Carkill

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kbarlow
Posts: 160
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:07 am

Carkill

Post by kbarlow » Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:06 am

Hi all - am trying to trace some families with the surname Carkil/Carkill (& many variants in the records, of course) in/around Commons South. In the Tithe Applotment Books I have found a Martin @ Drommher, a John & Martin @ Leana, Thomas @ Commons Nth (Poulkine). I suspect the Martin @ Leana (married Cath Cusack) moved to Clooneen. Some of them married into the Hehir family, over a number of generation,s and I have those marriages & births (thanks to Sheila's work), but am having great difficulty sorting out what the exact connections are. If there is anyone else researching the Carkil surname in these and nearby townlands I would love to hear from you.

regards, Kerry

Polycarp
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:50 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Polycarp » Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:42 am

Hi Kerry,

Michael Mac Mahon, in an article on Ulster families in County Clare in "The Other Clare" in 2010, suggests that the Carkil family is of Ulster origin.

Michael writes: "In the southern parts of the Burren another group of Northeners settled on the extensive 'Commons' which once formed part of the old church lands of Killinaboy. Their names are still there - Carkil, Cassidy, McGann, Gilligan (originally McQuilligan), Kierse, etc. As recently as 1983, a plan of the Carkil family home at Poulcoyne, Killinaboy, published in the "North Munster Antiquarian Journal", displayed an alcove, or 'bed-out-post', a feature previously unknown in Clare but having an accepted Northern and Scottish distribution pattern. The feature was intended to accommodate a bed near the fireplace for an older member of the household."

Polycarp

kbarlow
Posts: 160
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by kbarlow » Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:56 am

Thanks Polycarp, this is interesting. My own research led me to think the Kierce families may have arrived from Ulster after the expulsions there late 1700s. As very few libraries in Oz have any copies of The Other Clare, do you know how I can get a hold of this particular edition of the journal?

kind regards, Kerry

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Sduddy » Mon May 04, 2020 10:17 am

Hi Kerry

I hope you will get a reply from someone who has done work on the Carkills. I’m afraid I’m not that person. I only touched briefly on the Carkills when I was replying to matthewmacnamara on the topic of Patrick McMahon of Leana Killinaboy: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6736&p=11261&hilit=Carkhill#p11261 (I made some bad mistakes).

Edward McLysaght says “Cark(h)ill: “The Clare form of Mac Fheargail, see under Mac Girl; also an occasional version of MacCorkill”. For Mac Girl McLysaght says: “Mag Fheargail (for derivation see Farrell), also anglicized MacGarrell, MacGorl; now mainly [County] Leitrim, [County] Cavan. When Mag not Mac is used (Mac Fheargail) as in [County] Donegal, the name becomes MacCarrigle whence Gargill and Carkill”.

The forms used by General Registry Office registrars are Carkill, Carkell, Carkil, Carkel, Carkhill, and Carhal (Carhal on just one occasion: the marriage of Michael (Carkill), Clooneen, to Margaret Conlan, Fanta, Kilfenora, in 1877). There may be more forms of the name that I haven't found. The impression I am getting, just by looking at all the entries on the General Registry Office site: civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie, is that the name was mostly confined to Corofin registration district, and, as time went on, became scarce there too. I expected to find some deaths of people named Carkill in the 1950s and early 1960s, but I found none. Of course there may be deaths of people whose mother was Carkill. The most “recent” marriage of a male Carkill that I found on that site was that of John Carkell to Bridget Keane in 1933, but that’s because the cut-off point for marriages (on that site) comes soon after that date. The name seems to have remained confined to the Corofin – Kilfenora area of North Clare, but there are also Carkills in Ennis - they may be descendants of a Martin Carkill from Kilfenora, who married Bridget Kenny from Rath in 1904.

Looking at the 1866 census Kilfenora: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... #kilfenora, I see the Carkill family of Clooneen/Ballybaun.

Looking at the 1901 census (for the whole of Ireland) I see just one Carkill family in Killinaboy. There's also one Carkil family (in Leama, Killinaboy DED, step-children of Martin McMahon - “Leama” is the townland of Leana), and one family of Carkhill (in Clooneen, Killinaboy DED). There may be some forms the name that I am missing – there are some Carkills still in that area and there’s one mentioned here: https://www.kilfenoraclare.com/events/k ... zler-2016/

Kerry, I suspect that you, yourself, are the only one who has done a study of the Carkill families.

