John Burns & Margaret Roughan of Carrigaholt

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David_Lynch
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Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 10:07 am

John Burns & Margaret Roughan of Carrigaholt

Post by David_Lynch » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:55 pm

John Burns

In Re: Inheritances, bequests by Clare emigrants to U.S., Australia posted on this forum Jan 16, 2010 by Paddy Waldron:

"My greatgrandfather John McNamara was described as the senior heir on the McNamara side and also by far the best informed about the family history. His son-in-law, Gerald Burns, later a Fianna Fail county councillor, became the representative of the heirs and wrote a long series of letters asking for the legal file to be handed over by the lawyers to the family."

I am trying to trace the family of this son-in-law Gerald Burns.

My great-grandfather John Lynch was born in Clare in about 1808. My great-grandmother was born in Clare in February 1819 (from a family bible). The first publicly documented mention of them is their marriage in Ennis, 24 July 1842.

All my direct attempts to trace their families in Clare have been unsuccessful, partly because my great-grandparents lost their teaching jobs because of political activity during the famine and moved to Kilkenny in 1850 and so presumably lost much contact with their families in Clare.

My great-aunt Mary Kate MacMahon ran a hotel in Limerick and her husband, Thomas, was a boot manufacturer and seller. She died in 1910 and her husband in 1909. The census return, nai002764109, for the hotel in 1911 is intriguing:

The first line is John Burns, Father, crossed out, replaced by Head.
The second line is Elizabeth MacMahon, Wife, crossed out, replaced by Relative.
The third line is Agnes MacMahon, Daughter, crossed out, replaced by Relative

The form is signed by Elizabeth MacMahon. Elizabeth was the third child of Thomas and Mary Kate, aged 44, and Agnes, the fourteenth, aged 23. So, apart from Elizabeth's surname, the unamended return looks plausible. Elizabeth died single in 1945.

John Burns was a widower, with five children, the youngest 10 in 1911. One of these children is Gerald Burns, mentioned above.

On the assumption that John Burns was indeed a relative, I am hoping that tracing John Burns' family might lead to me finding out about my family in Clare.

John himself was born in Tipperary about 1859 (nothing further known). Thomas MacMahon came from Rathkeale, Limerick. The closest connection appears to be with John's wife, Margaret Roughan.

Margaret was born about 1861 the son of John Rougham of Carrigaholt. A brother was Thomas Roughan and a sister Mary Healy. All the following appear to be cousins (mentioned in the funeral report, Limerick Leader 16 June 1905, p3):
Thomas Roughan Cappa Kilrush
Stephen Roughan, John Roughan, Kilkee
M J Carmody, Kilkee
Patrick and Thomas Bonfill, Kilbaha
Martin and Timothy Hare, junior, Kilkee
John Kelly, Carrigaholt
Patrick Carmody, Carrigaholt
Michael Conway, Doonbeg

Can anyone help me connect the families of John Burns and John Lynch or Susan McCormick please?

(It may be relevant that Irish was taught and spoken at home by my great-grandparents.)

David Lynch

pwaldron
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Re: John Burns & Margaret Roughan of Carrigaholt

Post by pwaldron » Sun May 04, 2014 1:47 am

Hi David

I'm afraid I can't tell you the precise connection between John Burns and the MacMahons, but perhaps I can be of some assistance.

I have been searching for years for a birth record, a 1911 census return, a death record and a probate record for John Burns and failed to find any of the three.

I'm fairly sure you've found the census return for me - John has changed his county of birth from Limerick to Tipperary since 1901, and aged by only nine years, but everything else on the amended 1911 census return fits perfectly. Many thanks.

The unamended 1911 census return initially had me wondering if John Burns had two families on the go simultaneously, one in Limerick and another in Carrigaholt! However, you seem to have accounted for the "wife" and two "daughters".

As regards the Irish language: Gerald Burns's wife went to school in Moveen at a time when Irish was not taught there, but her father was a native speaker of the language.

I can account for most of the cousins in Mrs. Margaret Burns's obituary (which I have not seen). I'll send you the details in a "pm" (click pm button below).

\pw

Murray Ginnane
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Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:36 am

Re: John Burns & Margaret Roughan of Carrigaholt

Post by Murray Ginnane » Tue May 13, 2014 11:23 pm

Hi David Lynch , I believe that Paddy W has just forwarded my contact to you?

It may be timely to remind everyone here that I am STILL working on DRAFT transcriptions of the Carrigaholt Marriage & Baptism Registers : extended-Catholic Parishes covering all townlands in Moyarta Civil Parish & Kilballyowen Civil Parish, and areas from Querrin to Moveen, & Kilbaha to Kilcredaun : including chapels at Moneen , Doonaha , "The Little Ark of Kilbaha" , etc.

Carrigaholt Marriage & Baptism Registers from January 1852 / 1853 to Mar 17th 1878. I will email them to anyone who wants a copy : there are about 4,000 baptisms & 912 marriages.
>3,000 pages of text which include a lot of draft notes while I collate everything.
> 4Mbytes in two WORD.docx files in original date order & word-searchable.

As with all these types of Registers, there seem to be up to 30% of entries completely missing.
I have also photographed a lot of the Register entries to email.

ALSO, ...... as with all these Parish records, ... there are many "Out-Of-Towners" who visited or married into the districts. And so they may all be useful to just about anyone researching, especially Co.Clare.

Slainte, Murray Michael Ginnane in New Zealand ,
--- descended from the Murrays & the Ginnanes from Rahona East townland, Carrigaholt.

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