I am helping two sisters here in the US to find their family in Ireland. From this incredible library website we have managed to use the 1901 census to locate them in Clare. Martin Carroll and his wife Bridget were in Kilcorcan, parish of Kilkeedy with sons John, James and Thomas. Other children were Michael, Patrick, Bridget, Catherine, Mary & Margaret. Are there any Carrolls still living in this area? Where should I advise them to write for vital records and church records?
James left ireland to Join his brother Patrick who was living in the city of Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts.
I very much appreciate any help you can give.
Long live Clare!
Carrolls in Kilcorkan, Kilkeedy 1901
Moderators: Clare Support, Clare Past Mod
-
Paddy Casey
- Posts: 743
- Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:53 pm
- Location: Внешняя Громболия
- Contact:
Re: Carrolls in Kilcorkan, Kilkeedy 1901
Are there any Carrolls still living in this area? Check out the Eircom telephone directory at http://www.eircom.ie. If you enter "Carroll" and "Clare", for example, you will find numerous present-day Carrolls listed in Clare. At least 3 of them are in the immediate vicinity of Kilcorkan and one (Carroll, Sean) is in Ballybarna (also spelled Ballybornagh; a townland near Boston, Tubber, a few minutes walk away from Kilcorkan).
Birth, marriage and death records for Clare started in 1864. They can be obtained from the Registrar at the Sandfield Centre in Ennis, Co.Clare (tel. +353 65 686 8050).
Paddy
Birth, marriage and death records for Clare started in 1864. They can be obtained from the Registrar at the Sandfield Centre in Ennis, Co.Clare (tel. +353 65 686 8050).
Paddy
Re: Carrolls in Kilcorkan, Kilkeedy 1901
Thanks for the address and way to tap into the address book, Paddy. We will use both. Merski
-
Paddy Casey
- Posts: 743
- Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:53 pm
- Location: Внешняя Громболия
- Contact:
Carrolls in Kilcorkan, Kilkeedy 1901
Mary Ellen,
You ask about Kilcorkan cemeteries.
It is difficult to answer your question briefly and accurately.
I am writing the following in the assumption that you are not familiar with the area. Please excuse me and disregard the following if you are.
There are numerous graveyards scattered around that part of the country. A few are listed on the WWW but most are not. The nearest graveyard is Kilmacduagh, around a mile and a bit to the east of Kilcorkan, just across the county border in Galway and in the parish of Kilmacduagh. Kilkeedy church and its graveyard are roughly 3 miles to the SSW of Kilcorkan. Many of the rural graveyards are undocumented and many are unsupervised in the sense that you might be familiar with in the USA, e.g. with an officially appointed person who keeps a register of burials and/or tends the grounds and to whom you could write. In some cases there is an ad hoc arrangement where some local person takes responsibility and cuts the grass and whacks the weeds and straightens up a sagging gate but when that local person dies Nature takes over. Understandably in view of the poverty and lethal epidemics and famine which were the order of the day in that part of the world in times gone by, few people had spare time or money to have headstones erected or maintained so many, or possibly most, of the graves are unmarked. Most of the population emigrated, leaving very few to tend the graves of their ancestors. There are numerous gravestones but many, because the local limestone was commonly used in that part of the world, have been eroded to the point where their inscriptions are partially or totally illegible. Some inscriptions may be in the old Irish script, which simplifies things.
So unfortunately I cannot tell you which burial ground might contain your Carrolls.
That is the bad news.
The good news is that (a) some people are transcribing those old headstones which are legible and, with the passage of time, are posting their transcriptions on the WWW and - this is the really good bit - (b) you will become infected with the virus and, together with the two sisters you are helping, you will buy a ticket to Clare and a pair of gumboots and waterproof clothes and spend time in the graveyards around Kilcorkan, rubbing off the moss and lichen and transcribing the headstones with a reasonable chance of finding your Carrolls. You will sit in pubs listening to local genealogies. You will knock on doors and chat over farmyard gates. Local memories are long and in your quest for your friends' ancestors you will be passed from one helpful local informant to the next and will make numerous friends for life. There is excellent and reasonably priced B&B accomodation very close by for when you finally collapse exhausted at the end of each day. I can recommend a very good address very close to Kilcorkan (I have no financial interest, direct or indirect, in it). You will have the time of your life. I'm serious.
