Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
Hello to all,
I hope you are all well. As you can see my name is Andy.I started this page some month’s back to try and generate some interest and grasp a sense of our history.Naturally I am delighted to see the growing interest.Unfortunately I have not get the chance to return to the page in some time.However I now return with fresh vigour and hopefully we will be able to piece it all together eventually.Even if we don't it is good to establish contact with long lost relations..!
So….. Hi to you Linda.Thanks for your concern at my absence..!!I have not been in contact with you for a while.I hope all is well with you.Hi to you also Janice...its some time since I contacted you last too.To the people I have not mailed or known of before, namely Stewart, Pat and Eileen.... I am pleased that you found your way to this page. Fáilte(Welcome).
Anyway….to move swiftly along to the business at hand and to stop dithering I will outline what I know (very little at this stage)
Well, as you can see I am a Gacquin.I come from a place called Ballyforan, Ballinasloe Co.Galway.It is within the area you all refer to in your mails.I lived close to Dereen and Bohil which I believe is where your ancestors come from Janice.As we communicated before, I know the McCormacks there and the house you probably visited.Hence, I lived relatively close to Dysart, Curraghboy etc and know the geography of the area well.I now live in Dublin but go west once a month.
My interest in this began some time ago when I was on a school trip to the Gaeltacht region of Galway called Connemara.I was 13 then....now I’m 27 so it has taken me a long time to act!!!Therein we had a history/art teacher who took an interest in my name and said he had come across it before.He was very strict and gruff so naturally being a kid I did not pursue it too much.However according to him the name Gacquin is originally of Viking extraction.He postulated that our ancestors were probably part of the groups that invaded Western Europe including Ireland and Great Britain.He had two theories on how we came to the Ballinasloe region.The first is that the name remained here since that time.The second theory he had, for which he seemed to have come across some evidence somewhere was that Viking Gacquin was banished to Normandy in France at the beginning of the 11th century with all the other Viking groups from large parts of Europe.For instance the Vikings or Normans were evicted from Ireland at the battle of Clontarf in Dublin in 1016 by Brian Boru.Ho also thought that the name could have returned to Ireland and more specifically to the Ballinasloe region at the Battle of Aughrim in 1691.Needless to say I was delighted to see Eileen's piece of info on this from Brittany as I have not to date confirmed any of this [Eileen, do you have any more detail or data on that?].
So that is my initial outline.I also came across a reference to the name in Fox's book of Martyr's. see
http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe_j/martyrs/fox106.htmhttp://www.ccel.org/f/foxe_j/martyrs/fox106.htm
It is however only a small reference from An Account of the Persecutions in Italy, Under the Papacy.Maybe this may also account for the exotic Mediterranean looks some of you seem to have...!!!
My dad still lives in Ballyforan.He is 72 now so should be able to paint a rough picture going back at least a few generations.I will find out what I can and post within the next while.Watch this space.....and until then you all have yourselves a good time and good luck in the hunt!!
Regards
Andy
More Replies:
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
Marian Kelly 11/15/02
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
William Gacquin 11/17/02
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
Marian Kelly 11/18/02
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
William Gacquin 11/18/02
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
Marian Kelly 11/18/02
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
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The missing links??
Stewart Brennan 2/04/01
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Eileen Kelley 2/04/01
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3/07/01
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Re: The missing links??
3/07/01
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Re: The missing links??
3/10/01
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Re: The missing links??
Eileen Kelley 3/11/01
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Re: The missing links??
3/11/01
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Re: The missing links??
Maryann Flaherty 7/08/09
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Stewart Brennan 4/26/01
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
Eileen Kelley 2/03/01
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Re: Greetings from Ireland...!!!!
2/02/01