Trying to locate my g/g/father Patrick McDONNELL

[Adrian Ingleby]

G'day, I'm Adrian Ingleby from New South Wales, Australia. I'm trying to trace any record in Ireland of my great grandfather who was from Crusheen, Co. Clare, Ireland. He is: Patrick McDONNELL who was born about 1837. His father (a farmer) is Maurice (or Morris) McDONNELL and his mother is: Margaret MOLONEY. (The name KENNEDY is recorded as his mother's maiden name on his death certificate; but KENNEDY is also recorded as his wifes, mothers' maiden name on another document). I'm guessing MOLONEY is correct as Patrick would have supplied the name MOLONEY which was on his marriage certificate.

Patrick came to Victoria, Australia and on 15.09.1865 in Ballarat, Victoria married Bridget BRERETON (BREARTON) born about 1840 in/from Moyne, Tipperary. They had 7 children the youngest Bridget, my grandmother, was born in 1882. Patrick's wife Bridget died shortly after giving birth to my grandmother. Five of their children died of Phthisis/tuberculosis at ages from 16 to 29 years. Patrick & Bridget & Bridget's young brother Richard BRERETON and his family were the pioneers of a small village called 'Narrewillock" near Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria, Australia.

I located a record of a Patrick McDonnell who came to Australia. But I don't know for sure if it is our Patrick. He travelled on the ship "Bates Family" arriving in Victoria, Australia in June, 1863. I've made contact with Clare Heritage but I do not have anything back yet.
If anyone can help with information, it would be appreciated. I'm new with the internet and I haven't used a site like this before.

We (The Wallabies) beat Ireland in a Rugby League Test last Saturday night in a close game. The Ireland side played well. Unfortunately the Poms beat us the week before.

[Gerry Kennedy]

Hi Adrian
My initial reaction when I saw your posting was that there were no McDonnells in the Crusheen area and that perhaps the name was O’Donnell. As the state records for Births Marriages and Deaths only commence in 1864 and the Inchicronan (Crusheen) Parish records date from 1860 there is considerable difficulty in establishing genealogy lines prior to mid nineteenth century.
However, on checking my own databases I did find a McDonnell in the townland of Gortlurkaun.
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... urkaun.htm

I have made a more detailed search and ascertained the following:
The McDonnell name is not recorded as a tenant of the Butler lands in Inchicronan (Crusheen) parish on the Tithe Applotment Books dated 20 Oct 1834.
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... an_tab.htm[/url]

The Griffith Valuation of 1855 records a Margaret McDonnell as occupier of 17 Acres 0 Rood 19 Perches in Gortlurkaun , Rateable Valuation £6 18s 0d (Land) and £1 0s 0d (Buildings); The Map reference is 1a.
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith- ... ubmit.y=13
Changes in the occupancy are recorded in The Valuation Office Cancellation Books (available at Valuation Office, Irish Life Building Abbey Street Dublin)
In 1875 Michael McDonnell was recorded as occupier of this holding and in 1894 the holding was taken over by an adjoining tenant farmer Martin O’Donoghue. A notation on the books in 1895 stated ‘House down’.

The Death Registers for the Crusheen District record the death of a Margaret McDonnell, Gortlurkaun , aged 70, on the 11th December 1870. She is described as the ‘widow of a farmer’ and the death was notified by Michael McDonnell.

The Crusheen Baptism register records two McDonnell baptisms, Bridget on 29 Dec 1869 and
Pat on 5 Feb 1875 both to Michael McDonnell and Bridget Mannion or Mangan.

The Registry of Births shows a Mary McDonnell born on 9th Sept 1873 to Michael McDonnell , farmer and Anne Mangan, Gortlurkaun (Entry 105, Book 3, Crusheen District)

One McDonnell Marriage is recorded, that of Bridget, Gortlurkaun on 26 Nov 1865, aged 21, daughter of Maurice McDonnell, labourer. She married James Burns of Ballycoree Ennis, aged 22, son of John Burns, labourer.

The school registers for Crusheen National School (Girls) record 4 McDonnell girls from Gortlurkaun.
On 12 Jan 1885, Bridget (aged 15); Margaret (aged 14) and Mary (aged 8 ) are recorded while on the 6 Jul 1885 Annie (aged 7) is registered.

