Y-DNA test scholarships for Hourihane, Hor(ri)gan, Han(d)rahan, and Horan

I administer a DNA project that includes the names Hourihane, Hor(ri)gan, Han(d)rahan, Horan, and their many variations!

In conjunction with a DNA test sale ongoing at FTDNA through December 31, 2014, the project is offering scholarships for men with a qualifying surname, IF they can prove direct paternal ancestry from certain counties in Ireland.

Any man with one of these surnames who can prove Cork born direct paternal ancestry could be eligible for 100% funding of a 37 marker Y-DNA test.  That is $129 + cost to mail the kit to you.

If you are a man who qualifies with one of these surnames (or a variant) but can show that your direct paternal ancestor with one of these surnames was born in Clare, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, or Waterford, the project will fund 50% of your Y37 test ($65 after your contribution + cost to mail the kit to you.)

Name changes upon emigration are very common and don't disqualify you.  You just need to show that your name changed.

Project Website

Message hourihanedna on ancestry.com or email me from the project website for more details.

Collinses of Baunnahow, Lower Lissane and Russagh

I think I have identified in the baptism records better candidates for the James Collins who married Catherine Driscoll and lived in Russagh, south of Skibbereen.

The details of this couple are in a previous posting. A summary of the family is here:

Marriage:  4-Mar-1862 Skibbereen & Rath.
Witnesses:  Humphrey Collins, Jeremiah Driscoll

Johanna bap. 20-Aug-1863 Skibbereen Creagh & Sullon
Godparents:  Michael Hegarty, Catherine Driscoll

Nancy bap. 11-Apr-1865 Skibbereen.
Godparents: Jeremiah Driscoll, Margaret Driscoll

Mary bap. 19-Feb-1867 Skibbereen
Godparents: John Collins, Julia Donovan

Hanora bap. 14-May-1869 Skibbereen
Godparents: Laurence Hourihane, Ellen McCarthy

Michael bap. 9-Oct-1871 Skibbereen
Godparents: Michael Collins, Mary Hourihane

Patrick bap. 19-Mar-1874 Skibbereen
Godparents: Michael Driscoll, Hanora Donovan

Catherine (mother recorded as Cadogan) 22-Dec-1876 Skibbereen
Godparents: Patrick Cadogan, Mary Donovan

Denis bap. 14-May-1879 Skibbereen
Godparents: Humphrey Collins, Mary Donovan

There was also a son John in the 1901 census, age 14, placing his birth around 1886. By 1911 both parents are shown gone (James died in 1907), and son Michael subsequently married one Maria Driscoll and had children.

According to his death record, in 1907, James was 67, putting his birth year about 1840. In the 1901 census he was 63, possibly pushing his birth year back to 1838.  The oldest son of James and Catherine was named Michael, and the known remaining sons were named Patrick (born around St. Patrick's Day), Denis, and John. No known son was named Humphrey.

Among their family's event witnesses were Humphrey Collins and Laurence Hourihane, names that are nearly unique to the area around Lower Lissane.

I tried to place James either in the family of Humphrey Collins and Johanna Barnane, or in the family of Michael Collins and Mary Donovan. Based on the evidence, neither are a good fit.

In the Lissane family of Humphrey and Johanna, son James was born 1833. In the Lissane family of Michael Collins and Mary Donovan, son James was born 1829. From a naming tradition view, James of Russagh would have fit better with Michael Collins and Mary Donovan, but the age is nearly a decade off. From an age standpoint, he would have fit better with Humphrey Collins and Johanna Barnane, but no son was named Humphrey.

I have found two possible babies named James, both from Baunnahow, a location that is emerging as a place of great importance in my research.

1. James, son of Michael Collins and Ellen McCarthy, was baptized 30-Dec-1838. His godparents were Jerry Kedagon (Cadogan) and Nelly McCarthy.  I cannot find any other children for this couple, who were married in Drimoleague & Drinagh RC Parish 5-Feb-1837. Witnesses were Simon Collins and Jeremiah McCarthy.

This one is my preferred working model for now, for several reasons - the age fits, the name of the father fits in that the first son was named after his paternal grandfather, and both the names Michael Collins and Ellen McCarthy show up as godparents to the Russagh Collins children.

What isn't explained is why there aren't more children for Michael Collins and Ellen McCarthy. Also, those two names - Michael Collins, Ellen McCarthy - could easily have been plucked from elsewhere to fill in as godparents.

It is tempting to think the name "Jerry Cadogan" would qualify as a possible future father-in-law to James. However, searching for Jerry Cadogan in the Drimoleague records does not turn up a daughter Catherine in the right age range, or son Michael (my theory being that Michael Driscoll Cadogan of Currabeg was her sibling).

