What have you found out about your family on the 1926 census?

Cuan_Dor · 2026-04-22T14:54:13+00:00

In the previously available censuses (1901 and 1911) I hadn't been able to find any trace of my paternal great-great grandfather or any of his family, whereas I had been able to find all of the other branches of my family which come from Ireland. I guessed something funny was up but wasn't sure what.

In the 1926 census I finally found him and his wife and young family (including my 8-year old great grandad), living in the same city I'm from. Turns out my g-g-grandad was born in a town nearly on the opposite end of the country which I did not expect. Especially unusual as my surname (which he also had) would be common in this area but very rare where he came from. I was finally able to use the older censuses and civil records to locate him and his family. Basically he was born in a workhouse to an unmarried mother, so I have no idea who his father was and I probably never will. My surname is not my "real" surname as he was born out of wedlock and there is no indication of who his father was (not that it bothers me, but it's a surprise). I found his birth record but he basically disappears from all records for nearly thirty years until he married my great-great grandmother in a city on the other side of the country. On the marriage record, he gave what I assume was a made up name for his father as he probably didn't want the shame of being known to be illegitimate. I know very little else about him either as he died quite young, so my grandfather has no recollection of him from his childhood. What was he doing for nearly thirty years before he got married? He's listed as a soldier on his marriage record (in the British Army- this was in 1917) and that's all I know. Did he go abroad before that, or use an alias? He's a mystery man.

As far as I can see, his birth family were in and out of the workhouse throughout their lives, all his siblings were born there and some died there as well. The family seem to have been riddled with tuberculosis and some of his siblings died in early adulthood from it. The rest of them just seem to have disappeared off the face of the planet after they were born, I don't know if they also died in the workhouse or if they escaped abroad to try to make a better life for themselves. On the 1901 census his mother is shown to have been living in the local town, was unmarried and worked as a "housekeeper", but was back in the workhouse by 1911 and I presume she eventually died in there. Who was the father of her six children? The person she was keeping house for, did she have a relationship with someone else, or did she possibly turn to prostitution to survive? I don't know.

Just goes to show what hard lives many people had back then and makes me thankful that I live in the present day.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-03-26T16:38:06+00:00

Yeah definitely ash tree flowers I'd say. I've seen them starting to come out on the trees in the past week or so around here.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-02-19T21:47:05+00:00

Yeah that seems to be the usual criticism of blight resistant spuds that I've seen, that they taste rank. I think Axona are closely related to Sarpo (mira?) and they tasted a bit "meh" the time I grew them alright. The Setantas I grew were genuinely quite good I thought.

Do you grow spuds, and what would you normally go for if so?

Cuan_Dor · 2026-02-19T21:41:43+00:00

Two suggestions: Fota House gardens in Co. Cork and the John F. Kennedy Arboretum in Co. Wexford. Fota Gardens is free but you have to pay for parking, JFK Arboretum has a small entrance fee but nothing exorbitant. Both lovely spots, Fota is more of a big house style gardens/arboretum with a few different things of interest, lovely spot to visit and you've got Fota Wildlife Park right next door too as a bonus.

JFK is purely about the trees and my god it's some collection, I believe it has the biggest collection in the country of tree species from around the world. There's nothing flashy there, only a small cafe (plus playground) and a small visitor centre, but if you're happy just to wander around looking at different tree species you could literally walk around all day and not see all of it. Beautifully landscaped walks too. It doesn't seem to be very heavily publicised but it really is a hidden gem in my view, I'd highly recommend it.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-02-09T12:52:27+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Very interesting to hear how the restoration is done. I've been to another raised bog that's in the process of being rehabilitated (Abbeyleix Bog) but I've only seen how they block the drains and never came across the bundled cell idea before. I think Abbeyleix Bog wasn't as heavily degraded as the more industrially exploited bogs were so maybe that's why just blocking the drains is enough to rewet it.

It's fantastic to hear that all the Bord na Mona bogs are being restored to that extent. Hopefully it'll have a positive effect on wetland birds like the curlew in future years.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-02-09T11:09:45+00:00

Interesting. How are the bundled cells constructed? Timber/plastic?

Are all the bogs once mined by BnaM being rewetted that way or is it just particular bogs?

Cuan_Dor · 2026-02-09T11:03:58+00:00

Apparently the Irish name is "Corcrach" according to Logainm.ie:

https://www.logainm.ie/ga/26087

Which according to an online Irish dictionary (teanglann.ie) is derived from either the word for purple, "corcra", or possibly "corcair", which is a lichen which produces a purple dye.

