A first draft transcription of the tithe applotment of Kilmacabea parish is now online. You may access it and other transcriptions here:
corgken.org TA Transcriptions
Please submit a correction here: Send a fix
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Kilfaughnabeg Tithe Applotment Transcription Now Online
A transcription of the Kilfaughnabeg Tithe Applotment (1829) is now online.
Corrections, annotations, enhancements and improvements to Kilfaughnabeg and all Tithe Applotment transcriptions remain ongoing.
Please submit corrections using this link: corrections.
Corrections, annotations, enhancements and improvements to Kilfaughnabeg and all Tithe Applotment transcriptions remain ongoing.
Please submit corrections using this link: corrections.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Transcription of Aghadown Tithe Applotment is now online
http://www.corkgen.org/publicgenealogy/cork/titheapplot/
Corrections, annotations, enhancements and improvements to Aghadown and all Tithe Applotment transcriptions remain ongoing.
Submit a correction here pretty please:
http://www.corkgen.org/publicgenealogy/cork/titheapplot/fixit.php
Corrections, annotations, enhancements and improvements to Aghadown and all Tithe Applotment transcriptions remain ongoing.
Submit a correction here pretty please:
http://www.corkgen.org/publicgenealogy/cork/titheapplot/fixit.php
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The drowning of Noria Driscoll, and some huge brick walls
If you have read prior posts, you may recall that my family knows absolutely nothing about our ancestor named Ellen Driscoll, who married Michael Collins of Lissane 28-Feb-1854 in Caheragh RC parish. I wrote about a major lead to her identity in Miss Marple's Guide to Genealogy.
Even though I think I know where the niece Noria Driscoll was from, I ran into rather formidable dead ends trying to find out more about Noria's family. Noria's birth record lists the parents as Johannah Collins and Michael Driscoll. They live in Currabeg (the one at the north end of Castlehaven parish). In the 1901 census record for the Currabeg household, Michael was a widower. To the best that I can tell, the youngest child was born in 1895. Therefore Johannah Collins died between 1895 and the 1901 census. So I should be able to find her death record.
There's a problem. It isn't in the online index. At least so far, I haven't been able to find it.
Is there any way of estimating when Johannah and Michael married? The eldest daughter in the 1901 Currabeg record was Helena, age 19. So maybe the marriage took place in the early 1880's.
Nothing matched in the online civil registration index.
I went to the online church records. Noting that the Castlehaven & Myross records end in 1881 I wasn't sure I would find anything, but I did: a son. Jeremiah was baptized September 1880.
I went back to the online civil registration index to look for Jeremiah Driscoll. He wasn't there in the index either!
At this point I let some time elapse because this problem was starting to drive me a little mad. In mid-October 2010, I got access to all the civil registration data films in Salt Lake City. I went directly to the third quarter of 1880 film and I went directly to the pages for the Union Hall local office. No Jeremiah Driscoll. But - there was a Jeremiah Cadogan, born to a Michael Cadogan and Johanna Collins Cadogan !
I searched the church records for any indication of a child born before Jeremiah and couldn't find anything. Further searches of birth films before 1880 so far have not uncovered any earlier children.
I went back and searched marriages in civil registration again, expanding the search back to 1870, considering Cadogan, and using all the Johanna permutations I could think of: Ann, Hannah, Nora, Hanora, Honora, Joan, Joanna, Jane, etc.
I even considered the idea that Johannah Collins was a widow prior to marrying Michael Driscoll and that Collins was her prior married name. So I took "Collins" off the search and tried again. Still no luck.
It's obvious that there is something really strange about this family that I just don't understand!
I examined the 1901 Russagh census record of the household where Noria's sister Juliann was living. James and Catherine Collins listed her as a niece. Another person in the Russagh household was son Michael.
Somehow, in the Irish births and baptisms (special collections), I found a Michael Collins born to James Collins and Catherine Driscoll in 1871. Further searching of the church records turned up more siblings, and importantly, that they were in Russagh.
