My great grandparents, Thomas (ne Wroe) and Mary Ellen
Meagher Rowe – their family:
William Joseph, b at sea on "Josephus" 6 June 1853
Margaret, b Hancock Court ,
Portland 22 Nov 1858 @ 2
Catherine Meagher, b 13 Dec 1858 ; died ???
Thomas Meagher, b 10
Feb 1863 ; d 7 May 1927
Mary, b 2 May 1865, d
??? - Anna M. Rowe married John E. McBrady
Jane (Jenny), b 7
Sep 1867 ; died ??? married
Frank M. Emery
There were a total of eleven children in the William Joseph
and Catherine Ellen Rowe family, though a number never reached maturity. They
were:
Nellie Mary Rowe, born 2 Sep 1878 ; died 26 Nov 1879 @ 1
Mary Ellen Rowe, born 20 Nov 1879 ; died 21 Aug 1885 @ 6
William Thomas Rowe, MD, born 15 Sep 1881 ; died 5 May 1955
John Henry Rowe, born 29 July 1883 ; died 12 Apr 1956
Edward Shannon Rowe, born 8 Aug 1885 ; died 4 Apr 1886 @ 1
Edwin Leonard Rowe, born 20 Jan 1887 ; died 9 Aug 1941 @ 54
Francis Stephen Rowe, born 26 Dec 1888 ; died 11 Apr 1921 @ 33
Joseph William Rowe, born 2 Apr 1891 ; died
Daniel Mannix Rowe, MD, born 14 Jun 1893 ; died 2 Sep 1965
Alice Josephine Rowe, born 3 Mar 1896 ; died 28 Aug 1981
Thomas Lipton Rowe, born 23 Oct 1899 ; died 8 Jul 1915 @ 15
Homes to remember and visit – try to find them using Google Earth
A - 45 Waterville street
from ?? to 1909 (Thomas Lipton Rowe born
there; Grampa Willie died there in 1909; Great Grampa John Shanaghan died there
in 1901)
B - 40 Monument Street ,
where Thomas and Mary Ellen lived through about
C - 36 Vespers Street
(where Uncle Edwin Leonard later lived), one had a grocery store
downstairs.
D - 54 Adams Street ,
where Great Grampa Thomas lived at his death in 1892 and Great Gramma Mary
Ellen in 1902.
E - in 1882 - Willie and Kate lived @ 48 Adams, w/ boarders
John and E.H. O'Brian; Thomas and Thomas H. Rowe @ 74 Adams (or 17 Newberry
St); John Edward McBrady, sheet iron worker @ 74 Adams.
All these houses are within
several blocks on Munjoy Hill near Portland 's
Eastern Promenade (overlooking
Casco
Bay
and Chebeague Island
MLFHS: Researching Irish ancestors
I don't know if anyone else has picked up on your query. I know how difficult it can be to research Irish ancestors. I would suggest you start with http://www.rootsireland.ie. It may point you in the right direction. If you know which part ofManchester Catholic Parish Church
I don't know if anyone else has picked up on your query. I know how difficult it can be to research Irish ancestors. I would suggest you start with http://www.rootsireland.ie. It may point you in the right direction. If you know which part of
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SURNAME Research
server sites - Those O’Connor’s, Sullivan’s, and Shanahan (Shannon’s)
researching your roots might want to “subscribe” to the following free sites:
Sullivan-1-request@rootsweb.com_ Oconnor-1-request@rootsweb.com_ www.geocities.com/Heartline/Hills/5600_
For the first two sites, send the message SUBSCRIBE – and no other words, just
subscribe. I have not tried these sites, as the other two I subscribe to now
yield over100 messages a day. I am also not certain whether “cousins” will be
on these sites (not close ones in any case); there may be cousins there, I just
can’t guarantee it. To each of these sites you might want to send a simple note
explaining/outlining your family tree, and asking for cousins to respond; this
is done by sending the note, in the first case to oconnor-1@rootsweb.com_
and in the second case to sullivan-1@rootsweb.com_. Shanahan/Shannon researchers look for
instructions at the website homepage.
Other surnames can beresearched by checking the “surname
list” on Cyndi’s list www.cyndislist.com/surnames.html .
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Research aids –
The place and time might be different, but these sorts of
investigative aids may help you find one of your ancestors.
Death certificate – may
provide the names of wife, parents, an address
Obituary – The date may come
from the above – and might name
Cemetery – may include cause
of death, siblings and an address
Church
records – may yield an address, other family member names
Naturalization
records – may yield data as to birthplace, date of arrival
Passenger
Arrival Records – ship on which traveled, possible companions
City
Directories- would show trade, union membership, work place.