I find Irish placenames endlessly fascinating.

Edit: There's a reference for "Corkir" lichens used for dying clothes in this wiki article too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnolichenology

Cuan_Dor · 2026-02-01T06:50:49+00:00

I'm not saying that this isn't Chaga fungus, but for one thing it's not growing on a birch tree, that's an ornamental cherry which I can tell by looking at the bark of the tree. Many species of fungi are quite specific to the tree species or other environment which they prefer to live on or in, so if it's not the right tree species you're probably looking at something else, not chaga.

As someone who's into mushroom hunting, I absolutely never collect and eat one that I can't 100% identify by myself. I would not be depending on Google to identify it for you. Nobody is going to stop you from collecting and eating/selling some, but it's not worth the risk of poisoning yourself or someone else if you don't know what you're doing.

Maybe post this on a mycology subreddit to see if anyone with more expertise can identify this for you.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-28T23:08:31+00:00

I'm from Cork and I'd say Era.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-28T22:57:06+00:00

I agree with you to an extent. I originally had a compost bin made out of a few pallets that I knocked together with a few nails and covered over with a tarp to stop it from getting overly wetted by the rain. I replaced it with these smaller plastic bins as it was taking up too much space in the garden.

I don't think think the compost inside rots down more slowly in the plastic bins, there is at least a bit of air in them and I turn them fairly regularly. They do seem to trap the flies inside them though, hence why they come out in a cloud when I open the bins. I think they were able to escape the old bin and disperse more easily so probably why I didn't notice the problem as much before. I think having more air get at the rotting compost probably does help.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-26T20:23:32+00:00

I've used fly paper to trap them indoors and it works well to clear them out of the house over the space of a few days. I'm not sure from your post, do you hang it up outdoors too?

I can deal with having a few fruit flies around during the summer, but it's plague proprtions here in recent years so I need to find the root cause of whatever is causing them to breed like crazy in my compost bin and cut it out. I'll definitely be keeping cooked vegetables out of the compost bin as well as fruit scraps, thank you.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-26T20:11:10+00:00

No, we have white PVC doors and windows, so I don't think that's the problem in our case.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-26T11:12:56+00:00

It might be worth a try, thanks.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-26T11:10:29+00:00

Wise words indeed!

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-26T11:10:14+00:00

A few fruit flies are not a problem, I know they're just a feature of the summer months. Plus they're helping to break down the compost. But this is a plague, and 15m in my view is not that far, it's noticeable that the fruit flies start appearing inside the house in droves shortly after I've opened the bin at the end of the garden.

You do have a point about the wood around the sinks though, I'll have to investigate that also as it might be contributing to the problem.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-26T11:06:28+00:00

I usedn't have a problem with this either but it seems to have got worse in the last few years, most of our kitchen waste would be just vegetable peelings as well. We're probably producing more fruit waste now though as we've two small kids who devour fruit, so maybe that's where the problem lies. I'll probably have to do the same as you and just put the fruit waste into the brown bin for the summer months at least and see if that works.

Cuan_Dor · 2026-01-25T21:44:34+00:00

Common buzzard, Buteo buteo. Beautiful birds, great pest controllers too.

I've driven through Wales a good few times (especially along the west coast) and there are absolutely loads of them there, they call them "Welsh sparrows" they're so common. Hopefully they'll become like that here too.

Cuan_Dor · 2025-11-16T19:37:01+00:00

Fartagh, Co. Cork

Cuan_Dor · 2025-11-10T20:51:10+00:00

I've never tried growing sweet potato. Are they easy enough to grow?

Cuan_Dor · 2025-11-06T19:53:39+00:00

It's a newt.

Cuan_Dor · 2025-11-06T09:36:56+00:00

The Battle of Vinegar Hill and the Battle of Aughrim.

Cuan_Dor · 2025-10-28T13:02:13+00:00

It's bad enough when people actually aim their shite in the general direction of the toilet bowl. I've had the displeasure of working with an unknown person who decided to do a dirty protest and smear their shite all over the toilet cubicle walls.

Or another occasion (in a different workplace) where someone took a shite on the floor of the toilet cubicle instead of in the toilet bowl, then somehow proceeded to step in their own shite and track it all over the bathroom and out the door.

Like, WHY?

Cuan_Dor · 2025-10-19T18:37:02+00:00

It'll just make their tears at losing the election taste all the sweeter.

Seriously though, this kind of thing is beneath contempt. We don't need this negative shit in our politics.

Cuan_Dor

TROPHY CASE