My Holmes Family History

My Family Tree

2026-10-19T17:39:23.740+01:00

My Ancestors

Kevin Holmes (me)

Tom Holmes (1937 - 1991)

Tom Holmes (1910 - 1972)

John Holmes (1880 - 1952)

John Holmes (1837 - 1927)

John Holmes (1801 - 1852)

Benjamin Holmes (1762 - 1837)

John Holmes (1730 - 1802)

Hannah (- Unknown)

Mary Barley (1778 - 1808)

Ann Arthurs (1807 - 1882)

Richard Arthurs (1769 - 1849)

Ann

Anna Lee (1847 - 1941)

George Lee (1819 - 1881)

Samuel Lee (1779 - 1860)

George Lee (- Unknown)

Edward Lee (- Unknown)

Jane Edward (1760 -)

Mary Macklin (1787 - 1859)

James Macklin (1760 - Unknown)

Catherine Murta (1770 -)

Pamelia (1815 - 1885)

Albertina Zimber (1881 - 1928)

Aaron Zimber (1851 - 1901)

Vitus Zimber (1822 - 1893)

Josef Zimber (1792 - 1860)

Josef Zimber (1755 - 1831)

Martin Zimper (1728 - 1798)

Mathias Zimper (1687 - 1754)

Jakob Zimper (1650 - Unknown)

Christian Zimper (1629 - 1692)

Martha Beringer (- 1697)

Ursula Tränkle (- Unknown)

Anna Nopper (1694 - 1731)

Johann Nopper (1660 - 1733)

Christian Nopper

Maria Wiss

Katharina Kury (1662 - 1736)

Susanna Kury (1731 - 1763)

Maria Kury (- Unknown)

Katharina Fischer (- 1835)

Salome Hummel (1817 - 1877)

Josef Hummel (1785 - 1867)

Johann Hummel (1767 - Unknown)

Maria Bäuerle (1767 - Unknown)

Agatha Föhrenbach (1780 - 1842)

Bartholomäus Fehrenbach (1755 - 1808)

Jörg Fehrenbach (1737 - 1782)

Maria Dilger (1737 - Unknown)

Verena Hummel (1746 - Unknown)

Jakob Hummel (1698 - 1784)

Josef Hummel (1655 - 1738)

Lorenz Hummel (1602 - 1685)

Maria Faller (1619 - 1669/70)

Jakob Faller (1592 - 1667)

Theis Faller (1550 - 1602)

Thomann Valler (1500 - 1564)

Hans Valler (1502 - Unknown)

Margaret

Gertraud Tuffner (1500 - Unknown)

Veronika Mark (1550 - Unknown)

Hans Mark (1530 - Unknown)

Maria Rombach (1518 - Unknown)

Klaus Rombach (1480 - Unknown)

Magdalena Kirner (1480 - Unknown)

Rosina Wagner (1587 - 1663)

Brigitta Beha (1655 - 1724)

Thebus Beha (1622 - 1692)

Brigitte Fackler (1627 - 1707)

Elisabeth Kopp (1700 - 1750)

Elizabeth Ashmore (1857 - 1894)

John Ashmore (1829 - 1913)

James Ashmore (1797 -)

Daniel Ashmore (- Unknown)

Elizabeth Burchill

Jane Narbert

Ellen Pope (1827 - 1873)

John Pope (- 1850)

Mary O'Flaherty (1908 - 1971)

William Flaherty (1871 - 1948)

John Flaherty (1848 - Unknown)

James Flaherty (1814 -)

Nicholas Flaherty

Mary Riordan

Margaret Henderson (1823 -)

Thomas Henderson

Catherine Kelly

Mary Long (1828 - Unknown)

John Long (1797 - 1865)

James Long

Elizabeth Keating

Bridget Sheehy (1793 - 1834)

Edmund Sheehy

Mary

Margaret Reale (1873 - 1950)

Tom Reale (1844 - Unknown)