What do we tell each other – A fellow
genealogist in a casual conversation asked how and what I decide to share of
family data I uncover. Most of you are quite honestly only casually interested in most of the
family data I uncover or which is shared with me; there are only a few whose
interest in family history is deep and continuing (or you could say an
obsession). That is not in any way a put down, merely an observation. I told
him I share whatever is given me (unless restrictions are placed on its
distribution by the source) or its being shared would cause controversy. I also
require that the information not be used in any way which would distort or show
disrespect for the religious beliefs, whatever they were or were not, of ancestors/family.
I try not to share addresses anymore without asking. Other than these limits, I
share everything, given time.
HICUZ 35 –
(extract)
“Noble O’Connors”
– Third cousin Carroll O’Connor wrote recently and shared an important
and oft overlooked bit of family lore. It seems that the O’Connors of our
collective family are known as the”noble O’Connors. Various reasons have been
presented, and may each hold the ultimate reason. My mother used to tell me we
are descended from one of the High Kings of Ireland. Another reason I’ve heard
is that at a church fire one ancestor ran in and saved the host, thus earning
the appellation “noble.” Another plausible story is the one Carroll O’Connor
told me. After visiting cousins in Ireland
he was told by male O’Connor cousins that the term came from being strong,
brave, and hard to defeat in battle. The female O’Connor cousins told a
different story; they said it was because we males were”so damn good looking.”
Carroll says we should agree with the women’s rationale, as one can easily
verify this theory by looking in a mirror. Carroll also shared that our
ancestors used to fish for salmon at night in the Feale
River
O’Conor Don Sept - Found on the INTERNET, at the following
site, www.knightlyorders.org/oconor.html
several pages of general history of O’Conor
Don (brown-haired) and at www.knightlyorders.org/comp.html
. It turns out that the last two High Kings of Ireland were Ua Conchobair
(O’Connor or O'Conor); Turlough Mor O’Conor ruled for 30 years until his death
in 1156, and his son Ruaidri (Roderick) or Ruiri (Rory) O’Conor who succeeded
his father and ruled through 1198. Both were also separately Kings of Connacht.
Perhaps this is the historical connection to the term “noble.” The current holder of the title O’Conor Don
is Denis Armar O’Conor Don, who lives in Dun Laoghaire
near Dublin with his wife Rosemary.
I invite your review of those webpages and their story of the leader of the
O’Conor Sept.
Recently saw an article sent by
a cousin of a cousin in South Africa, noting that the O’Conor Don Sept (of
Roscommon) centuries ago had split into several separate septs, two originally
designated by the color of their respective leaders’ hair (Red (Ruadh or Roe)
and Brown (Anglicized version is Don)). One Sept became predominantly
Protestant, while the other remained Catholic; this does not alter or diminish family
connections (should we ever get back that far).
I mention this, and the fact that several of an ancestors’ son became
Royal Irish Constables (RIC) as in no way demeaning or denigrating their ties
or character. Their descendants are family.
HICUZ 42 –
(extract)
O’Conor Don Sept – From fourth cousin Clare, a tidbit that may
be of interest. It seems that the Dun Laoghaire (port
for Dublin ) Genealogical Society is
(was once) offering for sale illustrated copies of the family tree (though
probably only his direct line) of Denis Armar O’Conor Don, current head of that
sept, and thus symbolic Prince of Connacht. It traces his ancestry from 75 AD
to the current date, noting worldwide events to show what was happening in
certain eras. It may be of interest, because if we collectively can trace
O’Connor ancestry to a time and place coincident with his lineage, it lets us
use his tree as a stepping stone to more ancient times. This is the primary
reason one hopes to find royal blood, since it ties into better documentation.
The tree can be obtained for nine Irish pounds from: Hon. Secretary, DLGS,
11Desmond Avenue, Dun Laoghaire , Dublin ,
Ireland
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HICUZ 40 –
(extract)
These newsletters are copyrighted because they involve
considerable effort, time, expense, and family data. I ask that you not send any
newsletter to ANY website or group, no matter how family-oriented or innocuous
they may seem, without asking. This is a matter of respect for beliefs of our
ancestors, which you are asked to respect.
