I haven't done much with the Irish side of the family lately but I recently got some exciting new leads. As is often the case, I stumbled on this kind of accidentally. There is an organization called TIARA. Ryan says I joined it because I liked the name, which is true BUT in addition this organization has access to some interesting records. TIARA stands for The Irish Ancestral Research Association. TIARA is alot more fun.



TIARA offers access to the records of the Massachusetts Order of Foresters which was a fraternal organization formed by Irish immigrants to offer life insurance to its members. Never heard of them before but when I checked their records I saw some names I found intriguing: Mary Ryan, James Ryan and John Handran. TIARA offers to send you the insurance files for their members--since this was for life insurance, these records are related to the insured's death.



Saturday I received a lovely fat envelope containing several sheets of paper for each of these names. Pretty quickly I was able to determine that Mary Ryan is not one of "our" Ryans; I'm still working on James but John Handran is probably an ancestor--not in our direct line but one of the long lost cousins. I'm still working on putting all the pieces together but the papers are fascinating and contain their health interview for the insurance as well as death records. They contain details I've never found in other kinds of sources.



This image is one page from John Handran's record. He drowned in 1885 just 3 years after his marriage in Gloucester. Three years and 3 kids left behind with his widow Sarah. The part I found most interesting on this sheet was the description of the drowing incident: "washed from the deck of the vessel + sank after a few moments of struggle". A little additional research showed he had been aboard the Schooner Cleopatra and was one of two or three in total who drowned the day after Christmas 1885. The remaining crew were rescued and brought to port in Philadelphia.



I have a great deal more work to do to place him properly in our tree but such interesting papers certainly give me the inspiration needed to learn more. I hope you find it interesting too.