School Project To Reunite Memorial Plaque With Family
For those of you who follow my personal twitter account you may know that I am training to become a primary school teacher and a news story caught my eye, when I came across it, as it may be something I would do in the future with my classes.
Cathal Crowe, a teacher and history enthusiast from County Clare in Ireland, came across the memorial plaque, also known as a widow's penny or the death penny, on ebay. Which ties into my last article about finding family history artefacts on the site. Mr Crowe, then decided it would make a good project for his sixth class (equivalent to year 7 in England & Wales) to research about the man and try to reunite the plaque with his family.
Mr Crowe has said "I thought that was all wrong. This should be a sacred relic for a family. There’s no grave for this guy but someone was selling this on eBay. The only reason I bought it was to research it and give to his family."
The plaque was for Sergeant Edward Lynch of the Royal Munster Fusiliers who was killed on the 21 December 1914. The class tracked down Edward's will, medical records, rank and where he died as well as information about his family. They found that Edward was one of four brothers who died during the war with one of them killed on the same day. They also discovered that Jeremiah Lynch, Edward's father had predeceased Edward and that has mother had remarried into the O'Sullivan family.
The class are now at the last hurdle in their research and are now trying to find living family members of Edward so they can reunite the plaque. They have found some possible families in West Cork but have yet to find a connection.
Published: 22 December 2016
Cathal Crowe, a teacher and history enthusiast from County Clare in Ireland, came across the memorial plaque, also known as a widow's penny or the death penny, on ebay. Which ties into my last article about finding family history artefacts on the site. Mr Crowe, then decided it would make a good project for his sixth class (equivalent to year 7 in England & Wales) to research about the man and try to reunite the plaque with his family.
Mr Crowe has said "I thought that was all wrong. This should be a sacred relic for a family. There’s no grave for this guy but someone was selling this on eBay. The only reason I bought it was to research it and give to his family."
The plaque was for Sergeant Edward Lynch of the Royal Munster Fusiliers who was killed on the 21 December 1914. The class tracked down Edward's will, medical records, rank and where he died as well as information about his family. They found that Edward was one of four brothers who died during the war with one of them killed on the same day. They also discovered that Jeremiah Lynch, Edward's father had predeceased Edward and that has mother had remarried into the O'Sullivan family.
The class are now at the last hurdle in their research and are now trying to find living family members of Edward so they can reunite the plaque. They have found some possible families in West Cork but have yet to find a connection.
Published: 22 December 2016
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