Our ancestors collectively held many beliefs, some were
Christians (of many faiths, sects, et cetera), some Jews, and some of other
beliefs. No matter what those beliefs were, they are and remain a fact of
history. Whether we, you or I, disagree with those beliefs may be a
separate issue. Some people, however, distort the fact of those beliefs by
converting those ancestors to their own belief system after the fact (of years
or even centuries). As an historian I have an issue with revisionism, and
personally see it as a gross insult to those beliefs and those currently
holding those beliefs (no matter what they were).
Some genealogy websites and
organizations serve to facilitate that distortion, which requires accumulation
of extensive, detailed family data. Because of this I include a copyright, and
a caution (see REMINDER at top of this newsletter) that the data in the
newsletters not be subjected to this process. PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY newsletters on any website without my permission.
If any cousin does this, they
will be breaching a family trust.
http://www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6108/grifintr.htm . The Irish Valuation Office, 6 Ely
Place, Dublin 2, Ireland has records relating to land ownership, and its
holdings include Cancelled Land Books, Current Land Books, from the time of GV
to the present. These records note the names of occupants, the lessors, and
land values. Its primary documents are the original Griffith ’s
Valuation books, three in number: the field books, the house books, and the
tenure books. The field book has info on the size and quality of a house; house
books contain the occupant’s name and measurements of any building; the tenure
books contain the annual rent paid and legal basis (by lease or will) and the
year of the lease. In the latter part of the 19th and early part of
the 20th century, people were able to buy the land they had farmed. Changes to
the original GV were noted in the margins of the Cancelled Books, and the
Current Land Books. These books are priceless to researchers since, though
censuses were taken in 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1901, and 1911,
most records prior to 1901 were destroyed. Copies of GV are available (some
with indexes) on CD-ROMs. A website which includes many articles on Irish
records, and Limerick County
HI CUZ 41 – extracts
–
Irish
Land
Irish Tithe Applotment Books - Quote:
Tithes were an income tax on farming, usually about one tenth of the annual
income. These were used for the upkeep of the Church
of Ireland
Catholics and Protestants alike, in England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Wales, resented this tax. Tax was not payable on all land, and
there was even variation on the types of land from place to place. From 1736 grazing
land had an exemption - this was usually land held by landlords. Certain crops
were taxable, others weren’t. Potatoes
could be taxable
in one parish and not in the one next door.
Tithe books
were not comprehensive, people who did not hold land are not listed and some
types of land were passed over absolutely.
Towns and cities were usually not asssesed. They are arranged by
townland and usually give the acreage held by each farmer. However, note here
that the measurement used was the plantation or Irish acre which differs in
size from the imperial or English acre used in the Griffiths Valuation.
The information you get from the Tithe Books is simple,
townland name; landholders name; area of land and tithes paid. Some will list the landlord's name as well.
The original tithe books for the 26 counties of the Republic
of Ireland Dublin . Those for the 6 counties of Northern
Ireland were transferred to the Public
Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast .
Copies remain in Dublin in the
National Archives and National Library.
Tithe Defaulters:
As mentioned above, Catholics and Protestants all objected to paying of Tithes.
In 1830 Catholic Parishioners in Graiguenamanagh in Co. Kilkenny withheld
their tithes. In 1832 they were followed by those in most
parts of south Leinster and
Quaker records show lists of those who defaulted on Tithes
also.
Amendments were passed to the 1826 Act, the first in 1831
excluded those houses under the annual valuation of £3, another in 1836
excluded house under £5. The information in Griffiths
includes: the townland address and householders name; the name of the person
from whom the property is leased; a description of the property; the acreage
and the valuation.
If a surname was common in an area then the Griffith
surveyors adopted the practice of
indicating the fathers name to show the difference between two people of
the same Christian name and surname….(usually). So Tadgh O’Brien (Michael) is
the son of Michael O’Brien and Tadgh O’Brien (James) is the son of James
O’Brien. However, in Ireland people of the same name could/can be distinguished
simply by indicating the colour of their hair (as gaeilge - thru Irish ) so it
would have been sufficient here to indicate that one Tadgh had red hair and one
Tadgh black – calling them respectively Tadgh (Red) O’Brien and Tadgh (Black) O’Brien.
The main difference between the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith ’s
Valuation is that all householders were in Griffiths .
Remember the different types of acres used in each, the
Irish and English acre. This will account for difference in size of land held
by a family from one valuation to the other if they appear in both. Remember also that the house of less than £3
annual value were included up to the year 1831 and excluded from that point
forward, and those with an annual value of £5 were included up to 1836 and
excluded from then on. QUOTE
Many refer to the Griffiths CD, which is handy enough to
track a surname through the country…or to find some places in counties where
the name occurs. However, this is a list
of names for the county, there is no way of knowing if the six John O’Leary’s
listed for one county are one and the same or if all the land is held by John
O’Leary and rented out to others. A source – www.familytreemaker.com/ .
