Ginger, Brendan, and All,
I just happened to stumble onto this RootsChat when I Googled "Sigerson's Arms Hotel" and would love to share what information I have about the Sigerson (or as we spell it Segerson) family in Ireland. I am especially interested in making the connection between Sigerson Clifford and my family since discovering his poems and stories on my one visit to Ireland from Atlanta, Georgia, USA a few years ago. Tim Dennehy's musical versions of his poems, "Between the Mountains and the Sea", is one of my all time favorite CDs.
My great grandmother's maiden name was Ellen Segerson and she was born near Ballinskelligs around 1835 to Thomas and Ellen (Cary) Segerson. Her brother, Christopher had gone to the United States to study for the priesthood and when their father died around 1849 her mother, sisters and other brother joined him in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C.
Christopher Segerson did not join the priesthood but raised a family in Georgetown and is buried at Holy Rood Cemetery. One of his grandsons, Christopher Segerson Tenley, gathered a lot of family history from his mother and on visits with Sigerson family members in Dublin and County Kerry. I have copies of letters he wrote to my Aunt Virginia when she was planing to visit Ireland back in the 1960's. They are a store house of Sigerson history!
Our Irish Sigersons are descendants of the Viking Sigur Earl of the Oarkney Islands, who fought and lost to the Irish King, Brian Boru at the battle of Clontaf in 1014. We are also related to Dr. George Sigerson, physician and scholar of Irish literature, who was the father of the poet Dora Sigerson Shorter. And on top of that we are related to Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, as his grandmother (or great grandmother) was a Sigerson.
Would you be interested in copies of Christopher Tenley's letters? I have been planning to transcrib them for my cousins and could post copies if you are interested.
Mary