A Ride on the Mahony Genealogy Rollercoaster

Genealogy research is often like a visit to an amusement park. You go to the park intending to see the clown, but get distracted by the mirrors and forget about the clown. One minute you are elated to have a hot lead, only to be in despair moments later when that lead falls apart. It's like being on a roller coaster.

Such was my research day yesterday. It was a good lesson in realizing that "things may not be what they seem" and "read the ENTIRE record." Just because somebody named so-and-so is over in the next townland it doesn't mean he's the person you are looking for.

Yesterday I unintentionally ended up revisiting some Mahony questions that have been on the back burner. First question: Were the Mahonys of Bredagh related in some way to the Mahonys in surrounding areas, such as Toughbaun and Minanes? Second question: Where was Catherine Hurley Mahony of Bredagh from? I will leave the second question for a separate posting.

Mahonys in the Drimoleague, Drinagh, Ballymoney, and Kilmacabea areas

If you have read earlier postings, you'll know from the release of the remaining Castlehaven & Myross baptism records I found more conclusive evidence indicating that Grandmom's paternal grandmother was the Mary Mahony who was the daughter of Denis Mahony and Catherine Hurley of Bredagh. Kate Hurley showed up as a baptism sponsor for Laurence (indexed as Jane), the first son of Daniel Collins and Mary Mahony.

There have been only two minor problems with that conclusion: 1) Mary Mahony's birth year, as suggested by the 1901 census and her 1901 death record, suggested 1825/6 as a birth year. The Mary from Bredagh was baptized in late 1823. It's not uncommon for people to be slightly off on their birth years, so this is not a major problem. 2) One of the Mahony baptism sponsors of the Collins children was a Daniel. There is no baptism record for a Daniel out of Bredagh in the right time period, but given that there is no marriage record for Denis Mahony = Kate Hurley, it is impossible to know what children were born before the start of available church records. Daniel could also have been a younger brother of Denis or a cousin. The name of Daniel's co-sponsor, Mary Burke, is also the name of the wife of a Daniel Mahony in Castledonovan, as per the Drimoleague & Drinagh online church records. Unless this is some amazing coincidence, Daniel M and Mary B of Castledonovan likely had a relationship to the Mahonys in Bredagh.

The known siblings of Mary of Bredagh were Patrick (1822), Norry (1826), Margaret (1831), Tim (1834), Denis (1836), and Kate (1840). In addition, there is evidence from the 1901 census that there may have been a brother named Cain.

Margaret Mahony of Bredagh married Denis Collins of Lissane. They had a son Tim, who became a baker and had a grocery with his older sister Mary in the village of Drimoleague. Mary and Tim Collins are in Drimoleague in the 1911 census.

They weren't yet situated there in 1901. I have no idea where Mary was in 1901, but where was Tim the baker? I believe I found him, listed as a boarder with a Michael Mahony, his wife Ann, and some of their children, in Toughbaun.
Was Tim Collins a second, or maybe third cousin of Michael Mahony of Toughbaun? Or just a neighbor or friend?

To dig into that, I had to look at my research from when I was originally researching Mary Mahony. One family really stood out - Tim Mahony and Ellen Crowley of Minanes, a townland adjacent to Toughbaun. Tim and Ellen married 30-Jun-1822 in Drimoleague & Drinagh parish. The known children of this Minanes couple were Denis (1823), Mary (1825), Juliann (1827), Dan (1829), Tim (1832), Ellen (1834), Cain (1837), Ann (1840), Michael (1844), and Kate (1848). Whew! Ellen Crowley must have been quite young when she married!

When I was first researching my gg-grandmother, this daughter Mary, baptized in 1825, seemed like a better fit. Could this have been my ancestral family? After some long deliberation, I concluded they weren't.

The names of the Mahony witnesses to events for the family of Daniel Collins and Mary Mahony of Cullomane East were Denis (the wedding of Daniel C = Mary M in 1845), Margaret (in 1847), Cain (in 1852), Daniel (in 1856), Catherine (in 1858), Timothy (in 1860), Margaret (in 1860), and Kate (in 1863). The Minanes family did not have a Cain or a Margaret that I could find. The Bredagh family was missing only a Daniel, which might be explained due to incomplete information on the Bredagh family. Kate from Minanes, baptized in 1848, would have been way too young to have been a Godmother in 1858. Furthermore, no Juliann or Ann or Michael shows up as a Collins event witness.