One problem noted by researchers is that while the Griffiths
Valuation CD was supposed to have been transcribed from the originals - the
place names are not as they should be in many instances. There are place names which while one may
know them from the originals - are not the same as actually written in the Griffiths
Valuation books.
Another problem is that many GV entries were written by
people with little or no knowledge of Irish geography or Irish phonetics. So
that while they transcribed what they thought they saw, because of faded ink or
poor script - the actual name might be quite different if it was someone with a
knowledge of either Irish phonetics or the geography of the area they would
have written a different word as the place name. This is not a huge
error to anyone who knows the geography of the area they are
inquiring about, but for anyone who hasn’t a clue, it’s a different story.
There is an index to surnames in the Griffiths
Valuation. The indices are made up by
county, divided into baronies, parishes, townlands. There are two sections
to an index and some counties have a number of volumes covering the whole
county, .e.g. Co. Cork has three. Each
index is divided into two sections, the first being an alphabetical list
of
surnames occurring in the area the index covers and the
names that occur in each
Barony. The second section is an alphabetical list of
surnames occurring in each parish within that barony. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know which
Barony the parish you are looking for is in - you just check through the second
section. It doesn’t matter even if you
don’t know the parish you can just check the first section to see where the
name occurred in a county. The index to the surnames tells you how many times a
surname occurred in a particular parish and whether or not that surname also
occurred in the
Tithe books. It does
not give you any more information.
The Householders
Index with their FHC film numbers:
Antrim Armagh, Carlow, Cavan - film # 0919001
Clare, Cork , Londonderry
- film # 0919002
Donegal, Down Dublin - Film #
0919003
Fermanagh, Galway , Kerry, Kildare, Kilkeny - film #
0919004
Laois, Leitrim, Limerick , Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath - film #
0919005
Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo , Tipperary
- film # 09119006
Tyrone, Waterford ,
Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow - film #
0919007
_
Valuation Office
Records - The Valuation office was set up to carry out the original
Primary Valuation. It is still in existance and has in its possession the
original set of
notebooks used by the Griffiths Valuation surveyors These are the field books, the house books
and the tenure books. All 3 have maps
which indicate the holding they refer to.
Field Books: Information on the size & quality of a
holding
House Books: Occupiers name and measurement of any buildings
Tenure Books: Annual rent paid and legal basis - whether by
lease or at will, also the year of any lease.
These notebooks also document any changes in occupation
between the initial survey and the final published survey.
The valuation office also holds the ‘Cancelled’ or
‘revision’ Land Books and Current Land Books.
The Cancelled land books are similar to those of the published valuation
but observations made were handwritten in.
The observations often show whether the size or physical structure of
the holding were altered, also the changes in the name of the landlord or
occupier….this can suggest death or emigration in a particular year. Changes may have been noted up to a few years
after the actual change. It is best to go to the original earlier years and
work your way forward with these because the actual numbers
of lots can have changed over the years because of lots
being broken up or joined.
The Land Commission was created by the 1881 Land Act to
determine fair rents, but its main purpose became to assist tenants to purchase
their property. A Congested Districts
Board was set up in 1891 and this had a similar function, but it was abolished
by the Irish Govt. in 1923 and its powers transferred to the Land Commission.
So, in the latter part of the 19th C and the
early part of the 20th C people who occupied land in Ireland
were able to buy that land. You will see
an entry in the cancelled books showing (In Fee) meaning that the occupier was
now the owner. Also, on these you may see LAP - Land Act Purchase stamped on an
entry, meaning the occupier had been assisted in by the Lands Commission to
purchase the land.
The cancelled books for the 26 counties are held in Dublin
in the Valuation Office while those for the 6 counties of Northern
Ireland are held in the PRONI in Belfast .
Those in Dublin are bound together
by year in large volumes, the oldest being at the back (oldest = Griffiths ).
Those in Belfast are not bound and
have to be asked for separately and are only available up to the 1930’s. The
related maps are also held in the Valuation Office. These are Ordnance Survey
Sheets onto which the property boundaries were drawn. Changes in holdings are also indicated on the
maps UNQUOTE - Source: Limerick Daily Digest, V99, #94. Provided
by a very helpful cousin.
