"Don't believe everything you're told":
Researching the O'Hallorans of Sixmilebridge
Talk for Clare Roots Society family history group
County Museum, Ennis
29 March 2007
by Paddy Waldron
Outline of talk:
Six generations of family
manuscripts
Research Strategy
"Going Sideways In Order To Go
Back"
The Ballycunneen O'Hallorans
What should we believe?
- The O'Halloran male line appears extinct.
- This talk follows a female line down to myself.
Generation no. 1: Patrick J. M. Waldron
Generation no. 2: Patrick H. P. Waldron/Padraig de
Bhaldraithe
Generation no. 3: The Waldron twins: Jack (1884-1959) and
Paddy (1884-1953)
- born in Nenagh, died in Dublin
- photograph with
brother Tot
- PHPW digitised hundreds of letters from his uncle Tot:
only two Halloran references
- "I dont know whether I told you I asked
Paddy about Mrs. O'Hallorans husband. He has not
seen him for years and has no idea as to where he
is."
- "I had a letter from home tonight with the
sad news of Thomas Halloran's death. He went off
very quickly and I am sure that the rest of his
people in the Bridge are badly upset."
- Jack produced the master
family tree in his retirement with his mother's help,
early 1950s
- Paddy also tried,
probably earlier (Donla b.1943)
- as did his daughter Máire here and here
Generation no. 4: "Grannie": Margaret Mary Nolan (1865-1953)
- born in Limerick,
raised in Sixmilebridge by her grandmother, died in
Limerick
- wedding photograph
- marriage
certificate
- after 17 children
- four pages from an 1865 family diary: 1865a.jpg 1865b.jpg 1865c.jpg 1865d.jpg
- Her brother Martin
Nolan really died in Los Angeles: "He drifted
around to Los Angeles where Paddy often heard from him.
He mentioned in his letters that his health was not very
good, but we had no idea he was so bad until Paddy got a
telegram announcing his death in a hospital out there"
- document about Biddy Earlie (1798-1874): biddy1.jpg biddy2.jpg
- `incidents which [grandmother O'Halloran]
personally knew about' Biddy Earlie. She `and her
brother P O'Halloran went to B[iddy] E[arlie] for
a cure (she used make up bottles of herbs). She
gave the b[ot]tl[e] and said the doses were to be
given by a married man and that the patient would
live but a greater loss would die. The patient
recovered but his uncle [Mrs Kett's] brother the
father of 10 children died.'
Generation no. 5: William Nolan (1829-1905) and Mary Kett (1845-1876)
- William born in Listowel, died in Calgary, North-West
Territories, buried
in Calgary, Alberta
- Mary born in Sixmilebridge, died in Limerick, buried in
Ballysheen?
- married in Sixmilebridge on the 19th day of civil
registration of Catholic marriages
- Clare Journal 25 January 1864: "On the 19th
inst., at the Roman Catholic Church of Sixmile-bridge, by
the Rev. mr. Clune, P.P., assisted by the Rev. Mr.
Kennedy, C.C., William Nolan, Esq., pawn-broker of
Limerick, to Mary, daughter of the late Michael Kett, Esq.,
and niece to John O'Halloran, Esq., of Sixmile-bridge."
- John O'Halloran must have been an important person in the
family and/or in Sixmilebridge
- index to Sixmilebridge marriage register
- no civil record!
- two pages from common place book: nodate1.jpg nodate2.jpg
- so is the 1865 diary a primary or secondary source?
- no known living descendants of their other children
- when did William go to Canada? "When his wife died"?
- born ???, died
in Sixmilebridge
- her sideboard (by McCarthys) and rocking chair are now in
my possession
- two husbands:
- Michael Kett m. Abt 1839/40 (gap in Sixmilebridge
marriage register) d. Abt 1850
- Daniel Carroll m. Abt 9 Aug 1856 d. Abt 1858
- two surnames:
- Mrs Kett was godmother to her grandson Denis
Nolan in 1866 and to her greatgrandson Paddy
Waldron in 1884; Margaret KITT (sic) was left £30
in the 1886 will of her nephew Mathew O'Halloran
(estate £1,298); Margaret KILT (sic) is in
Griffith's Valuation
- Margaret Carroll was left £25 in the 1884 will
of her brother John O'Halloran (estate £2,745)
and £20 in the 1885 will of her nephew Peter
O'Halloran (estate £612)
- no known living descendants of her other children,
even
- Margaret who married
Thomas Frost, Clerk of Petty Sessions, so
- Kett male line may also be extinct
- Memorials to Lord Lieutenant from Outrage Papers,
National Archives, courtesy of Dolores Murrihy:
- MrsKett1.jpg
- MrsKett2.jpg
- 1 Nov 1850: `My father was above twenty years
in the Royal Navy - had a stipend - I am now his
representative'
- But what was her father's name?
