Meet the Ancestors
The 1911 census returns for Ireland have just been released online. I've been looking up my ancestors, all from West Cork, & was pleased to find a great, great Grandfather alive in his late eighties way back then. All were Farmers, Catholic, & mostly Irish speaking.
So many of their children died though, according to the census. Infant mortality was horrific, nearly 50% from what I could make out. I wonder how they coped with these deaths? Did religion give them any comfort? I suppose it did to some degree.... But what a tragedy that there were no Spirit filled churches around in Ireland back then, certainly not in Cork. Not just to offer the possibility of healing of the body, but also healing of the soul, and healing the broken heart.
Thank God for the liberating Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Death is always a terrible reality for anyone, anytime to deal with. But, with the power, & the comfort, of the Holy Spirit available freely in Ireland today, I'm glad 1911 was not my time era.
So many of their children died though, according to the census. Infant mortality was horrific, nearly 50% from what I could make out. I wonder how they coped with these deaths? Did religion give them any comfort? I suppose it did to some degree.... But what a tragedy that there were no Spirit filled churches around in Ireland back then, certainly not in Cork. Not just to offer the possibility of healing of the body, but also healing of the soul, and healing the broken heart.
Thank God for the liberating Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Death is always a terrible reality for anyone, anytime to deal with. But, with the power, & the comfort, of the Holy Spirit available freely in Ireland today, I'm glad 1911 was not my time era.
posted by Tom Burke(Tomás De Búrca) at
Monday, July 13, 2009
3 Comments:
You should really post more often.Dont leave the lack of comments dishearten you.I find you insights very good.Anyway God Bless from your brother in Christ from the Kingdom(God's and Kerry).
By
John Moriarty, At
August 17, 2009
History like the news does not record Good News, the focus always tends to be on the conflicts the injustice and things that divide.The Church of Jesus Christ has always had God's Spirit moving and filling it through out history. We all fall into the trap of negativity towards the past Church and its mistakes. But I would suggest that God loves and cares deeply for his Church and that although we may not realize it his Spirit was indeed filling and wooing and encountering his church even in Cork. We just have to look in the right places for what God was doing. Just ask the old Methodists of Drimoleague of the revival of the early 1900's.He still is at work even in the places we do not expect. Peadar Mac Shoninn
By
p, At
February 22, 2010
Hello from across the pond. My name is Michael Burke. My great-great-grandfather Patrick(b.1837?)left West Cork with his wife Ellen and three sons, James, Patrick(my great-granddad) and Cornelius. They settled in Woburn, Massachusetts sometime after 1865. My great-grandfather, Patrick(b.1860) While doing online research about West Cork Burkes I discovered your website and profile photo. I must say I was floored by the family resemblance, we must be from the same clan!
By
Anonymous, At
November 25, 2010
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