Maurice O'Callahan

One of the purposes of this trip was to take Candee's mom to some of her ancestral villages, to see and feel the ground and air of her people. Both of mom's parents came from Ireland in the decade of 1910 or so. We know for sure that Maurice O'Callahan and Anna Duffy were married in New York City in 1916, but much of the antecedents are unknown. Anna was from the area around Galway and Maurice (pronounced, of course, like Morris) came from the area around Cork City, in the south. In a previous visit, twenty or so years ago, mom was able to track down some cousins from her maternal side, but her paternal side has proved more elusive. On Tuesday, we drove down to the Cork area to see what we could see. We knew, from some research that Candee's sister had done, that Maurice had been baptized in the tiny hamlet of Ovens, west of Cork City. So there we headed. It was somewhat hard to find; the interstates have long forgotten small towns. But, with some extensive driving and some helpful advice from some locals, we found the tiny town of Ovens, consisting solely of one pub. We were directed to the local Catholic Church, St. John the Baptist. The on-site cemetery is only from the 1950s, and the priest was not in, so we were directed by some cemetery workers to the next small town where there was an ancient cemetery (pictured above) and a small, old-fashioned shop, O'Callaghan's Grocery. At the cemetery, we found a number of stones with the O'Callaghan and O'Leary names (O'Leary being the maiden name of Maurice's mother). The elderly woman at the grocer said the area was overrun by O'Learys and O'Callaghans and could offer no affirmative help. We decided to stop by at John the Baptist again and were pleased to find the very helpful Fr. Paddy Keating, who was able to pull baptismal records for Maurice's family- his father, mother, and siblings. Fr. Keating informed us that the original baptismal font was still in place and had been left as a memorial in its original setting in front and outside the church. You see mom and Candee marveling at their good fortune to find the very place that Maurice had been baptized one hundred and twenty-two years ago! It was an emotionally intense day for the ladies. You see additional pictures of the ancient graveyard and abandoned church; one of St. John the Baptist (its facade has been cleaned, but it appears as it did in Maurice's day); and an old stone of an O'Callaghan.