Garret Daly and Catherine Dalton from Mullingar

The following info was found on rootsireland. It looks like your John had a twin, Catherine.

John Daly AND Catherine Daly   

 Baptism:             11-Sep-1748

RC Parish/District: Mullingar, Co. Westmeath

Father:  Garrett Daly       

Mother: Catherine Dalton

Day Of Baptism Not Recorded

Hi, Patricia!

That is wondeful! twins?? hahaha love it..anyway, did you find any record of marriage of garret and Catherine? If not, it´s ok :)

No marriage record...perhaps the records are not available for that time period. And I did not find any other children for the couple.

As per RootsIreland, there are death records for two Garret Dalys in Mullingar RC parish, as follows. One lived in Petitswood townland, the other in Cullenmore (Culleen Mor).

Name: Garret            Daly   

Date Of Death: 22-Jan-1772           

Parish / District:Mullingar

Address: Petitswood            

Co. Westmeath

Roman Catholic

The Day And The Month Of Death Were Not Recorded. Christian Name Was

Recorded As "Garrett"

Name: Garret            Daly   

Date Of Death:11-Nov-1774           

Age:    Not Recorded  Parish / District: Mullingar

Address:         Cullenmore    

Co. Westmeath

Notes:

The Day And The Month Of Death Were Not Recorded. Christian Name Was Recorded As "Garrett".

Hello Diana,

Based on the RootsIreland baptism transcription that Ireland Reaching Out volunteer Patricia kindly provided, I found a copy of the original 1748 baptism records for the Dalton twins at the National Library of Ireland website link for the Catholic Parish of Mullingar.

Like Patricia, I didn’t find the baptism records for any more children in Mullingar, or anywhere else in County Westmeath.

In going through the copy of the original baptism register however, it looks like the twins were actually baptized on 7 August 1748, rather than 11 September 1748 as transcribed at RootsIreland.

The Mullingar register where the twin’s baptisms are recorded is attached to this reply.

The first part of the record is for the baptism of John Daly, son of Garret and “Cha” Dalton. The mother’s name is followed by the initials “Gfr,” meaning “godfather.” The godfather is Thom Daly, who was probably Garret’s brother. Next you’ll see “Gmr,” (“Godmother,”), whose first name is Mary, and whose last name looks like Glenn.

After Mary’s name you’ll see the words, “Same time,” which means the baptism of Cha Daly that follows, was conducted at the same time as the baptism for John, in other words, on 7 August 1748. The godparents for Cha Daly are Lawrence Pritchard and Marcella Spollin. Below Marcella’s name you’ll see the word, “Shandona.” This is the townland where the Daly twins and their parents were living when the baptisms took place.

You’ll notice in the baptisms that the mother’s initials, and the daughter’s initials, are “Cha,” which is the abbreviation for their first name. In this case I believe their names would be “Charlotte,” not Catherine.

The way I read the baptisms is that John and Charlotte Daly were the children of Garret Daly and Charlotte Dalton. The baptisms took place on 7 August 1748. At the time of the baptisms, Garret, his wife Charlotte, and their twin children were living in the townland of Shandona.

It is interesting to note that 7 August of 2023 will be the 275th anniversary for the baptisms of John and Charlotte Daly. You are indeed fortunate that the Mullingar Catholic baptism registers go back to the 18th century.

The townland of Shandona is an alternate spelling for Shanonagh, which was located in the Civil Parish of Templeoran, County Westmeath, according to the IreAtlas Townland Data Base: https://tinyurl.com/2evy29jn

A Google Map shows that a Shanonagh and a Shandonagh, are an 8th of a mile apart, just west of Mullingar: https://tinyurl.com/yv4v5mv8

They are the same townlands however, which were given the alternate spellings of each other, by Google Maps.

Wikipedia also shows that Shandonagh and Shanonagh are one and the same town: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandonagh

As you can see the Wikipedia submission shows there are two different spellings in the Irish language for the towns. These two words are “Seandomhnach,” and “Shanonagh.” My Irish language skills are rusty through non-use over the years, but I believe the name of this town in English is, “Old World,” though I don’t know how this place it got its name.

Here is a Google Street View of Shanonagh/ Shandonagh: https://tinyurl.com/4nxybztn

Now you know that your Daly and Dalton ancestors had lived in the townland of Shanonagh, aka Shandonagh, County Westmeath, in 1748.

An Ordnance Survey Map of County Westmeath, compiled between 1829 and 1842, gives the name of the townland as “Shanonagh.” The map, from the GeoHive website, is attached to this reply.

