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« on: Tuesday 31 December 19 12:10 GMT (UK) »
Just checked my profile and it was November 2009 when I discovered this great site. At that stage I was through 15 frustrating years searching limited sources available to solve mystery that opened in 1994 when we discovered mother and her twin brother were "adopted". This was 20 years after mother had passed away. I had no interest in family tree until this mystery opened but a month after I found this site the Irish Government did a remarkable thing, they made available a terrific source online, the Censuses for 1901 and 1911. People familiar with the site will agree its exceptional and even freakish, its free of charge ! This meant I took a great interest in family tree research and then I think it was 2016 the Government made available FOC images of BMD certs covering certain periods. I became totally hooked on family tree but still getting nowhere on tracing the twins true origins. In the year 2011 it all began to happen, have 20000 words on my first draft of the journey since the mystery opened in 1994 but will just mention important dates. Would love to say hard work and brilliant research aided by sites like this solved my mysteries but really it was all luck.
In 2011 I learnt there was an attic in family home I never knew about. wasn't there when I left to get married moons ago. In a dusty box I found a birth cert for the Uncle and a baptism cert for the twins second baptism.
In 2013 browsing the BMD records of the church where first baptism happened, these are ledgers not digitised as yet, I paused for a moment going through the baptism ledger and out of corner of eye I spotted the name Ruth and thought "Oh some with same first name as mother was baptised here" Looked at next entry and it was the name Rupert, nearly had a heart attack on the spot. The parents name were given as Matilda and Patrick Walsh. This was all happening in moments and I went from joy to sick. Then looked across page and the address given was the birth address in Liverpool. Remember I am looking at records of a church in Dublin.
In 2016 we were at an Over 50's show here in Dublin that had a few genealogy stands including Ancestry and My Heritage. Never looked seriously at DNA but as someone who loves a discount I bought a kit from Ancestry who had special offer. Got a couple of matches months later but in August 2017 I struck gold. A name I knew nothing about turned out to be a 1st cousin with the same grandfather, one Patrick Walsh.
The rest is history as they say. Now have 4 biological grandparents and Patrick Walsh after his twins married someone else and produced 10 more children. Two of those children are still alive so I have half aunt and half uncle, also have 45 1st cousins.
Its a rags to riches genealogy story and my fellow enthusiasts here will understand why I am trying to put the story in book form to explain it all to myself. The only weakness left is finding what happened in the life of my Uncle Rupert Darlington/Jack Derwin/Adams/Walsh. When I applied for State Pension here in Ireland they had every detail of my employment record from time I began work. The Irish State Pensions Dept say they have no record of Jack and I have to believe them, not fully I hasten to add. The UK State Pensions say Data Protection rules prevent them helping out.
Sorry about being long-winded but had to explain a bit more in the hope someone on this site just might make the right suggestion and help me close the last brick wall in my family tree journey.
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