Some time ago, when I first investigated the Toughbaun family in the 1901 census, I obtained the birth record of son Stephen. Stephen was registered 1-Sep-1878, in Toughbaun, father Michael Mahony, a shoemaker. The mother was listed as Mary Sullivan. The mother in the census is named Ann. So there are conflicts here.

The Michael from Minanes would certainly have been a suitable age to marry Ann Sullivan from Leap on 24-Feb-1870 and settle in Toughbaun, right next door to Minanes. But everything falls apart from there.

The Kilmacabea R.C. parish marriage records for the time period lists the names of the fathers of the bride and groom. Michael's father was listed as Michael, not Tim. Oops!

The Drimoleague & Drinagh baptism records show the following children for this Toughbaun couple: Hanora (1871), Michael John (1872), James (1874), Dan (1876), and Maryanne (1880). That the oldest boy was named Michael John convinces me the Kilmacabea register did not have an error. The ONLY Mahony wedding witness was John.

Practically none of the Minanes names show as Toughbaun event witnesses - no Tim, no Denis, no Ann, no Juliann, etc. The only Mahony names as baptism sponsors in Toughbaun are John and Ellen.

So the Michael married to Ann Sullivan and in the census in Toughbaun doesn't appear to be the Michael from next-door Minanes. That theory looks dead.

Who then, was this Michael, son of a Michael? Another review of the church records for the area was necessary, and there was a chance I would never find him, if he was born before the availability of area records. Drimoleague & Drinagh R.C. Parish records contain a BIG GAP in missing marriages, roughly 1864-1876, so to fully travel this avenue of research I will have to exhaustively search the civil registration index. I will leave that task on the back burner.

Here's a possibility for Michael Junior. A record for Mick Mahony, baptized in Drimoleague & Drinagh R.C. Parish, 29-Mar-1835, was transcribed as father White Mahony, mother Dunn, and sponsor Kate Donovan. I looked at the image, and I believe it reads: Mick, illegitimate of Mick Mahony Dunmanway and Kate Donovan. The record is too blackened to get any further information out of it, so I don't know where the mother lived.

Here's another one. Baptized Sep-1844, Castlehaven & Myross R.C. Parish. Mother is Ellen Donovan. No residence given. Further search on that couple did not lead to anything enlightening.

Here's another possibility for Michael Junior. Baptized 24-Oct-1846, Kilmacabea R.C. Parish. Mother listed as Elle Donovan. The residence is blackened out, but looks like it could start with a T. I searched for more children for this couple. A son John, baptized 14-Mar-1840, shows the residence of Tralong, which is in the civil parish of Ross. This is not outside the realm of possibility, and there is a sibling John, which is a nice plus.

Here's a final possibility. Baptized 8-Sep-1838. Mother yet another Nell Donovan. The residence is listed as Carranashingane. Searching for more children of this couple, there is a Denis, baptized 6-Feb-1845, residence is listed as Killaveennogue. A daughter, Margaret, baptized 12-Feb-1836, is listed with a residence that looks like "Tuligdarmuid." I think that last place could be Toughmacdermody. These three locations are adjacent to each other and they all lie just a few miles north of Toughbaun. I am guessing that this Michael Senior was a laborer, who moved his family around a bit.

Neither Griffith's Valuation nor the Tithe Applotment for Drinagh have so far shed any light on the origins of this Michael Mahony Senior. In addition, I would like to have seen a son John in this family to feel more like this is Toughbaun Michael's family.

Have I extracted all the clues I could get from the marriage record of Michael Mahony and Ann Sullivan? No! The record lists the groom's residence as Drinagh. It also lists the residence of the groom's father. It is rather unreadable, looking like Kilculua or Kilculan. That does not look familiar. But wait, there's more! The Kilmacabea R.C. Parish record also lists the residence of the witness John Mahony, as Kilcaskan. The only Kilcaskan around is in Ballymoney civil parish, in Dunmanway. There are a few intriguing place names around there, like Kilvinane, and Kilvurra. The Ballymoney Tithe Applotment lists a Michael Mahony in Currabeg, which lies maybe a mile southeast of Kilcaskan and is near Kilvinane and Kilvurra. Now I am wondering if perhaps the illegitimate Michael, son of Kate Donovan, has come into play.