2. James, son of Simon Collins and Johanna Driscoll, was baptized 5-Jul-1840. Godparents were Bat (Bartholomew) Collins and Joan Driscoll.  There isn't anything particularly remarkable about this family, except that they had a daughter Norry, bap. 18-Jun-1837, who is a contender for the Honora Collins who married James Collins and lived in Lower Lissane. I'm still working on her.

I would prefer to think that James, son of Michael Collins and Mary Donovan, married Honora Collins and stayed put in Lower Lissane because it is simpler. The marriage took place 24-Jan-1861 in Drimoleague & Drinagh and the marriage record notes James was from Caheragh parish. I believe my grandfather's family had ties to this family.

A move from Baunahow to Russagh is a complication, however from the church record evidence the family in Russagh knew people from the Lower Lissane area, so there was a move.

I am very interested in finding descendants of this family.

Accidental breakthrough on Roggie and Pitchie

Four years ago I wrote about my (now 91 year old) aunt remembering playing with two children at her grandfather's home in Cullomane East. They were her size, and they were nicknamed "Roggie" and "Pitchie." She only remembered that "Roggie" had bright red curly hair but really couldn't remember further details. They were associated with a woman named Dinah, whom I deduced was their mother. From research I subsequently learned that "Dinah" must have been Dinah Collins Hallahan, who was my grandmother's first cousin. Both Dinah's father and her husband worked for the railroad. By pure accidental luck, I have come one major step closer to discovering what happened to Dinah, and who Roggie and Pitchie were.

Some time ago the Irish government put a civil registration index online at irishgenealogy.ie. The government took it down when it decided that publication of the records was violating privacy laws because of the availability of more recent records containing data that included mothers' maiden names. At the time I am writing this, it is still down.

Before the site came down, I looked up Dinah Hallahan and immediately found a death entry in 1980. The registration district was Cork. Figuring that the family lived in Cork City, I tried searching for Hallahan children whose mother's surname was Collins. I immediately found two children. I sent for one of those records.

The records I subsequently sent for shows that Dinah was 87 years old when she died, and lived on Glencoo Lawn off of Boreenmanna Road in Cork City. She died at a medical institution called St. Mary's.

Daughter Margaret was born in March 1920 at 29 South Terrace. The record shows the residence of the father, Daniel, at 25 High Street, which is just a few blocks away.

The second child, son Daniel, was born in 1921 according to the Irish government online source. However, I cannot find Daniel in the online civil registration at Family Search, indicating that not all information was given to the FHL at the time they filmed civil registration. Daniel's birth record will be in my next batch of GRO requests to Ireland.

Now, if I could only trace these children, particularly Margaret ("Pitchie").  If she had daughters, and they had daughters, conceivably it would be possible for one of these direct line female descendants to do a DNA test which would establish the mitochondrial signature of my 3g-grandmother, Catherine Hurley, married to Denis Mahony.

Yet another seismic shift in the Driscolls

After a lot of research, I discovered that Pat Driscoll (bap. 1820), the person I believe is my gg-grandmother's older brother, preceded his brothers Florence and James out to Androscoggin County, Maine, USA.

There is some convincing evidence in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lewiston, Maine, that the Pat Driscoll who married Catherine Sullivan in 1841 and had a son Daniel late that year traveled to Maine around 1848. I still hold a few doubts given how young Pat was when he and Catherine Sullivan married (not quite 21).

The Pat Driscoll who married Mary Regan back in Ireland, and, for that matter, the Pat Driscoll who stood in as a witness to other family events in Ireland after 1848, could have been another close relative.

 What hasn't been convincingly proven yet is which Pat Driscoll is the brother and which Pat Driscoll is the "other close relative."

There are many Maine birth and baptism records still sitting on film here at the Salt Lake City Family History Library that haven't been digitized and published online, so I will be spending many weeks sifting through those. Although what is available online is somewhat incomplete, the old Lewiston newspapers are in the Google news archive, and I can use information from there and the Mount Hope Cemetery records along with the films to reconstruct Driscoll families in the area. So far I have not been able to find death notices for Pat (d. 1882), Florence (d. 1906), or James (d. 1911).

I have never been able to determine what happened to brother Daniel (bap. 1829), and have been unable to find a death record for Daniel Senior, though I know from the youngest brother John's second marriage record that Daniel Senior was deceased by 1883.

My Driscoll descendant charts have been updated on my family genealogical documents.

Driscoll research update 2014

Below is a link to my book publishing my research of my Driscoll family from Caheragh parish.  The research includes Maguires of Garrane, Cadogans of Skibbereen, McCarthy Crimeens of Dromore, Collinses of Lower Lissane, Driscolls from Lackenafasoge and Barna, and Driscolls who settled in Androscoggin County, Maine, USA.

From Skibbereen to Androscoggin:  On the Trail of the Driscolls of Garrane Beg, Caheragh.  Updated for 2014.

Except for one additional Driscoll marriage record, the charts on my personal genealogy website are mostly up to date.