Thomas Reale (1800 - 1864)

Mary Fitzgerald

Mary Quinn (1846 - Unknown)

Richard Quinn (1815 - 1891)

John Quinn

Mary Mayberry

Catherine Hiland (1821 - 1886)

Olive Kirwan (1941 - 2007)

Edward Kirwan (1898 - 1959)

Edward Kirwan (1863 - 1914)

Patrick Kirwan (- Unknown)

Maria Kavanagh (1865 - 1927)

Patrick Kavanagh (- Unknown)

Stephen Kavanagh

Margaret

Catherine Maginn

James Maginn

Maria

Bridget Nagle (1907 - 1993)

Michael Nagle (1868 - 1945)

John Nagle (1819 - 1895)

Michael Nagle (- Unknown)

Mary Mannion (1839 - Unknown)

John Mannion (- Unknown)

Mary Larkin (1869 - 1918)

Rody Larkin (1833 - 1892)

John Larkin (- Unknown)

William Larkin

Elizabeth McKeogh (- Unknown)

Tim McKeogh

Catherine Courneen (1837 - Unknown)

William Courneen (1798 - Unknown)

Denis Courneen (1760 -)

Roger Courneen (1726 - 1799)

Margaret Courneen (1765 -)

Honorah (- Unknown)

Edward Kirwan & the Struggle for Irish Independance

2026-10-05T17:30:00.000+01:00

Edward Kirwan - C Company, 3rd Battalion, Irish Volunteers

My grandfather Edward Kirwan was seventeen years old when he took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. He was born in 1898, the eldest son of Edward & Maria Kirwan of Duffy's Cottages, Camden Row, Dublin.

Studio portrait of Edward Kirwan in Volunteer dress

His father, also called Edward, was a British Army veteran who served with the Cheshire Regiment in British India, much of it in the North-West Frontier region in what is now Pakistan. Following discharge, he worked as a driver with Kernan & Co. Mineral Waters of Camden Street, but was injured in an accident and was unable to work. His mother, Maria, had a small shop in Old Camden Street, though this appears to have been later; she was living there by 1926. Edward Snr died in 1914 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. Around the time of the Rising, Edward was employed as a storekeeper.

The funeral of the Fenian veteran Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in August 1915 became a major nationalist demonstration remembered particularly for Patrick Pearse’s graveside oration — ending with the words “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace”. Edward attended the funeral, but I am not sure whether he was present in Glasnevin or whether he saw the funeral cortege as it passed through the city.

The Ashmores of Waterford: From Painters to Portlaw and Curraghmore

2026-09-29T17:36:00.000+01:00

When I began looking more closely at Elizabeth Ashmore, the first wife of my great-great-grandfather Aaron Zimber, I knew relatively little about her. She was born in Waterford in 1857, married Aaron, a German-born clockmaker who had settled in New Ross, and died in 1894 after what was described as a long illness.

Elizabeth and Aaron raised their family in New Ross, including my great-grandmother Albertina. After Elizabeth's death Aaron married again, to Isabella Crowley, another Waterford woman.

At first the two women appeared to belong to quite separate parts of Aaron's life. Research into the Ashmore family, however, has uncovered a family with deep roots in Waterford and a long association with the painting trade, followed by a move into the distinctive community around Portlaw and Curraghmore. It was a world with which Isabella Crowley's family also had connections.

Portlaw in 1933

The Waterford Ashmores

The Ashmore family can be traced in Waterford back into the eighteenth century.

In September 1777, Daniel Ashmore married Elizabeth Burchill at the Cathedral of The Holy Trinity, Christ Church in Waterford. Their children included John, Daniel, Samuel, Alexander, Joseph and James.

Daniel is the earliest member of the family I have so far found associated with what would become a remarkably persistent family trade. In Pigot's Directory of 1824, Daniel Ashmore of Peter Street, Waterford, was listed among the city's painters, plumbers and glaziers.