One obvious line of research is to look at the civil registration birth records for some of the other children, to confirm the mother was Ann Sullivan. Other interesting facts that have sprung up - present at the birth of Stephen Mahony was a Mary Donovan of Curraghalicky, another place in the same neighborhood. And Michael of Toughbaun is listed as a grocer in Francis Guy's directory of 1914. Perhaps at one time Tim the baker was an apprentice shopkeeper?

For now, I will leave this research as it is, and revisit it later.

The Mahonys of Bohernabredagh, version 2.0

When the church records went online in October 2011, I was able to more conclusively link the Mahonys of Bredagh (jpg pdf) to my Grandmother's Collins line.  However, there remain many open questions, specifically, whether and how they are related to Mahonys in Clashduff and Tonafora, Toughbaun, and in Minanes.  Recently I've added Castledonovan to the list of Mahony locations of interest.

Up to now I had assumed that the Mahonys along and south of R586 were a somewhat different set than the ones in the north part of Drimoleague parish.  Now I'm not so sure.  I had originally based my assumption on the names I've seen on both sides of the road.  For example, I haven't yet found anybody named Cain, and I don't know if there are Timothys deep in the north side.  But those names occur very frequently along R586 and on the south side.

The cultural division between the north and the south is not a complete figment of my imagination. When I told my aunt about talking on the phone to one of her first cousins who grew up in Ceancullig, she asked me if he "sounded rough." She then explained that even they in Bauravilla had a hard time understanding the speech of "the people in the mountains" even though those "mountains" were hills just a few miles away within bicycling distance! My Bauravilla-raised aunt, in turn, told me about how the nuns in the convent school in Skibbereen, just a few miles south, would constantly correct her speech and pronunciation.

That was a digression.

The Mahony names that are practically ubiquitous in the area are Denis and Daniel.  The earliest Mahony in my direct line was Denis (1788-1872), who married Catherine Hurley (date unknown).  Given that their youngest known child was Kate (1840), I would not expect Denis and Catherine to have been married too long before 1820.  Unfortunately the Drimoleague & Drinagh church records don't go back before about 1818.  The earliest child found in the church records was Patrick (1822), followed by my gg-grandmother Mary (1823).  There isn't a baptism record available for him, but based on census and death records, I believe there was a child Cain born before the first available baptism records. 

Mary Mahony married my gg-grandfather Daniel Collins of Adrigole and I believe they first lived there, in Castlehaven civil parish, before moving out to Cullomane East on the west edge of Caheragh civil parish, near Bantry, around 1850.  Catherine and Laurence, their two oldest children, were born in probably in Adrigole and the rest of the Collins children were born in Cullomane.  One of those children, whose name remains somewhat unreadable to me, was born in 1856.  That child's baptism sponsors were Daniel Mahony and Mary Burke.

I put Daniel Mahony and Mary Burke in the church records search engine and lo and behold, a couple with those names turned up in Castledonovan.  I turned up three children for them: Denis (1838), Margaret (1840), and William (1842).  The reason I am paying attention to Castledonovan and the area north of the R586 is because I have a good autosomal DNA match who has Mahony ancestry in Clodagh, which lies north of R586. This is the first piece of evidence I have found placing some of my Mahonys on my match's side of the road.

It isn't clear when Daniel Mahony and Mary Burke married and whether they were roaming around.  There are records of couples with these names married in Rosscarbery (1824) and in Enniskeane & Desertserges (1836).  But children show up in 1823 (maybe illegitimate) and an odd one pops up in 1830 in Aughadown church parish.  So far the marriage record in Enniskeane & Desertserges looks like a better match, and there is a Daniel Hurley as a witness - possibly a relative through Catherine Hurley.  I find it somewhat odd that there were only three children in Dromdaleague, but the famine could have put an end to their family production capacity.

If Daniel was an older brother of my gg-grandmother, he strikes me as somewhat young to have married in 1836 let alone 1824 !  So the evidence is weak that he's my gg-grandmother's older brother; I think he may have been a first cousin or an uncle. Supporting that theory is the difficulty turning up men named Daniel in the descendant branches of the Bredagh Mahonys, though I did manage to find a few.  The Daniels I found were among the youngest children in their families suggesting to me it was not a "high priority" name.  There are plenty of Daniel Mahonys elsewhere.  For now I am putting Daniel in the tree as an older brother even though I believe this is not correct.

