I’m trying to find a Nora Barrett who was born in Ireland, and may have a link to Nenagh.
All I know about Nora is that she was the birth mother of my closest DNA match Henry Vila. I took an Ancestry DNA test in 2018, and Henry Vila was my closest match. I knew nothing about him or where he lived as he had no personal information or tree on Ancestry but we had similar Irish ethnicity from our DNA. I tried to contact Henry but got no reply until last September when I received a short reply that simply said
“My birth mother was Nora Barret. She gave birth to me in NYC in 1930.” I noticed a small tree (just 3 people) had appeared on Ancestry, just showing Henry, his mother Nora Barrett born Ireland (no other details) and his father Rafael Vila.
Using the New York connection, I did some searching online and immediately found Henry Vila’s obituary and was shocked to see that he died on 2 September 2019, which was the exact day he’d sent me his short message. I don’t know the circumstances of his death but I found the timing of his message unusual and unnerving. His obituary is very detailed, I won’t post it here as it names descendants, but here is the beginning.
It is with great sadness that the family of Henry Vila announces his passing at age 89 on Monday, September 2, 2019 in Hilliard, Ohio. He was born on January 28, 1930 in New York City, where he lived and worked for 80 years. He was the son of Rafael Vila (1899-1944), the owner-operator of a barber shop in Upper Manhattan, and Nora Barett. He was raised by his father and his beautiful and beloved step-mother, Enid Eloise (Grey) Vila (1898-1986) who gave him love and kindness and taught him manners and self-respect.I find the wording on his obituary strange as Nora Barrett barely gets a mention (I’m surprised in some ways that she’s mentioned at all). I’ve since discovered that his father Rafael Vila was born in Puerto Rico and had married the “beautiful and beloved” step-mother in 1925, 5 years before Henry was born. I’ve found Henry on US census in 1930 and 1940 with his father and step-mother but I can’t find any likely Nora Barrett. I’ve searched US immigration records and passenger lists, and found several possible Nora Barretts (with name variations) from Ireland. I’ve tried to cross-check these to Irish births but found nothing conclusive for Nora. This is difficult without knowing when she went to USA, her age, her birth-place, her parents etc.
The reason I think there might be a Nenagh link is that my Irish connection is through my grandmother Catherine Mahoney, born 1888 in Nenagh. She came to Lancashire sometime after 1901 census and married my grandfather. Her parents were David Mahoney and Mary Barrett, married in Nenagh in 1884. Mary’s parents were Patrick Barrett & Catherine (unknown surname) who both died in Nenagh.
I would really appreciate any help finding Nora Barrett or any thoughts on this.
Thanks.
Malcolm
(I previously posted about this on the USA board in February when I was looking at trying to obtain Henry Vila’s death certificate to see if that would help, but that was not possible).
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=825800.0