Joseph Zimber: From New Ross to Montreal

2026-09-09T12:58:02.854+01:00

Joseph Zimber was one of three children of Aaron Zimber (1851–1901) and Elizabeth Ashmore (1857–1894). Aaron was a clockmaker who had emigrated to Ireland from the Black Forest region of Germany. Joseph's sister Albertina (1881–1928) was my great-grandmother, while his younger brother Fred Zimber (1887–1915) would eventually travel much further afield before losing his life during the First World War.

The family had already suffered considerable upheaval before the children reached adulthood. Elizabeth died in 1894 and Aaron in 1901. By the time of the 1901 census Joseph and Fred were living in New Ross with their stepmother Isabella.

Joseph Zimber (1883-1905)

Joseph did not follow his father's trade. By his early twenties he had trained as a printer. A report published in the Wexford Free Press shortly after his death records that he had been employed in the printing establishment of Moran Brothers, North Street, New Ross, and had just completed his full term of apprenticeship before leaving Ireland.

His younger brother Fred had also left Ireland for Canada in the summer of 1904. But the circumstances of Joseph's own departure suggest that another person was much more important to his decision to go.

Josef Hummel of Neukirch: Faith, Revolution and a Divided Community

2026-09-07T12:35:56.203+01:00

A Village at the Edge of Revolution

The Revolutions of 1848 were a wave of liberal and nationalist uprisings that swept across Europe, challenging established political orders. In Baden, the movement became particularly radical, culminating in an armed republican uprising in 1849 before being defeated by Prussian-led forces.

In the small Black Forest village of Neukirch, these events were not distant constitutional struggles played out in Frankfurt or Karlsruhe. They unfolded through village meetings, militia levies, disputes over local government and, in the case of Josef Hummel, a deeply personal conflict over religion and political authority.

Neukirch

Josef Hummel (1810–1870) was a watchmaker and watch trader who became mayor of Neukirch in 1847. During the upheavals of 1848–49, he would find himself caught between competing political and religious loyalties.

Relatives in the 1926 Census

2026-09-02T14:33:48.469+01:00

The following is a list of relatives appearing in the 1926 census of Ireland.

Co. Kilkenny

My great-grandparents John & Albertina Holmes along with their children Pammy, Tom, Jack and Fred, in Charterschoolland, Kilkenny

Co. Wexford

Their eldest son George Holmes, boarding in Main Street, Wexford

Co. Kildare

John's brother Samuel E Holmes and his wife and daughter (both Eleanor), in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare

An Introduction to My Family History

2026-09-01T15:29:37.000+01:00

My name is Kevin Holmes. I am originally from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, and now live in Limerick. I have been researching my family history for nearly 30 years.

My interest began when I was given a substantial amount of family information compiled by my grandfather's cousin, John Holmes of Monasterevin. His research into the Holmes family of Co. Laois and Co. Kildare provided the starting point for my own investigations. Further information and assistance came from Richard Holmes in Australia and from other members of the wider Holmes family, including my distant cousin Dianne Friden in California.

The same has been true of other branches of the family. My own research uncovered part of the Zimber story, but it was another distant cousin, Martin Zimber in Canada, who provided the vital information connecting the family in Ireland with the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, in Germany. Paul Dold, Jürgen Sterk and Corinna Zimber subsequently provided further information about the Black Forest families.

The internet has transformed family-history research during the years I have been working on it, making possible contacts and discoveries that would once have been extremely difficult. This blog grew from a desire both to share what I have found and to make contact with others researching the same families.

People, Places and Stories

What began with the Holmes family has gradually developed into a much wider collection of family stories. The people featured here came from very different backgrounds and led very different lives. They include labourers, railwaymen, soldiers, shopkeepers, clockmakers and jewellers; people who remained close to where they were born and others whose lives took them across the world.

Their stories encompass different religious traditions, migration, war and political upheaval, work, sport, art and everyday family life. Geographically, they stretch from Laois, Kildare, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Dublin to the Black Forest in Germany, Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and Fiji.