Now, was Juliann a niece through Collins or through Driscoll?!? Or even both?!?
There is more to the story. In the online index, a death record kept popping up in 1903 for a 13 year old girl named Hanora Driscoll. Sure enough, it was the girl in Lissane in the 1901 census. Death by suffocation. Coroner R. Neville held an inquest 24-Feb-1903.
I searched the local news archives in the hopes there was was a story, but the drowning of Noria Driscoll was too insignificant an event to attract attention from the local paper, even though there were other drownings with inquests held by the same coroner about the same time. I emailed a few Ireland record places about old Cork inquest records, but nobody who knows anything has emailed me back.
How's that for a nice big brick wall?
In looking at the original 1901 Lissane household record that has Ellen Driscoll Collins and lists Noria as a niece, I can't help but wonder if perhaps her uncle Michael or aunt Noria, also in the household, were the ones who stated she was a niece and so 10 year old Noria should actually have been listed as a granddaughter rather than niece to Ellen Driscoll's husband Michael Collins, the head of the household. The perfect person, agewise, to have been 10 year old Noria's mother would have been the oldest daughter out of Lissane, Johanna, born 1856. Johanna could have married a Driscoll who may or may not have been a distant relative. Even if I knew all this to be fact, however, does not help me get over the problem of not being able to find critical records.
Fortunately, I have one other lead to discovering the identity of Ellen Driscoll Collins. Along with Driscoll baptismal sponsors to the children of Michael and Ellen were an Andrew Maguire and a Johanna Maguire. Those two names stand out like a beacon in Griffiths Valuation for Caheragh. Maguires are practically non-existent in the area but these people were in Gurrane (the west side of Caheragh). Fortunately, according to the same valuation, there are some Driscolls in next-door Cooranuller whose first names match those of the baptismal sponsors. I know when Ellen died, so I can guess when she was born (about 1830).
Skibbereen Heritage is working on it now.
Even though I think I know where the niece Noria Driscoll was from, I ran into rather formidable dead ends trying to find out more about Noria's family. Noria's birth record lists the parents as Johannah Collins and Michael Driscoll. They live in Currabeg (the one at the north end of Castlehaven parish). In the 1901 census record for the Currabeg household, Michael was a widower. To the best that I can tell, the youngest child was born in 1895. Therefore Johannah Collins died between 1895 and the 1901 census. So I should be able to find her death record.
There's a problem. It isn't in the online index. At least so far, I haven't been able to find it.
Is there any way of estimating when Johannah and Michael married? The eldest daughter in the 1901 Currabeg record was Helena, age 19. So maybe the marriage took place in the early 1880's.
Nothing matched in the online civil registration index.
I went to the online church records. Noting that the Castlehaven & Myross records end in 1881 I wasn't sure I would find anything, but I did: a son. Jeremiah was baptized September 1880.
I went back to the online civil registration index to look for Jeremiah Driscoll. He wasn't there in the index either!
At this point I let some time elapse because this problem was starting to drive me a little mad. In mid-October 2010, I got access to all the civil registration data films in Salt Lake City. I went directly to the third quarter of 1880 film and I went directly to the pages for the Union Hall local office. No Jeremiah Driscoll. But - there was a Jeremiah Cadogan, born to a Michael Cadogan and Johanna Collins Cadogan !
I searched the church records for any indication of a child born before Jeremiah and couldn't find anything. Further searches of birth films before 1880 so far have not uncovered any earlier children.
I went back and searched marriages in civil registration again, expanding the search back to 1870, considering Cadogan, and using all the Johanna permutations I could think of: Ann, Hannah, Nora, Hanora, Honora, Joan, Joanna, Jane, etc.
I even considered the idea that Johannah Collins was a widow prior to marrying Michael Driscoll and that Collins was her prior married name. So I took "Collins" off the search and tried again. Still no luck.
It's obvious that there is something really strange about this family that I just don't understand!
I examined the 1901 Russagh census record of the household where Noria's sister Juliann was living. James and Catherine Collins listed her as a niece. Another person in the Russagh household was son Michael.
