The forged iron Celtic cross with spear like tips at the top and at the two sides, and a twist in the iron work along the supporting upright is beautifully made but the blacksmith who made this left no indication of who he might have been. It has recently, although how recently we do not know, been cared for and the inscription picked out in white paint to preserve the memorial but it is now becoming difficult to read After some scrutiny and a little research we deciphered it as reading "Edward Farrell died March 27th 1928, Harristown". Armed with that information it was relatively easy to find Edward in the official records. He died of cardiac arrest unexpectedly at Harristown and hence the roadside memorial to presumably record where he fell. In 1922 Edward Farrell had married Ellen Hanrahan, daughter of James Hanrahan of Rath, Danesfort, county Kilkenny and on his unexpected death she was left a widow with 4 young children.
Edward Farrell was born on 13th July 1892, the son of Michael Farrell, farmer, of Pleberstown and Bridget Barron who came from Ballyconway nearby. Michael and Bridget had married on 20th November 1882 at Chapel Hill, Inistioge. Michael's father was Thomas Farrell, a farmer and deceased at the time of his son's wedding. Bridget Barron of Ballyconway, was 19 years old when she married and her father is listed on the marriage certificate as Thomas Barron, a farmer and alive at the time of his daughter's marriage. In the 1911 census Michael Farrell and Bridget Barron record that 14 children were born of the marriage but only 5 were alive in 1911. This rang several bells with me as I have a Barron connection. Out came my extensive Barron files as I knew I had details of the Ballyconway Barrons, although this is not my direct Barron line. Amazingly I found that I was recently contacted by a descendant of one of Bridget's brothers, (a Thomas Barron who was born in Dec 1875), via Ancestry, who was a DNA match with me. So quite accidently when Bernie and I noticed this roadside memorial it led to me documenting yet another tranche of my relations in the area and ones that I previously did not know anything about. Such is genealogy and family research.