Sheila

kbarlow
Posts: 160
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by kbarlow » Tue May 05, 2020 2:13 am

Thank you Sheila, you are so generous with your time. I have been mapping all the Carkil BDM, Tithe, Griffiths, & census records to ascertain their relationships. The earliest in the records is evidence of a Jeremiah (born abt 1780's?), whose daughter Mary (of Leana) married Thomas Crowe in 1827, with the priest noting her father's name. I am also trying to use the Irish naming pattern for baptisms where not too many gaps in records, to work out parentage in the earlier generation.
The article & photo in the NMAJ of a Carkill house (thanks to Polycarp), posits the theory that the hearth/bed style is most uncommon in Clare, more common near Ulster & Scotland - this would support Michael McMahon's theory that families with names like Carkill & Kierce were more likely to be from that earlier migration. Kierce contacts in the US & here in Oz have had dna testing with Ancestry (I haven't) which has shown them some distant "cousins" in Scotland (Kiers), which also lends weight to this thinking.

The recent Kilfenora newspaper article definitely shows Carkill still in the district - wish I had known Paul the flautist was around when I visited in 2016!! I wonder if his family know their (earlier) history!

kind regards, Kerry

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Sduddy » Tue May 05, 2020 10:46 am

Hi Kerry

You have done a lot of work, and I hope you will continue find more bits of information to add to it.

Note on Poulkine / Poulkyne: It may be of interest to someone, sometime, to know that Poulkine, where one family of Carkills lived, is an old name for the townland of Commons North, Kilnaboy. It was already an “unofficial” name at the time of the Tithe Applotments (1842) - so it is not on the clarelibrary index of townlands. But the name Poulkine was the real name and continued to be used locally. The address for John Carkell in the civil record of his marriage to Bridget Keane in 1933 is Poulkyne.

Poulkine appears several times in the Rath-Kilnaboy baptism records, and the first two parish baptism registers show baptisms of Carkill children from there. The Tithe Apploment books show Thomas Carkel in Commons North. Griffith’s Valuation shows John Carkil leasing land and house there (Lots 19, 20, 21a). And the 1901 and 1911 censuses show Carkills still living there. But there is a long period, both in parish records and the civil records, when no records appear for them. The last register of baptisms, 1862-1880, shows no Carkills, and no Carkills appear in the General Registry Office records either. Susan Carkill, who is aged 29, in 1901, married her neighbour, Michael Guthrie, in 1903 and the record shows that her father was John Carkel. But I can find no record of the birth or the baptism of Susan, and no record of John’s marriage or death.
In fact there are no civil records for any of the Carkill/Carkel/Carkil/Carkhill families in the 1864 – 1882 period. This makes me really really wonder if I am missing some form of the name.
Susan’s brother Thomas married Mary Anne Forde sometime before 1911 (no record), and was married secondly, after Mary Anne’s death in 1916, to Mary O’Donohue (1917 - in Ennis cathedral). The record of this marriage shows that his father was John and it shows that one of the witnesses was Jerome Carkill. This Jerome must be the Jerome who was born to Thomas Carkhill and Mary McMahon, in Leana, in 1889, so Thomas and Jerome must have been cousins. I don’t think they can be first cousins – that would mean that Thomas in Leana and John in Poulkine (Commons North) were brothers, and we know that the Carkills were already in both Leana and Commons North at the time of Tithes (Martin Carkel in Leana, Thomas Carkel in Commons North). Maybe Jerome in Leane and Thomas in Poulkine were second cousins.

Sheila

* I’m attaching my transcription of the Rath-Killinaboy baptism records, sorted by residence, in order to show how many placenames there were, and still may be.
Rath-Kilnaboy 1818-1836 by residence.xlsx
(349.28 KiB) Downloaded 346 times
Rath-KilnaboyBaptisms1837-1862 by residence.xlsx
(310.34 KiB) Downloaded 327 times
Rath-Kilnaboy Baptisms 1862-1881 by residence.xlsx
(218.47 KiB) Downloaded 316 times

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Sduddy » Tue May 05, 2020 6:31 pm

Well, I did not look very carefully at the second book of Rath-Kilnaboy baptisms (1837-1862), or I would have seen that Thomas Carkill, who is in Commons North in 1901, was born to John Carkil and Margaret Carthy on 12 Feb 1859. Other baptisms recorded for that couple are Michael on 24 Nov 1860, and John 18 Nov 1861. And there were other baptisms that were not recorded, probably.

