I have not been active in a long time. Life (and death) have gotten in the way of genealogy.

Due to the time it takes, I generally do NOT input additional biographical information on a memorial unless it is one of my close relatives. If I happen to be managing a memorial that is your immediate relative, I can transfer it to you so you can add additional info.

I would like nothing more than to return to Ireland and take more memorial photos, but for now I doubt it will happen in my remaining lifetime.

ABOUT MYSELF

My mother, Mary Teresa Collins, was born outside Skibbereen. She came to the US before 1950 and was sponsored by Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Kit. She married my father, Henry Peter Barretta (Enrico Pietro Barretta), a southern Italian, in 1954.

I started doing Irish side family history research in April of 2009. Much later I began digging into the Italian side.

corkgen.org was launched in late 2010 to help with my own family research. I STILL use it. One of my pending tasks hovering over my head like a boulder threatening to drop is to upload tons more data into it. That data is sitting on my computer hard drive and I am determined to get it shared out.

My other big effort is a four volume book project covering the lives of my west Cork grandparents, their ancestors and their relatives. The purpose of the book project is to structure the many thousands of files sitting in an organized way that can be used by the good folks at Skibbereen Heritage. It will probably contain thousands of people. When completed, it will be given to Skibbereen Heritage. I am shooting for a 2030 publication date.

PLEASE USE CITATIONS for Find A Grave and attribute Find a Grave pages accordingly. You can get a generated citation for a memorial by clicking SOURCE. Give credit where credit is due and acknowledge contributors, even if they say you don't have to. It's very good practice to acknowledge your sources.

SPEAKING OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Collins photos and a few McCarthy photos for All Saints in Drimoleague were taken by Tommy Collins of Dunmanway.

Pat Crowley of Durrus History has done a tremendous amount of tombstone photography in West Cork. See Coolkellure in Dunmanway; Maulinward Burial Ground in Durrus; St. Mary's (Durrus Catholic) in Durrus; Bantry Abbey, etc.

Photos of St. Mary's in Leap, County Cork were taken by Nick Turner of Drimoleague.

The photos of the tombstones of Dyna Downes and her son Lawrence Downes in Clunes, Australia were provided by Rev. Fr. John Walshe of Victoria.

Photos of Collinses in County Kerry (descendants of a Skibbereen Collins clan) were supplied by Michael Collins in Killarney. Stop by the Kilcummin Inn and say hello if you pass through.

It's great to have friends and relatives in the right places. Thanks to all these individuals!

MY VIRTUAL CEMETERIES

I have several active ones on my family genealogy data and am working on more. You should see the public ones in the right sidebar.

====== Best of luck with your research! ======