Somehow, in the Irish births and baptisms (special collections), I found a Michael Collins born to James Collins and Catherine Driscoll in 1871. Further searching of the church records turned up more siblings, and importantly, that they were in Russagh.
Now, was Juliann a niece through Collins or through Driscoll?!? Or even both?!?
There is more to the story. In the online index, a death record kept popping up in 1903 for a 13 year old girl named Hanora Driscoll. Sure enough, it was the girl in Lissane in the 1901 census. Death by suffocation. Coroner R. Neville held an inquest 24-Feb-1903.
I searched the local news archives in the hopes there was was a story, but the drowning of Noria Driscoll was too insignificant an event to attract attention from the local paper, even though there were other drownings with inquests held by the same coroner about the same time. I emailed a few Ireland record places about old Cork inquest records, but nobody who knows anything has emailed me back.
How's that for a nice big brick wall?
In looking at the original 1901 Lissane household record that has Ellen Driscoll Collins and lists Noria as a niece, I can't help but wonder if perhaps her uncle Michael or aunt Noria, also in the household, were the ones who stated she was a niece and so 10 year old Noria should actually have been listed as a granddaughter rather than niece to Ellen Driscoll's husband Michael Collins, the head of the household. The perfect person, agewise, to have been 10 year old Noria's mother would have been the oldest daughter out of Lissane, Johanna, born 1856. Johanna could have married a Driscoll who may or may not have been a distant relative. Even if I knew all this to be fact, however, does not help me get over the problem of not being able to find critical records.
Fortunately, I have one other lead to discovering the identity of Ellen Driscoll Collins. Along with Driscoll baptismal sponsors to the children of Michael and Ellen were an Andrew Maguire and a Johanna Maguire. Those two names stand out like a beacon in Griffiths Valuation for Caheragh. Maguires are practically non-existent in the area but these people were in Gurrane (the west side of Caheragh). Fortunately, according to the same valuation, there are some Driscolls in next-door Cooranuller whose first names match those of the baptismal sponsors. I know when Ellen died, so I can guess when she was born (about 1830).
Skibbereen Heritage is working on it now.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
How I messed up looking for an ancestral record
I just went through a very frustrating experience with the GRO office in Roscommon, which was in large part my fault. I thought I would mention what I did wrong here so others can avoid the same error.
My gg-grandmother's name was Mary McCarthy, and she died in the Skibbereen district. Searching for anybody named "Mary McCarthy" is a major challenge, to say the least, and one I try to avoid as often as possible. I wanted some confirmation of her age, so I'd have some idea as to where to start looking for her baptismal record.
All I knew was that she died some time after the 1911 census. I (correctly) assumed she died in the home in Tooreen that had been her and her husband's (Cornelius McCarthy), then her son-in-law's (Humphrey Michael Collins), then oldest grandson's (Michael Humphrey Collins). Since my Aunt Peg does not recall her death, I also (correctly) assumed Mary McCarthy died some time before Peg could remember (before 1929). This narrowed down where to search civil registration to 1911-1929. For good measure I went up to 1933, in case Aunt Peg for some reason didn't know about her g-grandmother's death. I had a reason for doing this, as apparently there was some kind of rift between Grandmom and her brother-in-law Michael Humphrey Collins's wife, and it could have affected how the two families might have interacted.
This left over two dozen records to consider. And I ended up ordering every one of them.
There were 26 possible records. I then expanded my thinking and considered the scenario that she had gone off to live elsewhere with one of her daughters. Even with that scenario, I was still able to easily eliminate 22 records. Among the reasons - a son was present at death (Mary and Cornelius McCarthy had seven daughters, no surviving sons); she died in the Workhouse; the deceased was a spinster; she wasn't a widow (my gg-grandmother was); her occupation or her spouse's occupation was wrong (gg-granddad Cornelius was a farmer). In two records there was a daughter present at death, but I know the names of daughters who emigrated, so I felt those records weren't right either. That left one record - the one I kept asking for and kept not getting.
