Stór an Chroí Photographs of Seven Generations

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
(see also art website)

ABSTRACT 

Stór an Chroí (Treasure of the Heart) is truly a treasure chest of family photographs going back to the early days of photography in the 1890s. It contains historical information, a family tree, and over 480 photographs that demonstrate not only the history of a family over a period of 130 years but also a potted history of the development of photography itself. From the early days of black and white portrait photography, through to colour film from the 1960s, to the digital photos of today, photography has enabled us to mark changes in people and places over time, yet allowing us also to see similarities that carry over through generations. Stór an Chroí is a family collection that helps us to keep in our hearts the people that have mattered most to us throughout our lives.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Family History
Family Tree
Photographs:
1800s
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s

 

The Author

Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist, lecturer and writer. His artwork consists of paintings based on contemporary geopolitical themes and he has worked as a lecturer in various universities teaching Language and Cultural Identity, Geopolitics, Intercultural Communication, Aesthetics and History of Irish Art in Dublin. Caoimhghin studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin where he obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art. He subsequently undertook post-graduate study in the interdisciplinary field of Cultural Studies in Dublin City University obtaining an MA (Hons) degree in Communications and Cultural Studies. Caoimhghin is an Irish speaker and holds a PhD in Language and Politics (Dublin City University) which is published under the title Language from Below: The Irish Language, Ideology and Power in 20th-Century Ireland. Caoimhghin is a regular contributor of articles on the arts, Irish culture, cultural politics, and the environment, to sites such as Global Research, Dissident Voice, CounterPunch and 21cir. Caoimhghin has just published his new book – Against Romanticism: From Enlightenment to Enfrightenment and the Culture of Slavery, which looks at philosophy, politics and the history of 10 different art forms arguing that Romanticism is dominating modern culture to the detriment of Enlightenment ideals. It is available on Amazon (amazon.co.uk) and the info page is here. 


Dedication
For those who are gone, and those yet to come ...
 

Introduction

When my father died in 1990, many people came to his funeral, and then to our house in Swords afterwards. Sitting across from me at the kitchen table was an elegant elderly lady that I didn't recognise. I asked my mother who she was, and was told that she was Teda, my grand aunt. Teda had been married to Patrick Cryan, my grandfather's brother, and was the last of her generation of my relatives. I realised there and then that I knew very little about my family history and decided to start finding out.

I had no idea how to do genealogical research so I bought some books and family history magazines. I went to libraries and archives, going through microfilmed newspapers and dusty boxes of census returns. I met, and got to know professional genealogists who advised me on research directions.

Our current knowledge of the history of our family is the culmination of research undertaken in many different research institutions, e.g., the National Library, the Valuation Office, the Public Records Office, the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Army archives, the Garda archives, the Registry of Deeds, the Co Roscommon Heritage and Genealogical Centre, and Roscommon County Library.

I had invaluable help and co-operation from genealogists, local newspapers who published my letters, fellow Cryan family researchers and in particular relatives who lent me photos and documents and told me of their own lives.

Now, things are so different as genealogy has become accepted in general and so many archives have been digitised, and are very easily accessible on the internet.

The digitisation of newspapers, deeds, and records globally has allowed for the discovery of information based on particular keyword researches. Whereas once I spent hours scanning microfilms for tidbits of information, now a search on a genealogical website produces abundant results in seconds.

The earliest, proven Cryan ancestor I have been able to find is John Cryan (1833-1905) who married Bridget Dolan in 1858. There is a scarcity of earlier documentary sources that would allow us to name previous generations.

However, the latest aspect of modern research, DNA testing, has proven to be extremely beneficent. While family history research is generally original research specific to the family involved, DNA research is also original research but on a general, global level. Since I teamed up with the genetic genealogist, Michael Crow, on his Cryan/Crean/Crehan Facebook group, and took the DNA test, extraordinary information has come to light.
 

I had always believed that the Roscommon Cryans of the eighteenth century were simply a continuation of the Creans of Sligo as they moved away from their seventeenth century power-base in Sligo. A change of accent resulted in a change of phonetic, and therefore a change in spelling. Also I had never seen a Cryan phonetic older than 1749 (Crien, Elphin Diocese Census).

Yet the testers we have in our surname project on FTDNA (familytreedna.com) have shown a different story. I have a common ancestor with Dermot Cryan that lived in the 1650s, and we have a common ancestor with Peter Cryans from Scotland that lived in the 1550s. This shows that the Cryan phonetic has remained the same for nearly 500 years (the spelling is irrelevant as surnames were standardized, for example my great grandfather was registered as Joseph Crine). We are not sure if there is any DNA connection between the Sligo Creans and the Roscommon Cryans, at least until we get a tester with a proven connection to the 17th century Sligo Creans.

Furthermore, it turns out that my Cryan line has a common paternal line ancestor with Kilteasheen 33, a man who lived between 600 - 1300 CE during the Medieval Age and was found in the region now known as The Bishop’s Seat, Kilteasheen in Roscommon. This demonstrates the longevity of the Cryan connection with places in Co Roscommon, a line that originally migrated to the north-west of Ireland from Britain through northern Ireland.

I have gone through my original 1993 report material, updating it in the process. Here is the story of a family history covering seven generations starting with John Cryan (1833-1905).