The main family stories currently on the blog, together with some of the areas I am still researching, are grouped below.

The Holmes Family

The Holmes family is the central line of the research. The earliest evidence currently points to north-east Laois and the adjoining areas of Kildare and Offaly, with a long-standing Church of Ireland background and later Methodist connections.

The Zimber Family

The Zimber family brings the research to the Black Forest of Baden-Württemberg, where several generations were involved in clockmaking before family members migrated to Ireland and Cornwall.

The Kirwan Family

The Kirwan family was based in Dublin. The story of Edward Kirwan Snr follows him from working-class Dublin into the British Army and later back to civilian life, while a another article examines his son's role in the period of Irish independence.

Edward Kirwan Snr – Military Career
Edward Kirwan & the Struggle for Irish Independence
The Kirwans and Kavanaghs of Dublin: When a Name Is Not Enough (forthcoming)

The Waterford Families

Several family lines converge in Waterford, including the O'Flahertys, Ashmores and Quinns. The Quinn story, including Richard Quinn's possible experience on the goldfields, forms part of this wider Waterford group.

Ashmores of Waterford
Richard Quinn – Gold Rush Miner?
O'Flahertys and Other Waterford Families (forthcoming)
Mary O'Flaherty – Dancer (forthcoming)

The Nagle Family

The Nagle family research centres on Nenagh, County Tipperary, where the family can be traced through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The stories range from ordinary family life to the very different experience of Martin Nagle, who served as a Garda before his unexplained death in 1925.

Nagles of Nenagh (forthcoming)
Sergeant Martin Nagle (1902–1925): A Nenagh Garda and an Unsolved Mystery (forthcoming)

Other Family Connections

Some articles look at the family as a whole rather than following a single surname, using the records that survive to place individual families within their wider context.

This is an ongoing project. Some branches are now reasonably well documented; others remain a mixture of records, family traditions and unanswered questions. As further research fills in the gaps, new stories will be added here and the connections between them will hopefully become clearer.

About the Research

The research draws on civil and church records, census returns, newspapers, military and other archival sources, DNA evidence, photographs, family papers and memories.

Family history inevitably contains uncertainties. Where a connection or identification is not established, I try to distinguish between what the records demonstrate, what family tradition tells us and what remains a possibility. New evidence occasionally changes the picture, and older articles may therefore be updated as further information comes to light.

Much of the research has also been collaborative. I am particularly grateful to the relatives, researchers, historians and others who have shared information, photographs and research over the years. Many of the stories on this site could not have been reconstructed without their help.

My own family lines also include the Kavanagh family of Dublin; the Reale, Long, Ashmore and Quinn families of Waterford; the Larkin, Mannion and Courneen families of Tipperary; the Arthurs and Barley families of Laois; and the Lee family of Offaly and Westmeath. Some appear only briefly at present, while others may provide stories for future research.

On my wife Helen's side, the families include Kelly of Laois, McCarthy of Cork, Sheedy of Tipperary, Cronin of Cork and Limerick, and Dineen of Cork.

Get in Touch

One of the reasons for creating this blog was to make contact with others researching the same families. I am always interested in hearing from relatives or anyone with information, photographs, documents or corrections relating to the people and places featured here.

If our research overlaps, please feel free to get in touch.

Edward Kirwan Snr - On The North West Frontier

2026-07-10T19:00:00.000+01:00

A Dublin Labourer's Son

Edward Kirwan was born in Dublin in late 1863 or early 1864, the son of Patrick & Catherine Kirwan, and grew up in the parish of St Catherine’s in the densely populated inner city. His early life was shaped by the working-class environment of Dublin in the mid-Victorian period, where labouring work was common and military service offered one of the few structured routes to stable income and travel. By the age of 18, he had enlisted in the British Army, joining the 1st Battalion of the 22nd Regiment of Foot (later the Cheshire Regiment) in Dublin on 26 August 1878. At enlistment, he was recorded as 5 ft 5½ in tall, with a fresh complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes, and minor scars on his forehead and forearm. His profile is consistent with the broader pattern of Irish urban recruitment into the British infantry during this period, particularly from Dublin's working-class districts.

