Breaking Ground

As a child, we have an instant connection with our immediate family. It is there that our roots are established, and it is there that we build our foundation. I was fortunate to live near most of my extended family. I knew my aunts and uncles well, and my cousins were my first playmates. Another bonus was that I knew three of my great-grandparents personally. As I grew up, I always felt those close family ties, and I was always curious about the others that came before them.

After I got married, my husband and I became world travelers. I had already begun documenting the basic roots of my family with the help of a few family historians that I knew personally. As we planned our trip to Ireland for the summer of 1990, I was inspired by my grandmother's maiden name, McNair. My thought was that with the "Mc" in this name, that surely, I had Irish roots. I got the bright idea to make a few trips to the Texas State Archives to see if I could quickly establish a connection with family in Ireland. Yeah, right?

All I found on these trips to the archives was frustration. In fact, I could not find any of my closest McNair relatives; therefore, the search was a dead end. The problem was that I was a fledgling genealogist and I had this "hurry up" factor involved. (*Note: shortly after my trip to Ireland, I found a wealth of information about my McNair roots.) I gave up the ghost and folded up all my research papers to wait for my husband, who by the way, found a few gems about his family on these visits to the archives. During my wait, I decided to check out my maiden name, Quillin.

Quillin, hum...? It is a unique name, different than most last names. Voilà! I hit the jackpot! Right off the bat in the card catalogue, I learned that there was a MacQuillin book listed in the Library of Congress. I went to the stacks and there it was: The Quillin (MacQuillin) Family; The MacQuillins in Ireland by Claude MacQuillin. Better still was the fact that my ancient ancestors had a glorious castle in Northern Ireland, now in ruins. And I WAS GOING TO IRELAND in a few short months. 

My excitement sent me through the roof, and needless to say, our trip to Ireland took on a whole new look. This book connected me all the way down to my daddy, with my brother listed as a child. This was beyond my wildest dreams, and I look forward to sharing more about my daddy, my Quillin roots, and my trip to Ireland in following blog posts.