GRO skipped over my gg-grandmother's death record. The reason this happened was because there were two elderly ladies named Mary McCarthy who died in Skibbereen, four years apart in age, and in the same quarter and year. This means they were in the same volume, and not only that but they also happened to be on the same page. If you think about it, the two records will look almost identical. Since they were on the same page, the two deaths were registered in the same local office, and probably written up by the same person, so the handwriting is the same.
And this is where I went wrong. I should have noticed the multiple entries on the same page and called that out in my letters to GRO. I had sent one letter specifying that she died in Tooreen, but that letter actually got lost in the mail. Every time I asked for the other record on the page GRO kept sending back the erroneous one.
The Mormon Family History Library sent me an image of the index. In an image editor I boxed in blue the index entry of the record I already had with the words ALREADY HAVE. And then I boxed in red the index entry of the record I was missing, with the words NEED THIS ONE. I enclosed that picture along with an explanation in my letter to GRO.
That did the trick. I now have my gg-grandmother's death record. But my joy at finding it was mixed with great annoyance, when I noticed that the record number (#379) was incrementally the one immediately following the one GRO kept sending back (#378). Even in the Ireland Registry Office they can get confused. One record can look exactly like another.
If you are searching for a very common name like Mary McCarthy, be aware of these pitfalls. Make sure you keep all your record requests in a spreadsheet. This will help you notice if you have multiple requests on the exact same page of the registry book. And fill in all the information in your spreadsheet when you get back records.
My gg-grandmother's name was Mary McCarthy, and she died in the Skibbereen district. Searching for anybody named "Mary McCarthy" is a major challenge, to say the least, and one I try to avoid as often as possible. I wanted some confirmation of her age, so I'd have some idea as to where to start looking for her baptismal record.
All I knew was that she died some time after the 1911 census. I (correctly) assumed she died in the home in Tooreen that had been her and her husband's (Cornelius McCarthy), then her son-in-law's (Humphrey Michael Collins), then oldest grandson's (Michael Humphrey Collins). Since my Aunt Peg does not recall her death, I also (correctly) assumed Mary McCarthy died some time before Peg could remember (before 1929). This narrowed down where to search civil registration to 1911-1929. For good measure I went up to 1933, in case Aunt Peg for some reason didn't know about her g-grandmother's death. I had a reason for doing this, as apparently there was some kind of rift between Grandmom and her brother-in-law Michael Humphrey Collins's wife, and it could have affected how the two families might have interacted.
This left over two dozen records to consider. And I ended up ordering every one of them.
There were 26 possible records. I then expanded my thinking and considered the scenario that she had gone off to live elsewhere with one of her daughters. Even with that scenario, I was still able to easily eliminate 22 records. Among the reasons - a son was present at death (Mary and Cornelius McCarthy had seven daughters, no surviving sons); she died in the Workhouse; the deceased was a spinster; she wasn't a widow (my gg-grandmother was); her occupation or her spouse's occupation was wrong (gg-granddad Cornelius was a farmer). In two records there was a daughter present at death, but I know the names of daughters who emigrated, so I felt those records weren't right either. That left one record - the one I kept asking for and kept not getting.
GRO skipped over my gg-grandmother's death record. The reason this happened was because there were two elderly ladies named Mary McCarthy who died in Skibbereen, four years apart in age, and in the same quarter and year. This means they were in the same volume, and not only that but they also happened to be on the same page. If you think about it, the two records will look almost identical. Since they were on the same page, the two deaths were registered in the same local office, and probably written up by the same person, so the handwriting is the same.
And this is where I went wrong. I should have noticed the multiple entries on the same page and called that out in my letters to GRO. I had sent one letter specifying that she died in Tooreen, but that letter actually got lost in the mail. Every time I asked for the other record on the page GRO kept sending back the erroneous one.
