Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

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Sduddy
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Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by Sduddy » Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:15 am

Recently I watched a TV (TG4) programme* on Irish Music Collectors (Lynch, Bunting, Petrie and O’Neill) and was interested to hear that the wife of Francis O’Neill was one Anna Rogers from Co. Clare. There is a lot of information on Francis available online, most of it relating to his work as a collector, of course, but this piece (below) tells us that Anne was from Feakle and that she died in 1934. I looked for her death on familysearch.org and found that she was born on 25 August 1849 to John Rogers and Mary Collins. I hoped to find her baptism, but then realized that the only surviving baptism register for Feakle begins at 1860. It appears from the piece that the Rogers emigrated as a family, so probably no descendants remaining in Feakle: https://digitalchicagohistory.org/exhib ... go/the-man

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MD-CZBM

*A repeat of “Na Bailitheoirí Ceoil”, first broadcast in 2009, and presented by Seán Corcoran (who died this May), in three parts. The part on Francis O’Neill), which mentions his marriage to Anna, also mentions Patrick O’Mahony (“Big Pat”) from West Clare – at about the 12.40 mark:
https://www.tg4.ie/ga/player/catagoir/c ... genre=Ceol

This article by Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráIn mentions Patrick O’Mahony: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... equiem.htm

Sheila

smcarberry
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Re: Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by smcarberry » Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:48 pm

Due to the 1867 marriage of a Clashduff (Kilkishen) Donnellan to a Rogers of Aughrim, I have kept my eye on Rogers news mentions. One legal notice of 1905 has been posted on this Forum although I don't recall a keyword to easily bring it up in the search engine (other than "Rogers"). The notice appeared in a Brooklyn NY paper but it concerned the probate of Bartholomew Rogers of Otsego County, far upstate. Specifically named were:
Patrick Rogers, MIchael Rogers, Margaret Rogersand Mrs. Thomas O'Shea, severally residing at Liss Caher, Feakle, Co. Clare
Annie Rogers and Charlotte Rogers, residing Bylane [sic, Rylane], Quinn [sic], Co. Clare
Annie McNamara and Michael McNamara, Magheraubaune [sic], Feakle, Co. Clare
Mrs. P. J. Ryan and James McNamara, 358 West 138th St. [as of 1910 in Yonkers], New York City
Margaret Rogers, 331 Union Ave, Brooklyn NY
Mary Rogers, 220 Carlton Ave, Brooklyn NY

The decedent Bartholmew was a single man boarding with a family in Cooperstown, Otsego Co., in 1900, and stated his birth as being in 1845, immigration 1866. The spelling there was Rodgers, also used for a Thomas of Feakle in his 1904 obituary, uploaded.

The uploaded Patrick Rogers obituary may be for the one listed in the 1905 notice. I haven't tried to connect the dots between these folks.
Rogers, Fkle, 6 Dec 1941 BDE.jpg
Rogers, Fkle, 6 Dec 1941 BDE.jpg (17.56 KiB) Viewed 4037 times


Also note, the 1900 NY arrival of Mary Collins going to her cousin Delia Rogers in Bronxville, yet another NYC suburb:
https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... grants.htm

The Rogers themselves have several inbound arrivals noted in that same Library section, from 1877 through 1892, with indications that a Michael arrived before that group. They were going to various locations in western Pennyslvania, upstate NY, and NYC.

I have a few more news items for Rogers of Clare, no specific mention of Feakle, and one Iowa burial for a Mrs. Mary Rogers born Feakle.
Attachments
Rodgers 1904 Feakle dth.jpg
Rodgers 1904 Feakle dth.jpg (35.48 KiB) Viewed 4037 times

Sduddy
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Re: Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by Sduddy » Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:39 am

Hi Sharon,

Thank you for delving into your files and taking so much trouble. That information will be helpful to anyone researching Rogers from Feakle. And I can see from the will made by Bartholomew Rogers that Margaret Rogers, who married James McNamara of Maherabaun, must have been related to Bartholomew (the topic of Thomas McNamara, the missing Civil War soldier, touches on the Magherabaun McNamaras - I had failed to find the civil record of that marriage, but it seems now that Margaret was from Liss). I am not sure, however, that John Rogers and Mary Collins (Anna’s parents) are from that Liss family of Rogers. According to the piece on Francis O’Neill (above), John and Mary Rogers and their family were living in Normal, Illinois, when Francis O’Neill visited them about 1870. They had emigrated about 1866-69.
This 1880 census shows Francis, aged 32, Annie aged 31, Julia aged 2, and Annie’s mother, Mary, aged 63, living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. So it appears that John Rogers had died by then: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXNV-8H1