Local
research - Many of the above films can be temporarily obtained at a
local Mormon Family History Center (FHC) and examined leisurely during their
research hours.
Wills – If
you can get to them, they may contain priceless information about family
members and may show how family members get along (or don’t). Wills are most
important because of the family relationships stated. With my O’Connor
ancestors a will was not probable. After the 1690 Battle
of the Boyne which saw King James’ Catholic supporters
in Ireland (and
separately in England ,
Scotland , and
in France ) lose
to Protestant forces, Catholics throughout the British Isles
were restricted by the Penal Laws, which reduced their political, religious,
and economic freedoms significantly. In contrast to the situation above of my
Wroe ancestors probably “owning” land near Manchester ,
my O’Connor ancestors in Ireland
most likely under the Penal Laws had to try to retain control of their lands by
leasing them from new landlords. In Germany ,
Nancy ’s Protestant ancestors were
suffering the opposite fate, being driven out by Catholic repression. On the
Scottish isle of Eigg Nancy ’s
ancestors were most likely on both ends of the spectrum.
Wills drawn up by Catholics in Ireland
in that period, or until the end of Penal Law restrictions, would have been
unthinkable, as they would have invited instant identification and loss of
property under the laws of the time. Life was not very fair or tolerant in
those times. Some were even “transported” for their crimes.
Transportation – Recently
reread an excellent book on this subject, Robert Hughes “The Fatal
Shore Australia New
York , 1987. It references another excellent source, “The Convict Settlers of Australia British
Isles and Australia .
Transportation was, in essence, the scheme to ship criminals and undesirables
far away, in the case of this book from the British Isles
to Australia .
In other cases though, Canadian revolutionaries of the 1830s and 1840s were
shipped to Australia ,
and before the American Revolutionary War, undesirables were shipped to the American
colonies, especially the southern colonies. Jails were not what society did
with criminals of the time, and only in the 1820s did England ,
under reforms by Sir Robert Peel, institute a modern police force. Previously England
used transportation as the method to house criminals, until jails became the
accepted practice.
L.L. Robson’s
survey of the entire period, analyzing a significant sample of those
transported, states that 34% were for unspecified larcenies, 15% for
burglary/housebreaking, 13% for stealing domestic/farm animals, and 6% for
stealing clothes “theft of wearing apparel.” Robson noted that “only a little
more than 3 percent of the male convicts went down ‘for offences against the
person, which ranged from assault, rape, kidnapping …a meager 4 percent were
under sentence for “offences of a public nature, which embraced an assortment
of acts thought to undermine the rights or prestige of the Realm – mainly
‘coining and uttering’ bad money (2 percent) followed by another 1.5 percent
convicted of treason, conspiring to riot or membership in trade unions or Irish
secret societies like the White Boys and Ribbon Men.”
Most of those transported, the vast majority, were English
city dwellers, where crime was rampant, quite contrary to the idyllic image of
Georgian and Victorian societies. Hughes notes that “in 1797 one in eight
Londoners lived by crime.” Irish, Scots, Welsh, and certainly Canadian
revolutionaries, trade unionists, and political activists were hardest to
capture and furthest from the areas of uppermost concern, English cities, where
those in power thought of the masses as little more than an unwelcome,
dangerous class competing for what was thought of as too little space.
Hughes’ book, often a commentary more on the social
structure of England
than on Australia ’s
first settlers, dispels the widely held view that the “typical convict was an
innocent creature who had sinned once and been savagely punished for it.” Most of those transported served essentially
as indentured servants for sheep ranches or on farms. The conditions varied
tremendously, with some receiving very humane treatment, others rebelling at
horrid conditions. The really criminal element were further transported to
smaller penal institutions on islands off Australia ’s
coast, or to distant areas, where treatment and life was quite brutal.
Indenture, while illegal in the USA today, remains alive with some immigrant
groups, and some of our ancestors. My grandmother Bridget Sullivan came
to America as an indentured servant.
It is noteworthy that in the late 1830s Canadians in Quebec revolted against English control. Some of
those caught were tried and hung; others were transported to Australia .
For those who take
life too seriously – “Save the whales … collect the whole set”
“A day without sunshine is like
… night!!” “ 99 percent of lawyers give
the others a bad name” “ He who laughs
last thinks slowest” “I drive way too
fast to worry about cholesterol” “If
Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?” “Support bacteria; it’s the only culture some
people have” “Monday is an awful way to
spend 1/7th of your life” “
Plan to be spontaneous today” and
lastly, for genealogists – “The problem with the gene pool is there is no
lifeguard”
