This site is the result of years of research into Patrick Lynch, who came from County Clare in Ireland in about 1847 to settle in South Africa. What began as a simple family tree became a study of the social history of the period, history that was fun to research because it was personal and had impacted on the Lynch family. They moved about the country following the economic imperatives, the transport of goods to the diamond fields, they fought in the wars, some on different sides and they left their mark.

This is their story or, at the very least, an attempt to unravel some of it.......

JOURNEY’S END

What shall the stream find?
Only the sea,
Down through the valley
Dancing along,
From dusk to reveille
With swift or slow song,
After all the changes past
Lo! At the changeless last,
Only the sea.

What shall thy heart find
World-weary traveler?
After the web unwound
Beyond thy conniving
That tangled thee round
Bound by its meshes fast,
Lo! At the deathless last
God the Unraveller.

Pat Kinna, 1948