Since I made my posting yesterday, I’ve been reading bits and pieces online and found that Francis O’Neill retired in 1905 and then made a six week visit to Ireland in 1906, before publishing The Dance Music of Ireland, 1001 Gems, in 1907. First he went to his old home in Co. Cork, and then he came to Feakle. O’Neill writes about this visit in his own notes. But I don’t know if he mentions where he stayed in Feakle. Nicholas Carolan has written a biography, A Harvest Saved: Francis O’Neill and Irish Music in Chicago, and maybe Carolan has more detail (I haven’t read the book). While O’Neill was in Feakle, he continued to collect tunes, and Johnny Allen, “from beyond Feakle”, is mentioned in his notes as someone he got some tunes from. It seems, however, that O’Neill was disheartened by his visit; the old uilleann pipe players and flute players of his youth were gone and were replaced by concertina and tin whistle players: see The Anglo-German Concertina: A Social History Volume I, by Dan M Worrall (go to page 217): https://books.google.ie/books?id=1-thWE ... ll&f=false
One of the tunes O’Neill got during his visit to Feakle is called The Maid of Feakle: https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Ma ... akle_(The).

The following is an aside (from O’Neill and the Rogers family): As I was reading the piece by Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin (above), I was distracted by the mention of another musician, a Paddy Poole, from Tulla, who lived in Chicago for some years before returning to Ireland in the 1920s. Ó hAllmhuráin says that he was there in the late 19th century, but I think that he only went there in 1903. It was this piece on Vincent Griffin that led me to decide that Patrick Poole was Patrick Powell, and to come to the conclusion that he was still alive when Vincent was in his teens in the mid 1940s:
Vincent Griffin, Ayle, born 1932: https://www.topicrecords.co.uk/wp-conte ... SDL338.pdf. A Patrick Powell died in 1949, in Tulla, a bachelor, aged 70; informant: Michael Tubridy, nephew: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 196733.pdf. Patrick’s sister Mary, who was a school teacher in the workhouse, had married John Tubridy in 1901, and the record shows that her father was John Powell, shopkeeper: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 757352.pdf
The Tulla baptism records show the first few children of John Powell and Honora Conway and Mary is among them. Patrick is not among them as he was born in 1881 (after the 1880 cut-off point): https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 035548.pdf.
Patrick is still living at home in 1901, but I think he is the Patrick who, according to Tom McDowell’s list, emigrated (going to his brother Thomas in Chicago) in 1903: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... grants.htm.
When Honora Powell died in 1935, in Tulla, the informant was her son Patrick Powell: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 301113.pdf . I believe this is Patrick returned from Chicago.

And, as an aside from an aside, I think these Powells, shopkeepers in Tulla, were the people who employed Andrew McNamara as a car driver, as discovered by Jimbo – see page 29 of “Information is wanted of Thomas McNamara, of Glandree”:
Andrew McNamara, son of Patrick McNamara and Ellen McMahon, who was baptized in April 1877, was not living with his family in the 1901 Irish census. On 9 March 1896, Andrew McNamara, born in Tulla, age 19 years and 0 months, enlisted at Ennis with the Clare Artillery as a gunner for a period of six years. His occupation had been "car driver" and he was working for "John Powell" of Tulla Town when he enlisted in 1896. Several promotions followed. In the 1901 Irish census, I reckon Andrew McNamara was reported with only the initials "A. M.", born in County Clare, "laborer", age 20 (census takers are less accurate than the military?), stationed at the Duncannon Fort in County Wexford:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... n/1797992/
https://www.visitwexford.ie/directory/duncannon-fort-2/
Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by Sduddy » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:22 pm

Well, I was foolishly searching online instead of going over to the bookshelf and taking down Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape, by Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, where there is quite a lengthy piece on the visit of Francis O’Neill and Anna to Feakle, pp 92-5. This says that among the places they visited was Feakle where Anna’s family lived, but the name of the townland is not given, so maybe it is not known for sure. The O’Neills were hosted by John Walsh, a justice of the peace at Ayle House, and by James Conway at Clashmore House in Feakle. Page 92-5 is available to read online: https://books.google.ie/books?id=dKhHDA ... le&f=false

I think the Darby Simon Touhey, who is mentioned in that piece as having known Anna in her girlhood, is the Darby Tuohy, aged 72, living in Lacarrow Lower (Feakle DED), in 1901, with his wife Bridget, son Michael and daughter Lizzie: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... r/1085390/
Anna must have come from that townland, or from a nearby one, I think, as she claimed to remember Darby’s great dancing ability. A James Rogers and a Michael Rogers were tenants in Lecarrow Lower at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, 1855, but there are no Rogers there in 1901. But, maybe, to use George Uthank Macnamara’s word for families that ended with females only, the Lecarrow Rogers became “submerged” when those females married into other families.
That’s all for now.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by Sduddy » Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:26 pm

