Genealogy: Some Thoughts

I have two cousins and one shirt-tail cousin that I didn't even know ten years ago who have done incredible genealogical research. The shirt-tail cousin is Cindy MacSuibhne, a woman who married a Sweeney relative (the family changed their last name from the Anglicized "Sweeney" to the very Irish-Gaelic "MacSuibhne"). Cindy has done research into the Fitzpatrick-Broghan-Sweeney branches of the family, my mother's paternal side. Research on the Coughlin side has been pursued by Sam Galioto, Jr. Sam is a Coughlin descendant through my grandfather Connie Coughlin's sister. The other great family researcher has been Jack Pendergast, a 3rd cousin, who, like me, is a descendant of Daniel Coghlin (later "Coughlin") and Mary Crowley. Before Jack and Sam's research, all I knew is that my great grandfather Cornelius Coughlin was born in County Cork, Ireland. I didn't know his parents, Daniel and Mary, and I didn't know Cornelius had siblings, Jeremiah, Bartholemew, and Catherine. And amazingly, I didn't know the family had all settled in Scipio Town, Cayuga County, New York. I can't for the life of me figure out why that information didn't come down to me.

I think a lot of Jack's research has been done the old-fashioned way, sending for records and even combing through books, lists, etc. In fact, I think he has done research in parish and diocesan files in Ireland, trying to figure out where exactly in West Cork our Coughlin's came from (that puzzle has not been solved).

I have had an idea for using the power of Google searches to do some genealogical research. Recently I've been trying to use certain names in Google searches to see if these families show up in the same area in County Cork. I do indeed find families like Coughlin's, Crowley's, Lavin's, McCarthy's in West Cork. But here's an oddity: in my preliminary searches I have found a cluster of these families outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee [check out http://www.tngenweb.org/hamilton/cemetery/catholic.htm]. The Mt. Olivet Cathlic Cemetery, three miles outside Chattanooga, lists a Daniel Crowley from County Cork (1810-1860), Rose Coughlin, Patrick and Bridget Lavin, and Joseph McCarthy--and lots of other Irish and Cork names. I still need to pursue these searches more and follow up on them. I think the intelligent use of Google can help in genealogical research. And in coming years more and more records are going to be available online. I know that lots of critical Irish records were burned and destroyed (I think in the 1916 Rising and the civil war that followed). But I imagine that people are trying to cobble together remaining bits and pieces of land and church records, and some day we might be able to access this material via computer.