Back in 2001 my then family of three moved to Texas where I knew no one. For the first month we were in a corporate apartment where I watched the attacks on the World Trade Center live on the Today Show, then we moved all the belongings of our three bedroom house in Georgia into a two bedroom apartment. It was cramped to say the least. I didn't like our town. I didn't like that people honked in traffic. I didn't like that the closest Lane Bryant was a pain to get because it took the skill of a master navigator to get there. I didn't like that the only time I went to Michael's to get craft stuff a metal Christmas tree fell on my head. I didn't like that the Walmart in our town gave me anxiety attacks. And I didn't like that our neighbor left a nasty note on our door calling us horrible parents for letting our baby cry herself to sleep.
In an effort to connect with something familiar and comforting, I signed up for an Ancestry.com account and started researching the fam. I started with my mother's side of the family. My much loved grandmother, Patsy Henson Lewis, was dying although we didn't know at the time, but for some reason I started with her. The photo on the left is of my great-grandmother, Minnie Belle Williams Henson and one of her sisters. She passed away when I was three. My earliest memory is of being on her farm in east Texas. I found out that her grandmother was also Patsy. Martha "Patsy" Meade came from Virginia. Her grandfather, Andrew, came from the counties of Kerry and Cork in Ireland in 1685. I always knew part of my ancestry was Irish, but what I discovered was something special. I got in contact with one of my grandmother's cousin who sent me THE Meade computer file.
The Meades were traced back to 1295, when the name was spelled Meagh. I lost count of how many great-grandfathers that was. The file my grandmother's cousin sent was incredible. The detail was amazing. There were pictures — coats of arms, fantastic stuff. Several Meaghs were Knights and mayors of Cork. They lived in Meaghstown and their castles had numbers. One of my Protestant ancestors was married in Westminster Abbey and his brother, who supported the Catholic faith was executed for treason under Queen Elizabeth. There was good stuff in the Meade file.
For some reason today, I thought I'd see if there was any new info on the Meades. I found out that Meaghstown naturally became Meadstown in the Barony (Irish subdivision of counties) of Kerrycurrihy.
I'm changing my name to Kerrycurrihy. We will see if Starbucks can spell that.
When my parents named me, they didn't know part of our family came from somewhere in Ireland with my name in it. I wasn't particularly named for anything or anyone, but I'd like to think I was. It would make for a nice story to tell the kids, wouldn't it?