Also in that 1837-1862 register are the baptisms of two children of Martin Carcal and Catherine Cusack. Martin and Kate are the couple who are in Clooneen, in 1866 (see Kilfenora parish census 1866). Their son Michael was baptised in Kilnaboy on 18 Aug. 1838 (address: Leana), and their daughter Anna was baptised on 29 Jun 1846. There must have been more children born to Martin and Kate – we can see that Michael, who is aged 61 in 1901, has a brother Martin, aged 55, living with him, and he has a sister, Bridget, who was married to Thomas Burke in Lismoher, Noughaval – Michael’s daughter, Lizzie, is staying with Bridget Burke in 1901, but back at home in Clooneen in 1911. Some Burke-Carkill baptisms can be found in the Carron parish baptisms.

Another small crumb: I’ve found Carkill spelled as“Carkle” in the 1911 census for Carrownagarraun (Rath DED): Kate Ward aged 73, widow, and her sister, Margaret Carkle, aged 71. I think Kate and Margaret were born to Thomas Carkill and Joanna Curtis, Poulkine. A Catherine was baptised on 28 Feb 1832 and a Margaret was baptised on 15 Jan 1827 – and there are more baptisms of children of that couple in Rath-Kilnaboy 1818-1836.

This Catherine Ward was Catherine Carkil. She had married William O’Connor, Gortnanov (before 1865) and their son, Michael was born on 10 Aug. 1865. The death of a William O’Connor was registered in Corofin. The image is not available, but I think he must be Catherine's husband.
Catherine married again on 29 Feb 1876: Catherine O’Connor, alias Carkil, widow, Carrunagroun, daughter of Thomas Carkil, Farmer, married Michael Ward, Farmer, School, son of Michael Ward, Farmer; witnesses: Michael Hehir, Mary Carkil. Carrunagaroun was the address of Catherine’s first husband – the entry in the Kilnaboy marriages (1862-1880) gives her parents names as Thomas and Judith Carcil, Poulkine. Michael Ward and Catherine Carkill had a son, John, who is aged 22 in 1901.

Finally, I'm not at all sure that Carkills living in Ennis are descendants of Martin Carkill and Bridget Kenny, who had married in Ennis in 1904. Yes, Martin and Bridget lived in Ballyinaladdy in Ennis Rural and the 1911 census shows them there, but I think that they moved to the townland of Poulgorm, Carron, at some point - their daughter, Mary, married Denis Keane, from Leana, in 1936. The record shows that her address is Poulgorm, Carron - the marriage took place in Carron Church. The Kilnaboy headstone inscriptions (for Carkills) accord with this: http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/ ... lnaboy.txt


Sheila

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Sduddy » Wed May 06, 2020 11:40 am

Hi Kerry

After all of that, I still have no answer to your question as to how the Carkill families were connected to each other. I think all the Carkills came from just two townlands, Leana and Commons North/Poulkine. The relationship between those two families may be complicated by a (possible) relationship between Johanna McCarthy/Carthy, who was married to Thomas Carkill, and Margaret Carthy, who was married to John Carkill. If these two Carthys were sisters, then Jerome might be a related to Thomas by that route (Jerome is a witness at the marriage of Thomas in 1917).
A marriage record that puzzles me is this one from 1890: 19th Apr 1890: Michael Collins, Kilmoon, son of Patrick Collins (dead), married Mary Carkil, Leana, daughter of John Carkil (alive); witnesses: Patrick Guthrie, Susan Carkil (registered in Corofin). If Leana had not been mentioned as the bride’s address, I would have assumed she was a daugher of John Carkil of Commons North/Poulkine. And it’s possible that she was his daughter, and just staying with her cousins in Leana at the time of the marriage. The 1901 census shows Martin Collins and Mary in Kilmoon West (Cloughan DED).

You mention the earliest parish record – the marriage of Mary Carcal, Leana, on 26 Feb 1827, to Thomas Crowe, Ruan, and I see that that record shows that her father was Jeremiah. Jeremiah may have been progenitor of the Carkills in Kilnaboy, so I was surprised that this name was not used by Carkills, at least not until the birth of Jerome in 1889 (Jerome is Jeremiah in the record of his marriage* and on his headstone), but of course not every baptism was recorded by any means, and I now see, on familysearch.org - Massachusetts Deaths, the death in Lowell, Mass., on Nov 1879, of a John Carkill b. 1812 in Ireland; parents: Jeremiah and Mary Carkill.
* Carkill is mistranscribed as “Carvill” in the record of Jerome’s marriage in 1934.