If Daniel and Mary were moving around and if Daniel was an uncle, it could explain why he is not recorded in Castledonovan in Griffiths Valuation, although there is a Castledonovan Daniel in the Dromdaleague Tithe Applotment and there are Daniels in neighboring Garranes North and in Deelish recorded in Griffiths.

I am somewhat more confident in data indicating that my gg-grandmother's older brother Patrick married Catherine Hayes, though the marriage date for the record - 1861 - causes me to question whether I have the correct marriage record.  There were apparently children born well before that date, and I haven't found any marked illegitimate. 

So my work has progressed in tracing these branches of the Bredagh Mahony family:

Cain Mahony - Remained unmarried and stayed in Bredagh
Patrick Mahony and Catherine Hayes of Rearahinagh - Probably deceased by 1901 with their son remaining
Mary Mahony and Daniel Collins of Cullomane East - My line; Mary was widowed by 1901
Honora (Norry) Mahony - unknown
Margaret Mahony and Denis Collins of Lissane - Possibly also related through the Collinses
Timothy Mahony and Mary Ann Donovan of Rearahinagh
Denis Mahony and Mary Anne McCarthy of Bredagh
Kate Mahony - Witnessed several baptisms through 1869

What I still have not done is link any of these people to anybody in Clodagh, the home of my DNA match's family.  None of the Clodagh Mahonys have names that correspond to mine, except for a Denis Mahony baptism sponsor, and there were a lot of men named Denis Mahony running around back then.

Cork victims of the Titanic

Faces of the Titanic

Ballydehob's Titanic Three (Southern Star)

The Hurley-Herlihy-Cahalane Connection

Genealogy is full of cases in which you are unsuccessfully able to research one line but in the process of researching that line you stumble across information that fills out another line.  Such is the case with Grandmom's Adrigole Collinses.  After relaying this information to a Hurley cousin last night, I thought it would be a suitable posting.

It all started with an obituary from the Southern Star dated November 21, 1903 for one Michael Herlihy, a national teacher from Cloonkeen who died fairly young.

"Mrs. Young", listed as a cousin, had to have been Ellen Hurley December 17, 1852 from Coolnagarrane, who married William Young of North Street.  Ellen was already widowed by the 1901 census.

"Lawrence, Jeremiah, and John Collins" were listed as cousins.  They must have been out of Adrigole.  The question is - how were they related to Michael Herlihy?  There were other Collinses in Adrigole and they were notably not mentioned.  Specifically, John Collins, son of Jeremiah, was by now a priest and he would not have been listed this way.  So I immediately began to think these men were the son of John, and the Herlihy relationship could have come through Catherine Sheely, who married John Collins 30-Nov-1852.  However, I have reason to believe Catherine was the daughter of John Sheily and Ellen Corcoran from around Aghadown (mistranscribed as Kelly), and as there was no obvious connection to Herlihys I did not try pursuing it.

My triple-great-grandparents were Michael Hurley and Bridget Cahalane of Coolnagarrane, in Abbeystrowry parish.  Michael and Bridget married 25-May-1838 in Kilmacabea R.C. Parish.  Witnesses, if I'm reading the record correctly, were Bryan Adams and Cate Sheahan.

Michael Hurley may have had a sister Ellen, who appears in the Skibbereen church registers January 22, 1815.  There is other evidence strongly suggesting she was a relative and went on to marry John Sweeney February 22, 1846.  Michael and Ellen probably had a brother Daniel.  It is through Daniel that the Herlihy connection, and possible second Cahalane connection lie.

This Daniel and his wife Honora McCarthy were the parents of the aforementioned Ellen Hurley Young.  Another daughter, Kate (1855) married Michael Herlihy the schoolteacher in 1886.  Hence the Herlihy-Hurley connection.

What about Cahalanes? 

Michael Herlihy's parents were Denis Herlihy and Mary Regan. If I'm reading the records right they married in Kilmacabea R.C. parish February 8, 1834.  One Cornelius Cahalane was a witness.

