Discovering My Irish Ancestry

My daughter has been taking a genealogy class in school, and she has been able to track the Rock family back to a tiny little farming community in Roscommon, Ireland.

Remarkably, she discovered a historical cemetery that contains the remains of a small group of my relatives. A group of them passed away during the Irish potato famine. Luckily, the gravestone contained a wealth of information that spans generations.

O LORD HAVE MERCY ON THE

SOUL OF ANTONY ROCK WHO

DEP^d THIS LIFE JULY 4th 1848

AGED 78 YEARS ALSO HIS WIFE

MARGARET ROCK DEP^d JUNE

9 1848 AGED 60 YEARS ALSO

THEIR SON JOHN ROCK DEP^d

APRIL 10th 1848 AGED 29 YEARS

EREC^d BY HIS SON ANTON ROCK

ANTHONY ROCK DIED JAN 1904

CATHERINE ROCK DIED DEC 1917

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO

After reaching out on Facebook to a Roscommon genealogy group, we were able to connect with someone who was familiar with the Rock family and where they lived, worked, and went to school.

We are so excited at the discovery that we have planned a trip this spring to the small Irish town to look upon the land that once comprised the Rock farm nearly 130 years ago.

The oldest family member represented on the engraving on this gravestone mentions my great, great, great, great grandfather, Antony, who was born in 1770.

Above is a photograph of my great grandfather (Antony's great-grandson) who immigrated to the United States with his parents and sisters back in 1892.

I can hardly wait to set off on my pilgrimage to see my Irish roots with my very own eyes.