Soldier of the Empire

After initial training in Buttevant, Co. Cork and home service, Kirwan was deployed to India in October 1879. This placed him within the North-West Frontier military system at a time when British forces were consolidating control following the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880). His service record situates him within a network of interconnected cantonments rather than a single fixed garrison. These included Peshawar, the principal frontier headquarters and administrative hub; Nowshera, a forward staging cantonment exposed to malaria-prone lowlands; Cherat, a hill station used primarily for convalescence and recovery from illness; Ambala, a major rear-area cantonment and depot; and Allahabad, part of the wider imperial logistics system through which troops were processed into and out of Indian service. Within this system, soldiers were routinely rotated between stations, often in response to operational requirements, climate, and health rather than formal combat deployment.

British soldiers on the North West Frontier c 1880

Witches in the Family: The Tragic Fate of Bartle and Waldburga Faller

2026-06-20T18:02:00.000+01:00

Family history often brings unexpected discoveries. While tracing my Faller ancestors from the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany, I came across a darker chapter from the 17th century: two members of the family — Bartle and Waldburga Faller, the brother and sister of my 9th great-grandfather Jakob Faller — were executed after being accused of witchcraft in the Freiburg area during the height of the European witch trials.

Their story came to me only in fragments (see the graphic "Hexenwahn im Schwarzwald" below), but it offers a haunting glimpse into the fear and uncertainty of life in early modern Germany.

The Faller Family in the Black Forest

The Faller family lived in the rural Black Forest communities northeast of Freiburg im Breisgau, in what is now Baden-Württemberg. Life in this mountainous region was difficult even in the best of times. Families depended heavily on farming and livestock, and survival could be threatened by harsh winters, poor harvests, disease, or war.

Fallengrund

Methodism and the Holmes family

2026-06-06T12:42:33.000+01:00

The story of Methodism in our family runs through two very different worlds: the rural midlands of Ireland and the villages of the Black Forest in Baden. Yet these two traditions — one shaped by Irish Primitive Methodism and the other by German Lutheran Pietism — eventually converged in the marriage of my great-grandparents, John Holmes and Albertina Zimber. Their shared Methodist faith may well have been one of the strongest influences drawing them together.

My grandfather Tom came from a Methodist family, though the Holmes family itself had originally belonged to the Church of Ireland. The transition can be seen clearly in the Irish census returns of 1901. In it, his grandfather John Holmes is recorded as Church of Ireland, while John's wife Anna Maria Lee and their children are listed as Methodist. It seems likely that, through marriage and family life, the Methodist tradition of the Lees became the faith of the Holmes household.

Methodism itself originated as an evangelical revival movement within the Anglican churches of Britain and Ireland in the eighteenth century under the leadership of John Wesley and his brother Charles. It emphasised personal faith, disciplined Christian living, Bible study, and active involvement by ordinary lay people. Ireland played an important role in Wesley's ministry. He first visited in 1747 and returned on twenty-one subsequent occasions, travelling extensively throughout the country and establishing Methodist societies that would become a lasting feature of Irish religious life.

The Lee Family and Irish Primitive Methodism

The Methodist tradition in the family came primarily through Anna Maria Lee, whose family were deeply connected with the Primitive Methodist movement in the Midlands.

Anna Maria Holmes (née Lee)

Her father, George Lee, and his brother William were born in Rahugh, County Westmeath, into a family already steeped in early Methodism. George Lee's obituary records that his parents belonged to the Primitive Methodist Society. This specific Irish movement emerged from an 1818 schism, aiming to preserve loyalty to John Wesley's original ideals, including remaining within the Church of Ireland for sacramental purposes. During the nineteenth century, Rahugh and nearby Tyrrellspass formed a crucial geographic network for this Primitive Methodist activity. By the late 19th century, both branches of Methodism had reunited into the Methodist Church we know today.

