Debra
Joe,
Are you Melanie's uncle? She and I had a brief email correspondence about five years ago and she mentioned you, as the family genealogy expert. And was the farm that you mentioned in your story known later as uncle Henry's farm?
We are definitely working with the same branches of family,, closest to my heart. My fathers side of the family has been my main focus since I started researching the family tree. Michael L. Barrett, on your tree, was my Ggrandfather, his son Floyd Barrett was my grandfather, and Dean Barrett was my father. Michael L. was active in forming farm cooperatives in Ashland area. Floyd moved to California in the 1920s and worked as front gate security guard at Warner Brothers Studio for 30 years.
My cousin Drue and I visited Erin Prairie in September 2013, went first to the St Patricks Cemetery. It was a Sunday and shortly after we arrived people started arriving for the Sunday service, I regret now that we didn't stay until afterward to talkto people but we moved along to Ashland. The person who posted that find a grave file that you attached for Anthony, fossmeg on Ancestry is one of the experts on the Doughterty family. i have had ancestry conversations with her.
I have a townland map of Erin Prairie from 1860, and there they all are, neighbors, right near Anthony Barrett are Patrick Joyce, Patrick Gerity, Patrick Kelly, Bryan Deane, many many more I am sure they were all thrilled to have land to farm with Irish community all around them. I had a brief conversation from a Deane descendant whose grandfather was a best friend of a Joyce, my first cousin 2x removed, back in the early 1900s. I can send a pdf of this map if you haven't seen it.
Back to Belmullet roots-- Have you read Rita Nolans book Within the Mullet? Excellent background material. My contact there sent me a copy, she also has a (different) Anthony Barrett in her tree, and she showed my cousin and I the townlands where she believed our Barrett and Joyce ancestors lived, Shtaigh and Cartron when we visited there this March. We took lots of pictures and stayed with two third cousins (paternal grandmother in common) whom I hadn't met before.
I can still share my ancestry tree with you, though I am not active on that app right now, if you want to see it.
Have you done a paternal DNA? My cousin Mark did one, but it is an autosomal, and I still haven't figured out how best to use the results. I joined the Barrett DNA project and it looks to me like RM269 is a likely common number, but I am not sure.
Time to get out and stack firewood! Thank you for sending new information
Debra