Saturday, February 14, 2015

Discovering the graves of my Great-Great Grandfather (Richard Cullen) and Great-Great Grandmother (Julia Cullen, née Browne)

While chatting to my Mum recently she told me that she had the gravestone of her Grand-Aunt Maggie (Margaret Cullen) cleaned up, and also that she had done the same for the gravestone beside this. Today I went along to the cemetery in Gorey in Co Wexford (Google Satellite view: http://goo.gl/maps/RP9ed - you can actually see the gravestones at the near left) to check this out and noted that there were a lot of Cullens listed, so I called Mum to check out who's who.


Some context first:
  • My Mum Phil's maiden name was Byrne 
  • Her Mum and my maternal grandmother Kathleen Byrne's maiden name was Cullen
  • Kathleen (Cullen) Byrne's father was Richard Cullen - my Great-Grandfather
  • Mum grew up in Gorey with her Grand Aunt - Margaret Cullen (mentioned above, gravestone in Gorey below)
So the connection to the Cullens buried in Gorey is as follows:
  • The first two names on the gravestone above, Julia and Richard Cullen, are my Great-Great Grandparents. Julia was the second of his three wives and the only one that he had children with
  • Bryan and Patrick Cullen on the gravestone are two of their sons
  • Margaret Cullen in the grave beside them is their daughter (see photo below)
  • They also had a son called Richard, who I mentioned above is my Great-Grandfather (I don't know where he is buried)
Below is the gravestone of Mum's Grand Aunt Maggie - though I was two and a half years old when she died I have no memory of her. According to Mum, the other person in her grave was a very distant relative who died alone and the family buried her here.


If above does not make sense, see below tree. The "Phil Byrne" on the bottom left is my Mum.

Click to enlarge.

No comments:

Post a Comment