Black Forest Clockmakers in Ireland and Cornwall: Migration, Industry, and the Zimber Family

2026-05-24T19:42:05.881+01:00

In the nineteenth century, the small towns and villages of Germany’s Black Forest region sent skilled craftsmen across the world. Among them were members of the Zimber family, who established long-running clock and jewellery businesses in New Ross, County Wexford, and Bodmin in Cornwall. Their story reflects a broader history of migration, industrial change, and family enterprise that connected rural Germany with provincial Ireland and Britain during the age of industrialisation.

The history of the Zimber family can be understood not simply as a story of emigration, but as part of the wider transformation of the Black Forest clock industry itself. As traditional rural clockmaking came under pressure from industrialisation during the nineteenth century, many families adapted by creating international trading and retail networks that stretched far beyond Germany.

Possible Holmes family origins

2026-05-18T16:34:23.333+01:00

Origins of the Holmes Surname in Ireland

Tracing the origins of our branch of the Holmes family in Ireland points most strongly toward an English origin rather than either a Scottish one or a Gaelic surname (Mac Thomáis) that later became Anglicised, both of which are found elsewhere in Ireland. In our case, the family can be traced to north-east Laois and the adjoining areas of Kildare and Offaly, with a long-standing Church of Ireland (and more recently Methodist) background. That combination fits well with the history of English settlement in the Midlands during the Tudor and early Stuart plantation periods.

The Laois connection is especially interesting. Formerly known as Queen’s County, Laois was one of the earliest plantation areas established by the Tudor government in the sixteenth century after the suppression of the O’Mores. English settlers — including soldiers, tenant farmers and estate workers — were introduced into the region in significant numbers, and many Protestant farming families in the Midlands ultimately trace their roots to those plantation-era communities or to later Cromwellian and Williamite settlement.

Coolbanagher Old Church

Finding Albertina

2018-04-18T17:27:00.000+01:00

I wrote a post a while back where I located all my ancestors who were alive at the time in the 1901 census. The only thing was I couldn't find my great-grandmother Albertina Zimber. I found her brothers, step-mother, uncles and an aunt but she was nowhere to be found.

Albertina Zimber

Well, I finally tracked her down to Dungarvan, Co Waterford where she was living over a shop where she worked as a Drapers Assistant. The thing was her surname was significantly misspelt (I submitted a correction and it has now been changed) and her first name was given as Bertha so no wonder she proved elusive.

It might prove useful to note how I did locate her. I used the advanced search options and searched using her age and religion (Methodist) and tried a number of variations on her first name which finally came up trumps.

The Death of Joseph Zimber

2017-12-12T16:31:00.000+00:00

I recently found out how Joseph Zimber my great-grand-uncle died. I knew he died in an accident in Montreal on 1st February 1905 only a few months after arriving in Canada (see here).

I have just found the reports below in the Montreal paper "Le Canada". The first report from the 2nd February edition does not name him but the second report from the following day's paper does.
For the benefit of those who cannot read French, he died in an explosion at the Gohier Tannery alongside a Russian Jewish immigrant named Lewis Schoff (or Schoss). The report also indicates that the explosion may have been caused by a barrel of gasoline left too close to the furnace.

The full story of Joseph Zimber can be found here

Le Canada - 2nd February, 1905

Le Canada - 3rd February 1905

Fred Zimber Photo

2017-12-12T16:19:00.003+00:00

I recently got a copy of this photo of Fred Zimber my great-grand-uncle from the National Library.

Fred Zimber (1887-1915)

Fred died in the First World War and you can read more of his story here.

Richard Quinn - Gold Rush Miner

2011-10-19T17:34:00.002+01:00

A Waterford Gold Digger in California?