- Don't believe everything you're told!
- Think laterally
- Double-check everything
- Be open-minded about primary and secondary sources and
don't jump to conclusions
- Be prepared to travel
- Get to know the places where your ancestors lived
- Sixmilebridge photographs:
- Sixmilebridge maps:
- Sixmilebridge geography: west bank of the
O'Garney
- townland of Sixmilebridge
- parish of Kilfinaghta
- barony of Bunratty Lower
- Poor Law Union of Ennis
- Sixmilebridge District Electoral Division
- Newmarket registration district
- Griffith'sValuation Saturday, September
15, 1855 (see www.originsnetwork.com)
- Sixmilebridge geography: east bank of the
O'Garney
- townland of Ieverstown
- parish of Kilfinaghta
- barony of Bunratty Lower
- Poor Law Union of Limerick
- Mountievers District Electoral Division
- Coolacasey registration district
- Griffith's Valuation Monday, March 08,
1852
- Use a wide range of sources:
- various Internet sources mentioned in passing,
especially www.clarelibrary.ie
- Thom's Directories for Clerks of Petty Sessions,
Postmistresses, &c.
- Don't be afraid to ask others for help
- Expect the unexpected - fortuitous and not so fortuitous
coincidences:
- Outrage papers
- Blakemount in the Clare
Champion
- Blakemount
on the Internet (thanks to Google):
`Teenie O'Grady, née Casey, of Tubber had an
almost biblical memory of the Tubber families and
their comings and goings. She filled in many gaps
and often directed my searches to more fruitful
lodes. Hers was usually the first phone number I
would try when needing pointers on the genealogy
of a Tubber family. Teenie passed on in March
2005.' (Paddy Casey, Switzerland)
- We will never find out now all that Teenie knew
about her O'Halloran grandmother.
- Sixmilebridge Tithes
- NMAJ (see below)
- There will always be another unanswered question
(Chris O'Mahony (RIP), "A Crunch Point in Research",
Irish Family History, Vol. X, pp.6-9 (1994) - see online index
to contents)
- Garna House
- In Memoriam cards
- Not in Houses of Clare
- Listed building
- Valuation Office suggests it was formed by
merging smaller houses in the late 19th century
- recently demolished; façade retained
- Ieverstown House
- John O'Halloran m. Shrove Tuesday 1836 to Maria
Nash
- Their children (Why
the nine-year gap?)
- He escaped Griffith's Valuation by moving across
the O'Garney between 1852 and 1855!
- Weir doesn't mention O'Halloran or Power in his
Ieverstown article
- John's death certificate
and will
- Obituary: `He had always borne[?] the
character of an upright, and honest man, and by
his strict integrity, industry and zeal in the
business of life, may be said to have been highly
successful as one of our self made men.'
- Eight surviving children:
- Matthew inherited Ieverstown, sold by his
widow's second family, long after an
interesting law
case
- Bridget (MacInerney) married into Blakemount,
recently abandoned by her descendants
- Mary Anne (Kelly) lived in Clenagh, now
uninhabited
- Thomas built Rine,
inherited by his childless nephew, sold
out of the family
- Patrick John, ancestor of Senator Alexis
FitzGerald, possibly built Mountallon (not in
Griffith), acquired by Land Commission,
now ruined and uninhabitable
- Margaret (Robins) in Clones
- Fr. John educated Irish College, Rome;
died P.P. of Youghalarra (Newtown).
Ignatius Murphy wrote: `Killaloe
students in Rome in the late 19th century
seem to have been selected because of
their families' comfortable financial
situation.'
- Peter died a year after his father
- Five children of a self-made man in Houses of
Clare; their father not even in Griffith
The Ballycunneen O'Hallorans
(Patrick Hogan, "Thady O'Halloran of Ballycunneen, Co.
Clare (1727-1798): His Common-Place Book, edited, with a Pedigree
and some Notes", North Munster Antiquarian Journal,
Vol. V, No. 4, pp.102-116 (1948); &
Patrick Hogan, "Extracts From The Common Place Book Or
"Diary" of Thady O'Halloran of Ballycuneen, Bunratty,
Co. Clare, 1727-1798", North Munster Antiquarian
Journal, Vol. VII, No. 3, pp.12-17 (1956) - see online
index to contents in Thaddeus C. Breen's excellent Irish
Archaeology website)
Ballycunneen
House today (from www.clarelibrary.ie)
What should we believe?
- Further research has confirmed some parts of the
manuscript evidence
- It has refuted other parts
- And it has highlighted gaps in official records
- Was he really in the Navy? DanielH.jpg
- Even today's
newspapers confuse daughters and stepdaughters,
halfbrothers and stepbrothers