The odd thing is that I cannot find any children until May 1844, and I think the child's name was Johanna, who went on to marry a Denis Leahy.  Then another gap, and Michael Herlihy was baptized April 13, 1851.  Then twins John and Thomas, April 7, 1855.  John's Godfather was a Denis Cahalane.

The 10 year gap before any children appear, and then the twins some 21 years after the marriage, makes me wonder if I'm reading the records right.  But that is what I have so far.

Update:  I have found many more children.  Patrick, baptized 12-Apr-1835; Daniel, bap. 9-Aug-1840; Denis, bap. 14-Dec-1842; Johanna, bap. May-1844; Catherine, bap. 19-Apr-1846 (her mother is recorded as Catherine, which I think is a mistake); Michael, bap.  13-Apr-1851; William, bap. 18-Apr-1853; and John and Thomas, bap.  7-Apr-1855.

Michael Hurley = Bridget Cahalane had four boys: John 1839; Patrick 1841; Daniel 1843; and Michael 1849. 

The Godmother of John 1839, my gg-grandfather, was one Catherine Cahalane. The Godmother of Patrick 1841 was Mary Cahalane.  I had assumed they had only the four boys, but last night discovered a missing fifth child.  Ellen was baptized September 21, 1845 (mistranscribed as Hooly).  Her Godfather was one Michael Cahalane.
  
I think I know who this Michael Cahalane is, and I have corresponded with some of his descendants.  He married Honora Donovan in 1851.  The Godfather of son Michael, 1861, was one John Hurley.

The oldest child of my gg-grandparents, John Hurley and Margaret Hourihane, was Michael, 1868.  One Michael Cahalane was the Godfather.  Then any documented connections with Cahalanes stop. I have not checked the extended family of Daniel Hurley = Honora McCarthy for Cahalane sponsors.  Ellen Hurley Sweeney's family did not have Cahalane sponsors from what I have dug up so far.

I cannot find a meaningful death record for a Bridget Hurley after 1863, so I assume that Bridget Cahalane Hurley died before civil registration.  What is her relationship to Cornelius Cahalane, who witnessed the wedding of Denis Herlihy and Mary Regan, and to Michael Cahalane?  Is this Michael the Michael Cahalane from Cloonkeen, whose descendants I correspond with?  And how were the Herlihys linked to Collinses in Adrigole?

The Collinses of Coornishal

For quite a while now I have believed that a number of people named Collins in Coornishal were somehow related to my Grandmom's ancestral Collins ancestors in Adrigole. The evidence is substantial. I am going to list my pieces of evidence.

1) There is a Laurence Collins (my ggg-grandfather "Larr" - 1783-1867) in Adrigole in the Castlehaven Tithe Applotment book of 1825. He shared a lot with somebody named Jerry Collins. Other Collinses listed in Adrigole were William and Daniel.

2) There was a Lawrence Collins in adjacent Coornishal in the Tithe Applotment book of Kilmacabea of 1829. He was adjacent to a John Collins. Another Collins there was one Timothy.

Laurence Collins is not a particularly common name, like John or Daniel.  For now, I am inclined to think these listings for Laurence were the same man.

3) The father of a recently-discovered relative back east was one Laurence Collins from Licknavar and Gortshanecrone. Her maternal grandmother was the daughter of Jeremiah of Adrigole; her parents were somehow cousins. This relative is of my mother's generation, she is a third cousin in two different ways, and probably a cousin a third way. We are trying to establish precisely how in the third way. In other words, the Licknavar Collinses were related to the Adrigole Collinses and we don't know exactly how.

4) As she remembers her father telling the story, some "Corn" or "Coran" Collinses peeled off from north of Skibbereen and headed south of town probably in the first half of the 19th century.

[note: I am well aware of the townlands of Corran North, Corran Middle, and Corran South in Kilmacabea, and that there were Collinses in this area. So I am keeping the Corran townlands on the backburner.]

5) In the Cullomane East branch (my gg-grandparents), a Catherine Collins was a Godmother in 1863. Who was this Catherine exactly? One of my strongest autosomal DNA matches has a solid family history out of Licknavar. We have not been able to establish a common shared ancestor, but someone in his tree named Sullivan was apparently a baptism Godfather in the tree of my east coast relative with Licknavar ancestry. A Catherine Collins (est born 1800) is also in his tree. Someone named Croston in my DNA match's tree lived on lots shared with Licknavar Collinses in Griffith's Valuation.