Another Jeremiah is a Jeremiah Carkill in the U.S. 1920 census, living in Lowell, Mass.. He is a boarder at Joseph Bouchard. He was born in Ireland in 1862, and his immigration year is 1882. The record of his naturalization (1896) gives his birth-year as 1864.

Another Carkill in Lowell, Massachusetts, is Bridget Carkill, born 1831. The record I found (familysearch.org) is of her death on 22 Jan 1892. Her parents were John Carkill and Mary Cullinan.

Later Carkills went to Providence, Rhode Island:
The US 1920 census shows Thomas Carkill, born 1855, Ireland; immigration year: 1872, living in Ward 7, Providence (in the 1900 census he gives the immigration year ast 1874).
Rhode Island Marriages shows the marriage of Annie Carkill, born 1853, to James Mooney; Annie’s parents: Martin and Catherine Carkill.
Two of the children of Thomas Burke and Bridget Carkil, Lismoher, Noughaval, went to Rhode Island:
A record of the burial of Elizabeth Burke on 13 Mar 1946, in Providence, R.I., gives her birth year as 1870 and her parents as Thomas Burke and Mary Carkill.
And the Carron baptisms show that Martin Burke, baptised 11 Sep 1876, married Mary Catherine Kelly, in St. Michael’s church, Providence, on 12 Apr 1914.

Finally, I found Carkill spelled “Corkil” in the G.R.O. records:
09 May 1882: John Doloughty, Turloughmore, Boston*, son of Lot Doloughty, married Bridget Carkil [“Corkil” is a mistranscription], Leana, daughter of Thomas Carkil, in Kilnaboy chapel; witnesses: Martin Lynch, Mary Carkil.
*This Boston is a townland (unofficial) in Kilkeedy parish (Tubber). Boston is also an Electoral District.

Sheila

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Sduddy » Wed May 06, 2020 1:46 pm

Hi Kerry
I meant to include this link to an article entitled "Miscellanea" from some Limerick journal (I can’t find the title of it): http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/NMAJ%2 ... llanea.pdf
If you scroll down to page 74 you will find an article on the Bed Outshot, which includes a photo of the Carkill house in Poulkyne.

Sheila

kbarlow
Posts: 160
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by kbarlow » Thu May 07, 2020 4:29 am

Hi Sheila, the detective in you shines through! You have found a couple of Carkills in the US that I had missed (the Burke connection). The name Jeremiah/Jerome does appear a couple of times both in Clare and the US and I do believe at least 2 branches of the family have some migrants to the US (one, John, very early). The name is more commonly spelt Corkill in Ulster (& UK), so it is possible the family is originally from Ulster & before that Scotland (?). Luckily the Irish BDM site lets one put a wildcard in the search, so it is not so tedious searching for all Cark*, Carc*, Kark*, Karc*, Cak* !!!!!!!!! The interesting thing I have found is that Lowell, Massach (US) was where several of the Pelkingtons from this part of Clare emigrated to, and I know there is a connection between Pelkington & Carkill somewhere along the line (will have to check my spreadsheet again).

Thank you so much for assisting with the mysteries that these records show up.

Kind regards,

Kerry

Sduddy
Posts: 1826
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:07 am

Re: Carkill

Post by Sduddy » Thu May 07, 2020 10:44 am

Hi Kerry

Bridget Burke, née Carkill, lived to the great age of 91. She and family moved from Lismoher to Ballykeel South, Kilfenora, sometime between 1901 and 1911, so her death in 1927 was registered in Ennistymon. Her son, Nicholas Burke, married Kathleen Nagle in Limerick in 1928. Many Clare people married in Limerick around that time. My grandparents did not marry in Limerick, but went to Limerick for a day after they got married. You could go on the train from Ennistymon, via Ennis, to Limerick on the West Clare line (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Clare_Railway) – or from from Kilkeedy (Tubber) to Limerick on the Sligo-Limerick Line.

That’s it for now. If I chance to come upon anything more of interest on the Carkills, I will let you know.

Sheila

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