Rostrevor and Kilbroney Parish

I am speaking of the town in Northern Ireland that we actually visited to trace our Irish roots when we were there this summer. Well, it is not my Irish roots, but one track of the Irish roots on Charlie's side of the family. (I tried and tried to find a link of my Irish roots to go visit, but had no luck. I need to dig a little deeper) So in this case, we are looking at the line from Charlie's mom (Sarah/Lauren's grandmother). Her name is Jetta. Now Jetta's grandfather was James Nicholas Hollywood and we was born 1/1/1893 in County Down, Northern Ireland. (Very interesting I find that Jetta is also a January 1st, birthday!) SO this would be Sarah and Lauren's Great Great Grandfather. Jetta actually found prior to our trip information that he was baptized in a church called St. Mary's Star of the Sea in the Kilbroney Parish in Rostrevor. This is all in County Down, Northern Ireland. The records show that his parents were Lawrence Hollywood and Bridget Carroll. So when we went to Rostrevor, we found the church. It was beautiful!

Sarah and her Nana on the steps of the church that her Great Great grandfather was baptized at.

This is what the region around Rostrevor looks like...GORGEOUS.

We even found the old cemetery where his parents are supposedly buried. Although we did not find their grave sites, we found many other grave stones with names belonging to the Hollywood and Carroll families. We wrote the names down and hopefully sometime we will find where those pieces to the puzzle fit. We spoke to a caretaker there and she said it was quite possible that who we were looking for was buried there, but it was a big cemetery and a lot of the older grave stones were very weathered. So even though we didn't find the actual names we were looking for, we did find the area, the church and we all felt a connection to it. I know I did and I am only related by marriage.




To continue the James Hollywood story, we have record that he left Ireland on February 5, 1913 from Queenstown (now Cobh in County Cork, Ireland). He departed on the S.S. Carpathia arriving in Boston on February 16, 1913. You might remember that the S.S. Carpathia was the famous ship that rescued the survivors form the Titanic disaster in 1912. It was eventually sunk by a German torpedo during WWI in 1918. We were very lucky to get to travel to Cobh and visit the dock where all these Irish immigrants departed so long ago. To be standing in a place where you know your ancestors passed through with dreams of a better life in a new country and to think that such great ships as the Titanic were once at port there, was very moving. This was by far one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Gorgeous church in the town of Cobh

This is the interior of the building that once was where the immigrants went to board the ships. It is now the museum and shopping are of the Cobh Heritage Center. Click HERE to learn more about this amazing place

This is a painting rendition of what it might have looked like with the huge ships at port!

The statue of Annie Moore that became the first ever emigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. She left the port at Queenstown (Cobh) in 1892.

I only wish I had proof of my relatives passing through the same way. I know I have Irish in my blood, my mother told me so, but I have yet to confirm it! This red hair came from somewhere!