Anyway, back to your immediate quest: have you phoned that Carroll person in the phonebook who lives near Boston ? They could well light the touchpaper.
Please keep us informed.
Paddy
P.S. You didn't mention it in your original posting but I suppose you noticed that (a) Carrolls (Michael and Eliza) were in the townland of Rockvale, which is contiguous with Kilcorkan, in the Griffiths Valuation of 1855 and (b) Carrolls are listed in the Kilkeedy Tithe Applotments of 1824 in the townlands of Mungreagh and Ballynabodagh ? I don't know where Ballynabodagh is/was - many of the Tithe Applotment placenames are no longer in use - but "Mungreagh" will be the townland of Monreagh just south of Tubber cross. P.
You ask about Kilcorkan cemeteries.
It is difficult to answer your question briefly and accurately.
I am writing the following in the assumption that you are not familiar with the area. Please excuse me and disregard the following if you are.
There are numerous graveyards scattered around that part of the country. A few are listed on the WWW but most are not. The nearest graveyard is Kilmacduagh, around a mile and a bit to the east of Kilcorkan, just across the county border in Galway and in the parish of Kilmacduagh. Kilkeedy church and its graveyard are roughly 3 miles to the SSW of Kilcorkan. Many of the rural graveyards are undocumented and many are unsupervised in the sense that you might be familiar with in the USA, e.g. with an officially appointed person who keeps a register of burials and/or tends the grounds and to whom you could write. In some cases there is an ad hoc arrangement where some local person takes responsibility and cuts the grass and whacks the weeds and straightens up a sagging gate but when that local person dies Nature takes over. Understandably in view of the poverty and lethal epidemics and famine which were the order of the day in that part of the world in times gone by, few people had spare time or money to have headstones erected or maintained so many, or possibly most, of the graves are unmarked. Most of the population emigrated, leaving very few to tend the graves of their ancestors. There are numerous gravestones but many, because the local limestone was commonly used in that part of the world, have been eroded to the point where their inscriptions are partially or totally illegible. Some inscriptions may be in the old Irish script, which simplifies things.
So unfortunately I cannot tell you which burial ground might contain your Carrolls.
That is the bad news.
The good news is that (a) some people are transcribing those old headstones which are legible and, with the passage of time, are posting their transcriptions on the WWW and - this is the really good bit - (b) you will become infected with the virus and, together with the two sisters you are helping, you will buy a ticket to Clare and a pair of gumboots and waterproof clothes and spend time in the graveyards around Kilcorkan, rubbing off the moss and lichen and transcribing the headstones with a reasonable chance of finding your Carrolls. You will sit in pubs listening to local genealogies. You will knock on doors and chat over farmyard gates. Local memories are long and in your quest for your friends' ancestors you will be passed from one helpful local informant to the next and will make numerous friends for life. There is excellent and reasonably priced B&B accomodation very close by for when you finally collapse exhausted at the end of each day. I can recommend a very good address very close to Kilcorkan (I have no financial interest, direct or indirect, in it). You will have the time of your life. I'm serious.
Anyway, back to your immediate quest: have you phoned that Carroll person in the phonebook who lives near Boston ? They could well light the touchpaper.
Please keep us informed.
Paddy
P.S. You didn't mention it in your original posting but I suppose you noticed that (a) Carrolls (Michael and Eliza) were in the townland of Rockvale, which is contiguous with Kilcorkan, in the Griffiths Valuation of 1855 and (b) Carrolls are listed in the Kilkeedy Tithe Applotments of 1824 in the townlands of Mungreagh and Ballynabodagh ? I don't know where Ballynabodagh is/was - many of the Tithe Applotment placenames are no longer in use - but "Mungreagh" will be the townland of Monreagh just south of Tubber cross. P.