RootsChat.Com

Hi John,

That would be lovely thank you.  I will send you a personal message with my email address.  Everyone has been so lovely, I've been talking to Anne, Mairead, Joe, Jack and Val via email and have been sent lots of info and photos, its a dream come true!  I'm hoping to get over to Ireland next year with my sister and meet up with you all at the family gathering and raise a glass to the Sheridans.

Many thanks

Polly

Oh My Goodness - I'm totally overwhelmed.  All these years of wondering and trying to find things out from snippets of info and how absolutely wonderful to hear from you with confirmation of everything and so much more besides.  Thank you so much Anne and Mairead for taking the time to reply to me and Neasan for forwarding this all on to you.  I was straight on the phone to my sister and mum to tell them.  It's so great to hear all about your family.  My dad always said he thought he had a lot of cousins in Ireland - how right he was!  It's nice to know that John and Pat kept in touch up until just before John passed away, and that he and Martin came over to see my Grandfather.  I'm so pleased about that, because I always wondered why Pat came to England, why he had left all his family behind, at least I know they were all still close which has made me happy. 

I did find something on the internet a while ago about a John Sheridan who was lost at sea and I remember wondering if it was a family member and it turns out he was my G-Grandfather.  Amazing.  I can't remember where I saw it, but I will definitely have another look and see if I can find it again.

My Grandfather, Pat, did settle in Charlton, London, where he lived the rest of his life passing away on 16th July 1944.  He married my Grandmother in August 1927, a widow named Mary Ann Martin (nee Courtney) who he met on his journey over from Ireland, she was on her way over from Cork.  He was 42 when he got married so he left it quite late to start his family.  Pat continued the work he had been doing in Dublin, and was a bottle maker in a factory in Charlton.  He had two sons, as I mentioned before, John and my dad Pat.  John married and had three children and my dad married and had me and my older sister.  During WWII Pat was an air raid warden, and the family were bombed out of three houses.  As a result there are no existing photos of Pat as everything was destroyed in the bombings, which is probably why we had so little info about him too.  As I said Pat passed away in July 1944, not as a result of the war I might add.

It's such a shame my dad and my Uncle John are not here for me to tell them all this.  John passed away in his 50's, but before he died he came to Ireland to try and do some family research but he found it hard with so little info and didn't manage to find anything - now we find it much easier thanks to the wonders of the internet! 

It's so lovely to hear from you, it would be wonderful to hear anything more that turns up from chats with your Auntie or your cousin, you've already made such a difference, thank you. 

Wow!  I'm still flabberghasted! 

Thanks so much again,

Polly   

Hi neasanoc, thank you so much for replying to my post.  If we are talking about the same John Sheridan (which it seems is very possible) that would mean my dad would be your grandparent's first cousin (if I've worked it out right!) and Martin's first cousin too!

My Grandfather's parents were John Sheridan and Margaret Thornton who had (to my knowledge) four children, Catherine (b. 1882/83) John (b. 1883/84) Patrick (b.1886) and Joseph (b. 1892/93).  I wonder if this matches up with the parentage of your John Sheridan?

Just briefly to fill you in, my Grandfather (Patrick Sheridan) left Dublin some time between 1911 and 1927 and came to England.  My last trace of him in Ireland is the 1911 Dublin census and then after that his marriage certificate in London in 1927 to my Grandmother who was from Cork.  They had two sons (John and Patrick (my dad) - obviously not very imaginative when it came to names!!) and he passed away in 1944 when my dad was 13.  As a result of my dad being so young when his father died we knew nothing about his Irish family except they came from the Sandymount area of Dublin and we don't know why he came to England in the first place.  My dad unfortunately passed away in 2007 and his brother, my Uncle John, has also passed away some years ago.  Its always something that has nagged at the back of my mind that we knew absolutely nothing about our Grandfather's family and I've therefore been trying to find out as much as I can from such little information.  My sister and I went to Dublin this March and found his baptism at the Star of the Sea Church which has given me some more leads.

If my Grandfather was actually Martin's Uncle, Martin may have known him before he left for England.  I don't suppose he every mentioned a long lost Uncle Patrick who disappeared to England?  Bit of a long shot I suppose but anything's worth a try!!

If you're able to confirm anything from your or your family's knowledge I'd be most grateful.  It was lovely to hear from you and I'm so pleased that you now know John was responsible for the hoops, it is indeed something for you to be proud of (and maybe me too if it turns out I am related to him too).

With best wishes,

Polly 

Thank you KGarrad and aghadowey for taking the time to reply. 

aghadowey, I've been amazed and so interested to read the info on the link you posted regarding John Sheridan's suggestion to change the Shamrock Rovers' strip to hoops.  I do think that the John Sheridan referred to could well be my Great Uncle due to the reference to his son, Martin.  In the 1901 census my grandfather Patrick is living with his older brother, John Sheridan aged 17, in Irishtown Road, John is an apprentice to bottle trade.  In 1911 I have found a John Sheridan living in Thorncastle Street (which I believe is the next street along from Irishtown Road), aged 26, glass bottle maker.  John is living with his wife and his son Martin (who appears to not yet have reached his first birthday).   This John Sheridan would have been the correct age, the area is correct and the occupation tallies up too to be my Great Uncle.  My grandfather in 1911 was living with his older sister Catherine and younger brother Joseph in Rope Walk Place.  On this limited information I think that maybe the Shamrock Rovers' John Sheridan could well be my Great Uncle - what do you think?  Just as an aside, my dad's older brother, my Uncle, was called John Sheridan too.  Thank you for posting this link, its amazing what a chat to a cab driver and a posting on Rootschat can turn up.