Joseph Zimber: From New Ross to Montreal

Joseph Zimber was one of three children of Aaron Zimber (1851–1901) and Elizabeth Ashmore (1857–1894). Aaron was a clockmaker who had emigrated to Ireland from the Black Forest region of Germany. Joseph's sister Albertina (1881–1928) was my great-grandmother, while his younger brother Fred Zimber (1887–1915) would eventually travel much further afield before losing his life during the First World War.

The family had already suffered considerable upheaval before the children reached adulthood. Elizabeth died in 1894 and Aaron in 1901. By the time of the 1901 census Joseph and Fred were living in New Ross with their stepmother Isabella.

Joseph Zimber (1883-1905)

Joseph did not follow his father's trade. By his early twenties he had trained as a printer. A report published in the Wexford Free Press shortly after his death records that he had been employed in the printing establishment of Moran Brothers, North Street, New Ross, and had just completed his full term of apprenticeship before leaving Ireland.

His younger brother Fred had also left Ireland for Canada in the summer of 1904. But the circumstances of Joseph's own departure suggest that another person was much more important to his decision to go.

Josef Hummel of Neukirch: Faith, Revolution and a Divided Community

A Village at the Edge of Revolution

The Revolutions of 1848 were a wave of liberal and nationalist uprisings that swept across Europe, challenging established political orders. In Baden, the movement became particularly radical, culminating in an armed republican uprising in 1849 before being defeated by Prussian-led forces.

In the small Black Forest village of Neukirch, these events were not distant constitutional struggles played out in Frankfurt or Karlsruhe. They unfolded through village meetings, militia levies, disputes over local government and, in the case of Josef Hummel, a deeply personal conflict over religion and political authority.

Neukirch

Josef Hummel (1810–1870) was a watchmaker and watch trader who became mayor of Neukirch in 1847. During the upheavals of 1848–49, he would find himself caught between competing political and religious loyalties.

Relatives in the 1926 Census

The following is a list of relatives appearing in the 1926 census of Ireland.

Co. Kilkenny

My great-grandparents John & Albertina Holmes along with their children Pammy, Tom, Jack and Fred, in Charterschoolland, Kilkenny

Co. Wexford

Their eldest son George Holmes, boarding in Main Street, Wexford

Co. Kildare

John's brother Samuel E Holmes and his wife and daughter (both Eleanor), in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare

An Introduction to My Family History

My name is Kevin Holmes. I am originally from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, and now live in Limerick. I have been researching my family history for nearly 30 years.

My interest began when I was given a substantial amount of family information compiled by my grandfather's cousin, John Holmes of Monasterevin. His research into the Holmes family of Co. Laois and Co. Kildare provided the starting point for my own investigations. Further information and assistance came from Richard Holmes in Australia and from other members of the wider Holmes family, including my distant cousin Dianne Friden in California.

The same has been true of other branches of the family. My own research uncovered part of the Zimber story, but it was another distant cousin, Martin Zimber in Canada, who provided the vital information connecting the family in Ireland with the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, in Germany. Paul Dold, Jürgen Sterk and Corinna Zimber subsequently provided further information about the Black Forest families.

The internet has transformed family-history research during the years I have been working on it, making possible contacts and discoveries that would once have been extremely difficult. This blog grew from a desire both to share what I have found and to make contact with others researching the same families.

People, Places and Stories

What began with the Holmes family has gradually developed into a much wider collection of family stories. The people featured here came from very different backgrounds and led very different lives. They include labourers, railwaymen, soldiers, shopkeepers, clockmakers and jewellers; people who remained close to where they were born and others whose lives took them across the world.

Their stories encompass different religious traditions, migration, war and political upheaval, work, sport, art and everyday family life. Geographically, they stretch from Laois, Kildare, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Dublin to the Black Forest in Germany, Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and Fiji.

The main family stories currently on the blog, together with some of the areas I am still researching, are grouped below.

Edward Kirwan Snr - On The North West Frontier

A Dublin Labourer's Son

Edward Kirwan was born in Dublin in late 1863 or early 1864, the son of Patrick & Catherine Kirwan, and grew up in the parish of St Catherine’s in the densely populated inner city. His early life was shaped by the working-class environment of Dublin in the mid-Victorian period, where labouring work was common and military service offered one of the few structured routes to stable income and travel. By the age of 18, he had enlisted in the British Army, joining the 1st Battalion of the 22nd Regiment of Foot (later the Cheshire Regiment) in Dublin on 26 August 1878. At enlistment, he was recorded as 5 ft 5½ in tall, with a fresh complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes, and minor scars on his forehead and forearm. His profile is consistent with the broader pattern of Irish urban recruitment into the British infantry during this period, particularly from Dublin's working-class districts.

Soldier of the Empire

After initial training in Buttevant, Co. Cork and home service, Kirwan was deployed to India in October 1879. This placed him within the North-West Frontier military system at a time when British forces were consolidating control following the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880). His service record situates him within a network of interconnected cantonments rather than a single fixed garrison. These included Peshawar, the principal frontier headquarters and administrative hub; Nowshera, a forward staging cantonment exposed to malaria-prone lowlands; Cherat, a hill station used primarily for convalescence and recovery from illness; Ambala, a major rear-area cantonment and depot; and Allahabad, part of the wider imperial logistics system through which troops were processed into and out of Indian service. Within this system, soldiers were routinely rotated between stations, often in response to operational requirements, climate, and health rather than formal combat deployment.

British soldiers on the North West Frontier c 1880