There are a number of Moloney families in the Crusheen area in the late 19th century It is not clear whether Maurice’s wife was from Crusheen . If she was it will not be possible to make the connection because of absence of records. Likewise , if his mother was Kennedy , the Margaret whose death is recorded in 1870 aged 70 would have been born c.1800. This would have made her a contemporary of my ggrand father John Kennedy and his brother Edmond born in 1807 and 1805 respectively. Whether they were siblings will be difficult to prove given the absence of records and the fact that there were at least three other Kennedy families in the locality.

I hope the above is of some help to you.

Gerry Kennedy

[Adrian Ingleby]

Thanks Gerry for all that information.

You have gone to a lot of trouble. It is very pleasing to find that what was yesterday a 'blank sheet' now has information on it for my enthusiastic consideration.

On an initial glance the marriage of Bridget McDonnell, daughter of Maurice McDonnell is interesting. Bridget was born in 1844 and is 7 years younger than Patrick (1837) if they are by chance brother & sister. She married a local in 1865 and that is the year we think Patrick (aged 28 years) travelled from Ireland to Victoria, Australia.

Regards,
Adrian Ingleby

[smcarberry]

Adrian,

You are the fortunate recipient of Gerry Kennedy's information gathering, which will hopefully give a boost to your efforts. I can make two small additions, gleaned from the Rootsweb Clare mailing list and from the LDS IGI database (online):

Thor Conway's 2003 posting:
"While extracting entries for my Doloughty/Delahunty ancestors from the Quin and Clooney Parish registers, I copied a few...entries that may be useful to other researchers."
Marriage Entry
1869 [Feb.] 9th Michael McDonnell, Crusheen [to] Anne Mangan, Rylane.
[witnesses] John O'Kane, Honora Doloughty

Anne McDonnell IGI Batch C005787
Birth: 30 MAY 1878 Genthlenkane, Clare, Ireland
Father: Michael McDonnell
Mother: Anne Memgan MacDonnell


I have some further references for the involved area, but those are in the early 1800s and the late 1700s so you will not be at that stage for quite some time. I do have a U.S. record which may interest, from the LDS Pilot Search database now online:
Maurice McDonnell, designer, d. 6 Nov 1911 Chicago, Illinois
b. 7 Jan 1871
Father: Maurice
Mother: Kennedy
burial: Calvary Cemetery
residence: 3045 W. Polk St., Chicago
[I can't find any such person in the 1910 census for Chicago.]


posted by
Sharon Carberry
Georgia USA

[Adrian Ingleby]

Sharon,

Thanks for your information. The name 'Maurice' is no doubt, unusual or not common, so I guess when the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, the name 'Maurice' will be a thread running through it.

Regards,
Adrian Ingleby

[Adrian Ingleby]

McDonnell's - Family Tree graph.pdf

(502.13 KiB) Downloaded 490 times

Attention Gerry Kennedy,
G'day Gerry,
Since my last posting I received a report from Clare Heritage which was basically the same information that you supplied to me in regard to my McDonnell's.

I've put a tree together with the known Irish record in black ink and with the information to which there is no record in Ireland in red ink. It is all in a time line that I feel matches the ages of the persons involved. I'd be interested to get your opinion as to whether it looks right and if not, you might have some other suggestion as to how it might fit together.

I mentioned the name "Kennedy" previously and it turns out Kennedy is Patrick McDonnell's wife's mothers maiden name.

Patrick McDonnell's wife Bridget Brereton (Brereton is interchangeable with the names Bruton & Brute) was baptised in Moyne-Templetuohy, Co. Tipperary on 26.04.1838. Her father Michael Brute dob 06.08.1810 and his wife (her mother) was Bridget Dorgan/Dorrigan born 1812 in Kilmakill, Co. Tipperary.

Bridget Brute nee Dorgan/Dorrigan we believe was the first child of Richard Dorgan and his wife Ann Kennedy although there is no actual record of her birth. They had 8 additional children John (1814), Pat (1817), Michael (1819), Thomas (1822), Mary (1825), Richard (1827), James (1830), and Judy (1834).
Is Ann Kennedy by any chance related to your clan?

Regards,
Adrian Ingleby.