Some years ago, while examining the 1867 marriage record of my great-great-grandparents, Thomas Reale and Mary Ann Quinn, I noticed a detail that immediately caught my attention.

Mary Ann's father, Richard Quinn, was recorded not as a labourer, farmer, or tradesman, but as a "gold digger."

At first, I wondered if I had misread the entry. Perhaps it said "gold dipper" and referred to some obscure industrial occupation connected with electroplating. Yet no evidence of such an industry appeared in the Waterford area, and a closer inspection of the register convinced me that the word really was "digger."

That raised an obvious question. Why would a Waterford man's occupation in 1867 be recorded as a gold digger?

The answer may lie nearly 5,000 miles away in the mountains of northern California.

Vitus Zimber

2011-10-18T21:43:00.002+01:00

- "A True Original"

Vitus Zimber

My Great-3-Grandfather Vitus Zimber, who was the father of the Zimber Brothers who emigrated to Ireland, appears to have been something of a local character and appears in many folk tales and stories of the region of the Black Forest around Neukirch/Furtwangen. Some of these are detailed below.

The following is from "Löcher und Döbel um Dreistegen" (Furtwangen 1979) by Max Braun and was provided to me by Paul Dold :

Joseph Zimber

2011-04-04T23:53:00.003+01:00

For some time now I knew that my great-grandmother Albertina Zimber had two younger brothers. The youngest Fred was killed in the first world war but I was never able to find out what happened to Joseph.

However a few months back a search of the Irish Times archive turned up a death notice telling that he was killed in an accident in Montreal on 1st Feb 1905.

Death Notice from the Irish Times

Then last week I found not only his arrival in Canada from Liverpool on 4th August 1904 but that, 6 days after landing, he married Bridget Coady, who had accompanied him from New Ross, in St Patrick's Catholic church, Montreal. His death in a tannery fire, 6 months later, tragically cut short their married life.

Relatives in the 1901 Cenus

2010-12-31T19:04:00.002+00:00

The following is a list of relatives appearing in the 1901 census of Ireland.

Dublin
My Great Grandfather John Thomas Holmes and his brother George
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Rotunda/Russell_Place/1331749/

Monasterevan, Co. Kildare
His parents John & Anna Maria and sister Pamela
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kildare/Monasterevan/Monasterevan/1435461/

Clonsast, Co. Offaly
Anna Maria's brother Samuel Lee and family
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/King_s_Co_/Bracknagh/Clonsast_Lower/1465749/

Read more »

Clock made by Vitus Zimber

2010-03-30T16:54:00.009+01:00

A moving-eye clock by Vitus Zimber

Corina Zimber from Freiburg sent me a link to these photos. The first of the the two pictures is of a clock made by my great-3-grandfather Vitus Zimber. The clock has automated eye movement which was a popular type of clock made in the Black Forest area.

The signed workings of the moving-eye clock

The second picture shows his name on the back of the clock. Apparently only the better clockmakers signed their clocks in this way. The clock was for sale for c€2,500 having been imported from the USA where it was originally sold.

Holmes Family of Coolbanagher and Monasterevan

2009-05-20T08:30:00.013+01:00

Edited extracts from “Notes on the History of the Holmes Family of Coolbanagher and Monasterevan” - written by John Holmes of Monasterevin c1959/60

“According to surviving tradition our family seems to have been centred in or near Coolbanagher since settling in Ireland.”

