I've always had trouble sorting out the various Toole families of Leam, near Oughterard. Several of them moved to Glantrasna, and my Gt Grandmother Cait Toole is a descendant of theirs. But going further back into Leam, there are several families of Tooles, in both East and West Leam, and all using lots of similar names; are they all connected?
To add to all of this general confusion, I've just been to Ireland and met up with a Walsh 2nd cousin, who told us about a heretofore unknown sister of my Gt Gt Grandfather. She was Anne Walsh, born about 1833, and he told us that she married Thomas Toole, a shopkeeper in Leam, and that there were 2 descendants (grandchildren) John and "May" Toole who didn't marry.
Thomas was born about 1820 and died 1895. So now my conundrum is - who were his parents, and is he a sibling of some of the other Toole's I'm connected to in East or West Leam? DNA is leading me to believe that he may be the son of James Toole and Mary Halloran, my GGGG Grandparents. James was born about 1798, and so Thomas might be the 1st son.
If this is true, then my lines from my Maternal Grandfather and Maternal Grandmother have once again co-mingled!
Of course, while working on this, I ran across another Toole descendant from Glantrasna, that emigrated to Boston. I found this via DNA Thru Lines on Ancestry. She was the last child before her Father's death, her Mother remarried and she disappeared -- well now it looks like she emigrated.
The Boston records are amazing, and on marriage records the bride and groom list their full parents names -- so I can confidently say that the Michael Toole I found is indeed the son of Thomas Toole and Anne Walsh. He emigrated about 1888, and the passenger records don't give much identifying information other than name, age, nationality and occupation. So hard to determine when exactly he emigrated.
In tracing the descendants, the obituaries have been a gold mine -- lots of information detailing names, residences, etc.
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