6) The May 9, 1903 obituary of Jeremiah Collins of Adrigole in the Southern Star lists John Collins and Denis Collins of Coornishal as cousins.

And now for a digression. There was apparently a tradition of naming women Diana in this extended family group, though it's difficult to understand why the name was popular in some branches and non-existent in others. My gg-grandfather Danny Larr of Cullomane East had a daughter Diana, who emigrated to Australia. Danny Larr had another daughter Margaret who named her daughter Diana. (This latter Diana married a Daniel Hallahan and then sort of disappeared. That family remains one of my open research projects.)

There's more. Larr may have also had a daughter Johanna, who married a John Donovan roughly 1851 and eventually settled in Ardagh, Rosscarbery. They named a daughter Dinah. This Dinah died a spinster.

A Dina Collins pops up frequently as a Godmother in numerous baptisms - for one of Johanna's children, and for children of John and of Jeremiah in Adrigole. These sponsorships occurred from 1852 through 1863, presumably the same woman.

A Diana Collins from Adrigole, with a father named Laurence, married Timothy Sullivan of Clooncugger in 1868. She had three children - none named Laurence or Diana - and she died in 1892.

Neither John of Adrigole, nor Jeremiah of Adrigole, nor anybody down in Licknavar had a daughter named Diana.

But somebody in Coornishal did ! I stumbled upon this family digging through the Kilmacabea church records that are online.

Which brings me back to my evidence list.

Unfortunately the records for Kilmacabea start relatively late, in 1832. So I may have only a partial family. I cannot find a marriage record for Tom Collins and Kate Foley, who lived in Coornishal in the 1840's, which leads me to believe she could have been from Castlehaven parish, which has no marriage records available.

Timothy, baptized 15-Jan-1840. His father was written as John. I think this could be an error. His sponsors were Michael Foley and Ellen Collins.

Patrick, baptized 14-Mar-1841. Sponsors Con Foley and Mary H?

7) Lawrence, baptized 27-Mar-1843. Sponsors Daniel Collins and Kate Collins. This Daniel could well have been my gg-grandfather, before he married Mary Mahony in 1845 and moved to Cullomane East around 1851.

Catherine, baptized 16-Dec-1846. Sponsors Tim Foley and Ellen Foley.

Tom, baptized 25-Aug-1850. Sponsors Jerry? Collins and Mary Collins.

Cornelius, baptized 6-Mar-1853. Sponsors Laurence Collins and Kate Shealy. These sponsors could well be Larr and his relatively new daughter-in-law, married to John of Adrigole in 1852.

8) Dinah, baptized 13-Jan-1856. Sponsors John Collins and Johanna Foley.

So, I have: adjacency in land valuation records; family lore; a newspaper obit; DNA; and family naming traditions all strongly suggesting a link between Adrigole, Coornishal, and Licknavar.  Tracking a family naming tradition only works when the names are uncommon or downright rare.

Unfortunately, with Kilmacabea church records starting late (1830's), and Castlehaven & Myross church records starting REALLY late (1840's) and with no marriages, I have to wait for somebody else to come forward or some other evidence to turn up to glue this together. Once I am settled in from my move to Salt Lake City in April, I'll be hitting the land valuation records pre and post Griffith's to see if I can squeeze any additional information out of available records.

James Collins and Catherine Driscoll of Russagh

James Collins and Catherine Driscoll married 4-Mar-1862 and were in Russagh (Skibbereen Rural) in the 1901 census. My eye was first drawn to them when I was researching a girl named Noria Driscoll. Noria was living in Lower Lissane in 1901 with her grandparents Michael Collins and Ellen Driscoll Collins (not known if the two Driscoll families were closely related). Noria's sister Juliann was staying with James and Catherine in Russagh. Juliann is listed as a niece.  Whose niece?  The girls' father Michael Driscoll lived in Currabeg, in Castlehaven parish, with several other daughters. Michael Driscoll was a widower.

