Durrus, County Cork, Ireland

[Published February 28, 2010]

Recently I had the unexpected pleasure of being contacted by Pat Crowley of Dublin, Ireland.  Mr. Crowley has become an expert on the history of Durrus, Ireland.  Durrus is the area that our ancestral grandfather Thomas Dukelow / Ducklow emigrated from.  Mr. Crowley has done much research, writing and photographing Durrus.  He also has friends with the 

Sheepshead Peninsula, near Durrus, County Cork, Ireland

Source: Pat Crowley, Dalkey (Dublin), Ireland

Dukelow surname that live in the Durrus area.  Mr. Crowley has offered to share information to aid in the quest to find a solid link back to the Dukelow Clan of Ireland.  Pat has provided tables of birth and death information, photographs of grave markers in Durrus cemeteries, and a text on Durrus history that includes references to Dukelows.

Alas, I wish I could report a breakthrough.  Not yet. But the information is so tantalizing. Especially so because the given names of many of the Durrus families overlap with the names used by Thomas in naming his children:  John, Thomas, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Charles, Richard, James, Peter, Fanny and even Lucinda.  This gives me encouragement that eventually we will find a link of this modern-day Dukelows back to Thomas and his father.  As often happens in research, Mr. Crowley has given me another contact in Ireland who has worked the Ireland Dukelow family tree, which should include the Dukelows of Durrus.  Stay tuned!

Mr. Crowley has given me permission to share some of the photos that he has taken around the Durrus area.  They provide a taste of the architecture of new and old buildings that make up Durrus today.

Photographs of buildings in and around Durrus, Ireland:

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Footnote: Esther Northfield Ducklow, Grant Dukelow Brown, and Clayton Swanton have independently spent many hours and much effort in trying find Dukelow links to family in Ireland.  Grant Brown and Clayton Swanton have each traveled to Ireland, but did not make a significant break-though in finding a documented connection.    Up to this point, no information was been found that specifically connects our Thomas Dukelow / Ducklow back to the Durrus Dukelows.   Finding a link might be called the search for the "Holly Grail" of the Ducklow genealogy quest.

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Update on

Twins and Triplets in the Greater Ducklow Family
[Published February 24, 2010]

About a year ago I posted a story in this blog on the known number of twins and triplets in the Greater Ducklow family. Since that post, over 250 new descendants have been identified; the number of descendants now stands at about 1000. Because of the growth in the size of the family tree, I thought it time to look at the multiple birth statistics again.

 

There are now eight known sets of twins and two known sets of triplets born to descendants of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow.  The number of sets of twins is up by four from a year ago and there has been no change in the number of triplets.  The sets of twins remains lower than what would be expected—we would normally see 20 to 29 sets for 1000 births. The typical number of sets of triplets for 1000 births is about 1.6, so the two sets in our greater family seems about right.

Here are the years and lines of birth of the twins and triplets:

A set of twins born in 1932; descendants of George Ducklow

A set of twins born in 1935; descendants of Mary Ann Ducklow Good

A set of twins born in 1938; descendants of Mary Ann Ducklow Good
A set of twins born in 1962; descendants of Peter Ducklow

A set of twins born in 1982; descendants of John Ducklow

A set of twins born in 1993; descendants of Peter Ducklow
A set of triplets born in 1996; descendants of George Ducklow
A set of triples born in 1996; descendants of Charles Ducklow
A set of twins born in 1998; descendants of George Ducklow
A set of twins born in 1999; descendants of George Ducklow

There is a possibility too that Thomas and Elizabeth's eighth and ninth children where twins: Infant Elizabeth and Infant Maria Jane, both born around 1855 or 1856. Information is lacking, but at least one fellow genealogist believes that these two infants could have been twins. Both of these children died as infants or toddlers. Maria Jane likely in 1856 and Elizabeth in February of 1857.

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Footnote: The research continues on identifying all descendants of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow. 1000 is the number charted so far. 

Footnote: Source of the twin and triplet birth rate information comes from the March of Dimes web site. Link here.

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Eldon Dean Catura

Descendant of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow Passes

[Posted February 21, 2010]

Eldon Catura of Tuscon, Arizona and former resident of Stevens Point, Wisconsin passed away on February 3, 2010.  He was 82 years old.  Eldon was the great great grandson of Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow.  His genealogy link back to Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow is:

Eldon Catura > Nellie Good Catura > William Good > Mary Ann Ducklow Good > Thomas and Elizabeth Ducklow

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His obituary [see footnote]:

Eldon D. Catura

82, Stevens Point, died Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at his home. He was under the care Ministry Home Care Hospice Services. Born July 10, 1927 in Owen, Wisconsin.

Eldon served the United States Army during WWII. He was honorably discharged in 1946. He married Mary Louise Neilsen of Withee, WI in 1952. He worked and retired from GT & E, now known as Verizon, after 40 years with the company. Upon retirement, he moved to Tucson, AZ with his wife, Mary Louise, who survives him. He is also survived by four children, Neilsen of Madison, Bradford (Anita) of Milwaukee, Brent (Ruth) of Stevens Point, Nathan (Peg) of New Berlin.  Three Grandchildren, Nicholas, Katelyn, and Benjamin. 

Memorial services will be at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Stevens Point, on Saturday, February 20, 2010. Visitation at 11:00AM, service at 12:00 Noon with luncheon following the service. Burial will take place at a later date in Riverside cemetery in Withee, WI.

 Pisarski Community Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Plover is assisting the family with arrangements. For online condolences, please visit www.pisarskifuneralhome.com.

Pisarski Community Funeral Home And Cremation Center

Plover

344-7454

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Footnote: Source of obituary is www.pisarskifuneralhome.com/index.cfm found on February 19, 2010

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