The Mormon Family History Library sent me an image of the index. In an image editor I boxed in blue the index entry of the record I already had with the words ALREADY HAVE. And then I boxed in red the index entry of the record I was missing, with the words NEED THIS ONE. I enclosed that picture along with an explanation in my letter to GRO.
That did the trick. I now have my gg-grandmother's death record. But my joy at finding it was mixed with great annoyance, when I noticed that the record number (#379) was incrementally the one immediately following the one GRO kept sending back (#378). Even in the Ireland Registry Office they can get confused. One record can look exactly like another.
If you are searching for a very common name like Mary McCarthy, be aware of these pitfalls. Make sure you keep all your record requests in a spreadsheet. This will help you notice if you have multiple requests on the exact same page of the registry book. And fill in all the information in your spreadsheet when you get back records.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Fanlobbus Tithe Applotment Transcription (1826) now online
It's an initial draft and has not yet been proof-read and corrected by the local historian in Dunmanway helping me. He's working on it.
Other Skibbereen area tithe applotment transcriptions already online are for the parishes of Abbeystrowry, Caheragh, Drinagh and Dromdaleague.
Skibbereen area tithe applotment transcriptions
Other Skibbereen area tithe applotment transcriptions already online are for the parishes of Abbeystrowry, Caheragh, Drinagh and Dromdaleague.
Skibbereen area tithe applotment transcriptions
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
It's just the census, not gospel
I've been looking at a census record that has several errors on it and I thought it would be worthwhile pointing out the kinds of errors that were made.
The record in question is for a household named Donovan in the 1911 census in Ardagh East in the electoral district of Rosscarbery in Cork.
James Donovan is listed as head of household, age 47. According to his baptismal record, his age is off by two years, a relatively minor error.
Moving further to the right, he is listed as a farmer and single. Then to the right of that, it shows he is married 50 years, had three children and three were still living.
A 47 year old man cannot be married 50 years. Clearly that statistic belongs to the next person listed, his mother Johanna, age 78, a widow.
I know from researching my family that Johanna was Johanna Collins of Adrigole, and that she married John Donovan some time before June of 1852, when the first child I know about, Mary (Maria), was born. I also know that they had at least seven children.
The next person in the household is Nora, listed as a daughter, age 35 (she was going on 42, going by her baptismal record). She is listed as the daughter to the head of household, when she should be listed as his sister. The same applies to the next person, Maggie, age 36 (haven't located Maggie's baptismal).
The number of children born is listed as 3, which is erroneous. James presumably didn't have children. His mother gave birth to at least 7. So where does that 3 come from?
In his 1915 obituary, at least five sisters were still alive to attend his funeral. So the 3 in the 1911 census under the column for number of children still living is erroneous.
I had to rely on other sources (church records, Southern Star archives) to extract the right information out of this record.
The record in question is for a household named Donovan in the 1911 census in Ardagh East in the electoral district of Rosscarbery in Cork.
James Donovan is listed as head of household, age 47. According to his baptismal record, his age is off by two years, a relatively minor error.
Moving further to the right, he is listed as a farmer and single. Then to the right of that, it shows he is married 50 years, had three children and three were still living.
A 47 year old man cannot be married 50 years. Clearly that statistic belongs to the next person listed, his mother Johanna, age 78, a widow.
I know from researching my family that Johanna was Johanna Collins of Adrigole, and that she married John Donovan some time before June of 1852, when the first child I know about, Mary (Maria), was born. I also know that they had at least seven children.
The next person in the household is Nora, listed as a daughter, age 35 (she was going on 42, going by her baptismal record). She is listed as the daughter to the head of household, when she should be listed as his sister. The same applies to the next person, Maggie, age 36 (haven't located Maggie's baptismal).
The number of children born is listed as 3, which is erroneous. James presumably didn't have children. His mother gave birth to at least 7. So where does that 3 come from?
In his 1915 obituary, at least five sisters were still alive to attend his funeral. So the 3 in the 1911 census under the column for number of children still living is erroneous.
I had to rely on other sources (church records, Southern Star archives) to extract the right information out of this record.
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