Most of the family research I've done was 1997-2002 when my kids were young. I took a scattergun approach; I went to the library and looked for all my family members in a particular document ex. a census. I didn't focus on a particular person. I found the easy stuff and created a skeleton of the family tree, my parents and Kathy’s. At that time I basically stopped due to the time it would take to do in-depth research. Most of what can now be found on the internet was not there then.
One of the last things I did before stopping was to place a few posts on the internet in the GenForum, a genealogical bulletin board. Check it out at http://genforum.genealogy.com/clancy/
My “Clancy” post, which I forgot about, follows. This was Oct 2002.
I am looking for any relatives of Michael J (March 14, 1863-March 02, 1951) and his brother John Clancy (September 04, 1871-1960). Brothers married sisters, Michael to Honora (Nora) Kelly and John to Margaret (Maggie) Kelly.
Michael immigrated with younger brother John. 1878-1881? joined ArmyCalvary unit and was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis , MO. After duty in Texas (Fort Sam Houston ) he returned to St. Louis . He then brought younger brother John from Ireland with Michael's future wife Nora and her sister, John's future wife Margaret.
Michael immigrated with younger brother John. 1878-1881? joined Army
On January 3, 2011 , after committing myself to again dig deeper, I found my Oct, 2002 post. There was a response dated Jan 9, 2010 .
I am a Clancy from Oughterard. My name is Kevin Clancy I am 32 so a bit young to remember those names you have mentioned but they have to be related to me as all the Clancys in Oughterard are related one way or another. My great Grandfather was James Clancy and as far as I know Michael and John were his brothers. If I can find out more I will let you know.
Regards
Kevin Clancy
Regards
Kevin Clancy
There was an email address attached so I emailed Kevin. We eventually spoke on the phone. Kevin was born and raised in Oughterard where he still has family. Kevin currently lives in the Boston area where he met his wife and recently had their first child. He told me a little about his family and mentioned that a relative, a nun, wrote a history of the family entitled “Meet the Clancys”.
I then did an internet search on “Meet the Clancys”. I found an obscure reference and the name of the author, Sister Phyl Clancy, a sister of Mercy. I could not actually find the book anywhere. I then searched for Sisters of Mercy and found that they have 8 districts “convents” in Ireland . I emailed each one on Jan 13.
I am attempting to contact Sister Phyl Clancy of Ireland . I am not sure which convent Sister Phyl belongs. I believe Sister Phyl is a long lost cousin. I am especially interested in a book Sister Phyl authored in 1997, Meet the Clancys: 1654-1997. If possible, please forward my message to her.
The next morning I had a response.
Your email in relation to Sister Phyl Clancy, was received here today. Sr. Phyl lives here and will respond to your email during the coming days. She does not use the computer herself. I brought your email to her attention this evening. She will dictate a response in due course and I will email it to you.
She has written the book about the Clancy family that you referred to. She has 2 copies of it here and will be pleased to post one to you if you so wish. Phyl lives here in this "support living" environment. She is 81 years of age. Phyl is a wonderful character.
With very warm wishes,
Sister Kathleen Friel
(on behalf of Phyl)
I was excited; I had made contact with 2 living, probable Irish cousins in less than 2 weeks. The next day I get a phone call from Ireland and spoke to both Sister Kathleen and Phyl. We spoke abut 15 minutes. Sister Phyl did have the book (only 200 copies were made) and did mail one to me. Phyl also gave me permission to copy and share. I was able to copy the book as a pdf and hope to post the book soon. You will need Adobe Acrobat to open.
My Clancy relatives came from Oughterard too. I'd be happy to share my ancestry.com family tree with you if you'd like to take a look and see if our families are linked at all. You can email me at elaine.posanka@us.army.mil
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