This letter has been in our Irish Hollingsworth file for 27 years.
We received it gladly, and that was some six months before the first Hol-
lingsworth Register was printed.  For the first four years of our "quest,"
we were whole-heartedly devoted to our own family from County Wexford, as
far as Hollingsworths go.  Of course, we were working on all our lines at
that time.  We knew only a smattering about Valentine's family, but that 
clan proved impossible to avoid, whereas, our kinsmen were scarcer than
the Loch Ness Monster, and hen's teeth too.  Maria is now long deceased,
but her letters proved to be nearly the last in a series of exciting mail
arrivals that really made us enjoy genealogy.  No more.  Now let's put one
of her missives in Hollingsworth Register.  We owe it to her.

                                             27 Oct 1964
                                             Cloolanearl, REDCROSS,
                                             Co. Wicklow, EIRE.

Dear Mr. Hollingsworth  
    I received your very welcome letter & I must say that you have a lot
put together.  I never knew much about the Hollingsworths in Wexford, only
Daddy (Edward Hollingsworth-Ed.) used to tell me they were his relations 
that was all there was (no visiting) among each other, but my father did
tell me-also Annie Tyrell, about Mr. Prestage burning the Marriage lines
of Lady Ellenor & John & that was why the money could never be traced.
(Note: She is talking about the so-called Spottiswoode Legacy which we
wore out in the 1960 issues-HH) But Annie Tyrell could have left out a
generation which could be between my grandfather's father & Lady Ellenor's
son John & that could be where the Wexford folk come in (but I cannot say)
I have nothing to prove that.  But Annie Tyrell told me she used to spend
her school holidays down with the Hollingsworth's in Killena (Killenagh
is a parish in Co. Wexford-HH); You asked me if my Husband's grandfather &
mother ever went out (an Irish expression for "emigrated"-HH).  I don't
think they ever did but three of their daughters went out there (Canada HH)
I tried to find out what their names were but I could not as all the folk
are dead.  My niece Dorothy Newman which I called on & she will look photo
(sic) for me and I will write to Hollyfort to see if there are any & if
not I will send you my Husband (his picture-HH) which is very like my fa-
ther (Maria married a 2nd cousin John Hollingsworth - HH).  I will send it
to you by letter post. My husband's grandmother and my grandmother (Hemp-
enstall-HH) were first cousins & my mother Maria Lawrence's mother was a
sister of my Grandmother Hollingsworth (nee Hempenstall-HH). My Daddy and
Mamma were first cousins.  I always did know that there were nine brothers
and one sister in my grandfather's family (i.e.. her grandfather's eight
brothers and one sister-HH) and my father told me that the most of them
had been an under-gamekeeper for Lady Carryesfort (Carysfort-HH) between
Woodenbridge and Arklow (Co. Wicklow-HH) & the head gamekeeper accused my
daddy's uncle of selling the game and it was (really) the Head man him-
self that was doing it, and so he lost his job and went out to Canada. I
don't know what his name was (neither does HH), only he was one of the
9 brothers.  Those were little things Dady used to tell me.  You have been
told right about John's grandfather being born the night of Arklow Bat-
tle (1798-HH).  I had heard that too.  William Hollingsworth, my husband's
grandfather, had Edward, Dan & Johnny, also a (simple boy) and three dau-
ghters who went out to America.  Dan married a Byrne, Roman Catholic.  John
married an Elisa Tuke, a cousin of Dora Tuke who married Edward Hollings-

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