As a genealogist, I get to share exciting discoveries with my clients about their family histories. But it often happens that I find something about my own family and have to do a lot of explaining before someone is interested, and then usually is just pleased for me!
Tonight I’ve hit on something potentially very exciting in my Tubbs family who came from Bruff, Co. Limerick. Cornelius Tubbs, my 4th great-grandfather appears in records from 1823-1848 in Ireland. The last one is the prep work for what would become Griffiths’ Valuation, but he’s not in the published version, so I assumed he died in 1848 or thereabouts. I periodically review each family and check all the genealogy sites in case there’s something new.
Searching for Cornelius tonight, I turned up a “Missing Friends” notice from the Boston Pilot in 1859. It mentions a Cornelius & Margaret Tubbs who left Limerick about 5 years previously for New York. Margaret was the name of my 4th great-grandmother. I cannot be sure yet if these are my ancestors, but it’s a lot of coincidences. More investigation required!
A second ad of the same nature adds 2 children: Cornelius and Mary.
This led on to some Civil War records for someone of the same name, who fought for the Union, came from New York and survived the war. He looks too young to be my ancestor but could be his son.
To sum up, I may have uncovered why I couldn’t find this family in the records in Ireland: almost all of them went to America. Indeed, their daughter, Bridget, my direct ancestors, seems to be the only one who came BACK to Ireland.