Artist: W. Kermeth c. 1930s
The photo below depicts a painting of Carnacon commissioned after a trip to Ireland in 1933.
EXPLORE WITH BRIDGET BLAKE BROWNE
Discovering Our Pasts
“Dia duit” May God be with you. I’m one of Bridget Blake Browne's great-great-granddaughters, Eileen McLoughlin Carter. Growing up in the suburbs near New York City in the U.S., I frequently heard family stories about life in Ireland from my grandmother and her stories stoked my imagination. Periodically, my dad would show me pictures of relatives to connect us to our heritage as descendants of the Browne family of Mayo, Ireland.
Despite several instances of seeing Bridget's picture* on the first page of an album my father painstakingly assembled, it wasn't until I myself was married and putting together a book for my firstborn daughter that I was prompted to learn more about her mysterious past.
Not only have I been able to learn more about her life in Ireland, but I've also connected with recently discovered Browne family members around the world!
Summer 2022
We are in the beginning stages of planning a Summer 2022 reunion in Carnacon, County Mayo for Bridget Blake Browne and George Browne's descendants.
We look forward to sharing more information about the event once we finalize more details.
BRIDGET BLAKE BROWNE
1822-1875
Bridget Blake Browne was born approximately 1822 and died October, 1875. Family stories indicate that she had some type of relationship to Towerhill. She married George Browne of Ballinamore on April 24, 1844. There have been varying accounts of an intrigue involving Bridget and George. Any limited details about the incident were not revealed to me until I was an adult, collecting stories for my newborn daughter.
Photo Credit: Erica Rothwell from website Ireland Reaching Out
BRIDGET BLAKE - IRELAND REACHING OUT
Website that brought Bridget Blake Browne's great great granddaughters together!
This is the photograph of Bridget Blake Browne from County Mayo (approx. 1822-October 16, 1875) who reached across time and space to bring three of her great great-granddaughters together on the website Ireland Reaching Out. Two of us had a copy of this same picture. None of us knew the other. We had all been searching independently for years to learn more about this woman from Carnacon, who had intrigued us with a mysterious past. For many years I had seen this photo on one of the first pages in our family photo album when my father periodically brought them out to show us children our Irish family. The background of Bridget's photo had been erased, to focus on her shawl covered shoulders ... nothing much was told about her other than her name and the fact that she was the grandmother of my grandmother.
While researching Irish family ancestry, I typed in the name Bridget Blake Browne from Carnacon, County Mayo on a search engine and this very same photo I had seen all my life in our album, was online on the Ireland Reaching Out website! Two other women, one from the Northeast of the USA, and the other from Ireland/Italy were both claiming that Bridget was their great great grandmother as well! With excitement I emailed both of them, including a copy of Bridget's photo from our family album pages. We quickly determined that we were all her great great-granddaughters and were distantly related cousins as well. Within a few days, we were emailing one another, sending each other copies of family photos, sharing ancestry research, and some personal information as well.
We hope that when the restrictions of Covid19 are lifted, we can all meet up in County Mayo to share the gift of family and thank Bridget Blake Browne for bringing us all together.