Coolbanagher Old Church

“I have heard from several sources that the first Lord Portarlington brought our family to Ireland as settlers. This would dovetail with other fact and tradition if we regard the expression "the first Lord Portarlington" as meaning Henry Bennet, Baron Arlington. Sir Henry Bennet obtained a grant of all the O'Dempsey estates in April 1664. These included the districts known as Emo, Coolbanagher, Coolagh and Portarlington. In the same month Bennet was created Baron Arlington of Arlington in the County of Middlesex. In 1666 he further petitioned the Council of Ireland, stating his intention of introducing English settlers upon the lands, which had been granted to him in 1664. He obtained a Charter creating a new Borough within part of the lands called Cooletoodera. In accordance with an enactment of the Parliament of Lord Orrery and the Duke of Ormond to the effect that the Governor and Council should be able to give new English names instead of the Irish names of places in order to efface all ancient recollections in Ireland, the new Borough received the name Port Arlington, or Arlington's Port. Soon after this Lord Arlington sold all his interest in the O'Dempsey estates to Sir Patrick Trant, an adherent to the cause of James II. On the defeat of that monarch the estate was confiscated, and after having been bestowed upon Rouvingy, one of William III's mercenary officers who was then created Earl of Galway, it was resumed under the bet of Reassumption in 1700, and finally after resumption, sold to the hollow Sword Blade Company of London (a trading company which bought 253,709 acres of resumed lands in Ireland). Some time after this a portion of the lands (which totaled about 12,220 acres) came into the possession of the Dawson-Damer family, that is, the first Earl of Portarlington. I have been unable to trace any planting of English settlers by this Earl, and personally am inclined to the view that our ancestors were brought over by Lord Arlington in 1666. It is doubtful that conclusive evidence on this point will ever be found.”

Rifleman Fred Zimber

2009-03-30T13:29:00.047+01:00

Richard Frederick (Fred) Zimber (my great grand-uncle) was born in New Ross, Co Wexford and enlisted as Rifleman (R/10201) in 4th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps. Probably due his German name he served under the name Frederick Richard Cairns. He died on 8th May 1915 at Frezenberg Ridge during the Second Battle of Ypres. His name is among those remembered on The Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper (formerly Ypres), Belgium. He was posthumously awarded the British & Victory Medals and the 1914/15 Star. He is listed among those who died on the Fiji War Memorial Hospital Board of Remembrance and in the Fiji Times Roll of Honour.

Fred Zimber (1887-1915)

Zimber Bros. – From Schwarzwald to New Ross (Family Chronology and Records)

2009-03-29T17:56:00.029+01:00

This article is an attempt to give shape to the movements of the Zimber family around the time they settled in Cornwall and South-East Ireland. For historical context on the Black Forest clockmaking industry and migration patterns, see: “Black Forest Clockmakers in Ireland and Cornwall”.

Zimber Bros shop on the Quay in New Ross, about 1890s: Aaron Zimber (probably left) and Richard Zimber (probably right).

Vitus Zimber (of whom more elsewhere) was born in 1820 in the village of Siegelau in the then Grand Duchy of Baden. His future wife, Salome Hummel, was born in 1817, apparently in the village of Neukirch. Salome's father, Josef Hummel, came from Rohrbach and, like Vitus, was a clockmaker.

Fred Zimber Pictures

2009-01-11T14:18:00.008+00:00

These are pictures relating to my Great-Granduncle Fred Zimber who died in World War 1 at the Second Battle of Ypres.

Fiji Platoon

The first is a group of Volunteers from Fiji who enlisted together and became the Fiji Platoon of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Fred is second from the right in the third row from the front (ie the first standing row).

Postcard signed by Fijians on RMS Makura

The second is a postcard of the ship, the RMS Makura, they sailed on signed by all the members of the platoon. Fred signed as "F.R. Cairns" (he enlisted under an assumed name) at the top of the right hand column above the picture.

Fred Zimber (serving as Fred Cairns)

The final photo is a close up of Fred taken from the first photo hence the poor resolution.

Coolbanagher Gravestone

2008-12-03T13:02:00.003+00:00

This site has photographs of many gravestones in St. John's Church of Ireland Graveyard, Coolbanagher. It includes a number of Holmes. Most are recent but I believe "Holmes 1" to be someone in our line. I'll check this out and substantiate.

Laois or Queen's Co., Ireland Genealogy: St. John's Church of Ireland, Coolbanagher, Co. Laois, Ireland. Graveyard Photographs, ©Jane Lyons