Working on the assumption that Catherine Driscoll Collins of Russagh and Michael Driscoll of Currabeg were siblings, I did some preliminary research in the online church records but did not find THE records that would have clearly identified them. Michael Driscoll of Currabeg apparently went by Cadogan, as evidenced by his and Johanna Collins's first son born September 1880, registered as Jeremiah Cadogan but baptized in Castlehaven R.C. parish as Driscoll. Interestingly, Catherine of Russagh recorded her name as Cadogan for the Skibbereen baptism of her and James's daughter Catherine, 22-Dec-1876. So I think there is a link. Michael Driscoll Cadogan's oldest son was named Jeremiah, and James and Catherine have a Jeremiah Driscoll showing up at several of their family church events. So Catherine's and Michael's father was probably a Jeremiah Driscoll.

I was so absorbed with the Driscolls that it did not initially occur to me that there could also be a Lissane Collins family link with James, but I discovered a relationship while researching Humphrey Collins of Lissane. Besides Jeremiah Driscoll, a Humphrey Collins witnessed the James = Catherine wedding in 1862. Daughter Hanora was born May 1869, and one Laurence Hourihane was the Godfather. There weren't many men named Laurence Hourihane in the area, and there were definitely a few who resided in Tooreen, adjacent to Lower Lissane. Michael Collins was the Godfather of Michael, born Oct 1871. This sponsor could not have been Michael (1790-1870), and married to Mary Donovan, but rather somebody of the younger generation. Similarly, Humphrey Collins was the Godfather of Denis, born May 1879. This could not have been the Humphrey (1785-1873), and married to Johanna Barnane, but a younger Humphrey.

I have the death record of James Collins and he was 67 in 1907. That would place his birth year around 1840. The 1901 census listed his age as 63. That could push his birth year forward to 1838.

So where does that leave me? Very stuck. The oldest son of James and Catherine was named Michael, which would automatically lead me to think that James's father was Michael. There are a Michael Collins and Mary Donovan in Lissane with a son James born 1829. Currently, I model the family with James (1829) married to Honora Collins in 1861. Their first son was also named Michael (1868). Arrgh!

The oldest daughter of James (1829) and Honora Collins of Lissane was named Mary, if Skibbereen Heritage and I are reading very difficult to read church records correctly. This Mary may have been named after grandmother Mary Donovan.

The oldest daughter of James (?) and Catherine Driscoll was named Johanna. This daughter could have been named after Johanna Barnane Collins, but one problem is that there wasn't a son named Humphrey. The other problem is that James, the son of Humphrey Collins and Johanna Barnane, was born in 1833, at least five years before what the 1901 census and the 1907 death record suggest.

There is a third possibility, of which I have absolutely no proof. My grandfather's paternal grandfather, Michael Collins (1822-1901), was the son of a different Humphrey Collins and an Ellen Sweeney. [This Ellen Sweeny may have been related to a Catherine Sweeny who married Laurence Hourihane of Tooreen, but that's a whole other problem.] There are no records of other children of Humphrey and Ellen, and no marriage record, but there is some evidence the same Humphrey later married a Mary Galvin O'Brien and had several more children. Perhaps this James in Russagh was their son, though there is the same problem of James and Catherine not having a son named Humphrey. Finding a baptism record for James would support this theory, but I have not yet found one. Since their other children were baptized in Skibbereen R.C. parish I am looking in the same parish. Some Skibbereen records are extremely faded.

There were so many Humphrey Collinses running around that maybe James and Catherine decided to do something wild and crazy and break tradition.

I got started on this wild goose chase because I was researching Noria Driscoll (1890-1903). Noria's mother was Johanna Collins, whom I believe was the daughter of the aforementioned Michael (1822-1901) and Ellen Driscoll Collins (1830-1919), and my great-grandfather's oldest sister. There is no civil registration record of the marriage of Johanna Collins and Michael Driscoll/Cadogan that I can find in the online index, though there is a church record of a Hannah Collins and Michael Driscoll married in Caheragh November 1879. Nor can I find a death record for Johanna Collins Driscoll/Cadogan.

Kilmoe Tithe Applotment transcription is now online

Kilmoe parish encompasses Mizen Head peninsula, and includes Crookhaven and Goleen.  It appears that the parish was enumerated in 1828.

I was able to get the transcription of Kilmoe completed sooner than I expected.  However, the next TA book transcriptions will not be appearing until mid to late summer, after we settle in from our move to Salt Lake City this spring.

Transcriptions for the Skibbereen area.

Submit a correction.