I digressed (above) to say that I think Paddy Poole, from Tulla, who returned from Chicago in the 1920s, is Patrick Powell 1881-1949. I noted that Patrick Powell’s sister Mary had married John Tubridy in 1901. The record shows that John was a National School Teacher, and it was this John Tubridy, not Michael Tubridy, who provided the notation for the four tunes collected by Francis O’Neill in Feakle. I’ve transcribed a couple of excerpts from this publication to show that it was John Tubridy:
Irish Folk Music, O’Neill: http://pipers.ie/source/media/pdf-viewe ... iaId=12762
“Peter Street” is by no means a characteristic Irish reel, and for that reason its paternity has always been to me a matter of uncertainty, although a florid setting of it with variations was received from Mr. John Tubridy, a school teacher at Tulla, County Clare, and a prize winner on the violin at a Leinster Feis. (see page 113)
Among the many fine tunes played by Touhey and Allen night after night in Mr. Conway’s house were two reels and one hornpipe that were entirely new to me. Much as I tried to memorize them as of old, the effort was not altogether successful, and I was indebted to Mr. Tubridy, a school teacher from Tulla, for sending me the notation later on. He was himself a prize winner at a Dublin Feis, and contributed an uncommon reel not included in our first volume, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland. None of the four tunes thus obtained were known by name, so the hornpipe, to commemorate the old blind musician, was named “Paddy Mack,” and the reels “The Maid of Feakle,” “Johnny Allen’s Reel,” and “The Humors of Scariff,” contributed by Touhey, Allen and Tubridy, respectively.(see page 122)
It’s clear that John Tubridy sent the notation for the tunes to O’Neill sometime after the visit, and I wonder if John also mentioned his brother-in-law, Patrick Powell, who was living in Chicago at the time, and thus effected an introduction between Patrick and O’Neill. Just a bit of speculation.

The old blind musician, Paddy Mack, is the subject of a brief piece I posted in 2018, entitled “Paddy McNamara, Blind Fiddler (about 1820-1902)”: http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... f=1&t=7026

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by Sduddy » Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:19 pm

I speculated (above) that Patrick Powell might have been introduced to Francis O’Neill by means of a letter from John Tubridy, but I see now that Patrick Powell’s mother was Honora Conway and I’m almost certain that she was sister of James Conway, who was host to Francis O’Neill during his visit to Feakle in 1906.
Here is the record of the marriage of James Conway, 1881, giving his father’s name as Patrick Conway, Clashmore: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 959635.pdf
And here is the record of the marriage of Honorah Conway to John Powell, 1869, giving her father’s name as Pat Conway, Laccaro. The townland of Lacarrow is adjacent to Clashmore, which is a very small townland: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/ ... 191943.pdf

According to Tom McDowell’s list of emigrants, Denis Conway, [a son of James Conway – see 1901 census], born 1888, emigrated to the U.S. in 1906, going to his uncle Denis Conway, 5939, Union Avenue, Chicago, Illinois: https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... grants.htm. This uncle was Denis Conway, who was baptised in Feakle on 29 Apr 1862; parents: Pat Conway & Margaret Mack. I think Denis must be a brother of James and maybe also of Honora Powell née Conway. He emigrated to America about 1887-1889. He married Katherine Nash and they lived in Chicago (according to US censuses). He died in 1958, and the familysearch record of his death gives his parents as James Conway and Margaret McNamara, but that “James” should be “Patrick,” surely: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MC-MXXD.

And what was his occupation? Well, Policeman, of course.

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: Anna Rogers, 1849-1934, from Feakle, wife of Francis O'Neill

Post by Sduddy » Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:27 am

I found Anna Rogers’ parents, John Rodgers and Mary Collins, in the Scariff parish baptism register. They are the parents of John baptised on ?? May 1852; address: Cooleen Bridge; witnesses: Michael Farril, Scariff, Biddy Collins, Cooleen Bridge.

That is the only baptism for that couple in the register. Maybe John was the last child born to them. The register starts in 1852, so, of course, Anna’s baptism (in 1849) could not be in there. If John survived infancy he would have gone to the U.S. with the rest of the family in 1866 (or thereabouts) and might still be with the family in Normal, Illinois, when Francis O’Neill visited there in 1870.

Cooleen Bridge is the address given for Paddy McNamara, the Blind Fiddler, in this piece on Paddy Canny and P. J. Hayes: http://www.gannetschool.it/leggendoquaela29in.htm, but his official address was Lecarrow Lower: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... 000486406/.

I think it is safe to say that Lecarrow Lower was Anna’s birthplace too.

Sheila

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