Publisher's Synopsis
At noon on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916 a hush fell over O'Connell Street in Dublin. From the steps of the General Post Office a man by the name of Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic of Ireland: "Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom." Thus began the 1916 Easter Rising to gain independence from England. The Civil War in Ireland had begun. On Friday, 30 June 1922, the Public Records Office of Ireland, located at the historic Four Courts in Dublin, was severely damaged by fire resulting in the loss of a large number of genealogical records of the country. Among these records that were destroyed were the surviving 19th century census returns, two-thirds of the Church of Ireland parish registers and all surviving will probated in Ireland. This destruction was bad enough; however, one has to keep in mind that, Roman Catholic parishes as in the case of the Keating family, simply did not keep accurate records of their parishes dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. In January of 2001 this author commissioned an extensive search to be conducted by the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society in the hopes of obtaining further information on the family. To this end the search proved to find no results. Two years later this author personally went to Offaly County. Upon personally researching the surviving Roman Catholic Church records of Eglish Parish and surrounding parishes, this confirmed no outcome of finding older generations of the family which was most unfortunate. County Offaly was formerly known as Kings County and is located in the Irish Midlands in the province of Leinster. The Keating family history begins with two brothers, Patrick and Thomas. The names of their parents, nor for that matter the exact dates of birth and marriage, presently cannot be determined. However, what is known is that they were born in Eglish Parish and were from a Catholic family.
