Ireland…that came about only recently). Well, I just learned that a troop of the O’Neils came down out of Ulster to assist in kicking the Danish Vikings out of Limerick. They took a liking to the area and settled down. The southern border of Limerick mates up with the northern border of Cork, which is where this particular Arnold family happened to live. But, I know a little bit about this Viking battle. It took place along the River Shannon, which is the northern border of Limerick, so…? The whole country is the size of the state of Maine. Settling on one side of a town in Maine and ending up on the other side of that town several hundred years later is probably not outside the laws of probability. Will I ever know for sure which international flavor of Arnell these guys were? Probably not. But it is still mildly interesting to think about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cousin Robert Barry from Rathcormac, County Cork, just sent me some interesting details he’s recently turned up on a common ancestor. Ellen (nee O’Connor) Arnold was married to Bartholomew Arnold. It appears that he did not survive The Famine. On … Continue reading