The west/southwest boundary of Shanonagh is the Royal Canal. More information about the Royal Canal can be found at the Ask About Ireland website link at: https://tinyurl.com/y3w4r9u6

MULLINGAR CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTER AVAILABILITY

The National Library of Ireland holds Mullingar Catholic Parish baptism registers from 1741 to 1900, but there are gaps in the baptism registers.

Mullingar Catholic Parish marriage registers at the National Library of Ireland are available from 26 October 1737 to 1 March 1881. There are gaps in the marriage registers as well.

Death register entries are available from 6 May 1757 to 31 October 1797; from 4 January 1833 to 26 May 1838; and 28 February 1843 to 1881.

To see the availability of the Mullingar Catholic Parish registers at the National Library of Ireland, go to the link coming up. You’ll also see a Catholic parish map of Mullingar and surrounding Catholic parishes:
https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0937

Like Patricia, I didn’t find a marriage for Garret Daly and Charlotte (or Catherine) Dalton. I suspect they were married in the Mullingar Catholic Parish, but that the marriage took place where there is a gap in the registers.

In Patricia’s follow-up reply of Tuesday, 27 June 2023, she provided the Mullingar Catholic Parish death record transcriptions from Rootsireland for the deaths of two men named Garret Daly. One of the deaths shows that a Garret Daly died on 22 January 1772. His address was Petitswood.

A copy of his original death entry in the Mullingar register, from the National Library of Ireland, is attached to this reply.

The other Garret Daly died on 11 November 1774. His address was Cullenmore. See the attachment.

As you can see the Mullingar Parish deaths do not give a lot of information about the deceased, other than the address of the person.

THE MULLINGAR PARISH CHURCH

The Catholic Church in Mullengar is actually a Cathedral. It is called the Cathedral of Christ the King, located in Bishop's Gate Street. But, according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage/Buildings of Ireland website, the cathedral was constructed between 1932 and 1936.

See the Buildings of Ireland link coming up, which also includes a slide presentation of the cathedral: https://tinyurl.com/z4krsxwx

If you scroll down to the “Appraisal” section of the page, you’ll see that the 20th century cathedral replaced an earlier church on the site, which in turn had replaced the parish chapel constructed in 1730. It would in the parish chapel constructed in 1730 where John and Charlotte Daly were baptized in 1748.

The “History of Mullingar Cathedral,” from the wordpress.com website, gives further information, showing that Cathedral of Christ the King replaced another cathedral in the same location, called the Immaculate Conception, which was constructed in 1836. The Immaculate Conception Cathedral would have replaced the chapel from 1730, where the Daly twins were baptized:
https://mullingarhistory.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/history-of-mullingar-…

An Ordnance Survey Map in colour of Mullingar from the 1829 to 1842 shows the R.C. Chapel, located in the center of the map, west of town. This is likely the Immaculate Conception Cathedral from 1836, rather than the chapel constructed in 1730. The map also shows the Grand Canal flowing west of the chapel. See the attachment.

THE TITHE APPLOTMENT BOOKS

Moving to the 19th century I now wanted to see if anyone named Daly or Dalton were recorded in Shanonagh/Shandonagh in an Irish agricultural record called the Tithe Applotment Books. The Tithe Applotment Books were compiled in the 32 counties of Ireland between 1823 and 1837. The tithes for County Westmeath were recorded in 1833.

The Tithe Applotment Books are free to search at the National Archives of Ireland link at: http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

Under the Tithe Applotments farmers were required to pay a portion of their income toward the upkeep of the established Church of Ireland. This did not go over very well with the majority of the farmers in Ireland who were Roman Catholic, and who in recent history were subject to draconian edicts, called the “Penal Laws.” Protestant “nonconformists” were subject to the Penal Laws as well. These nonconformist Protestants could be Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, etc. See the Wikipedia articles at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_laws_(Ireland)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonconformist_(Protestantism)

In the Tithe Applotment Books, only three farmers are recorded in “Shannonagh alias Shanndona,” leasing or owning farmland. None were Daly or Dalton. For a copy of the original Tithe Applotment Book entry go to:
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004625723/00…

Once the tithe page downloads, scroll down to the bottom left of the page, and you’ll see that the farmers recorded in “Shannonagh alias Shanndona” were Thomas Wallace, the Widow Keena, and James Lestrange.

This does not mean that there were only three people living in Shannonagh alias Shanndona in 1833. Only those who owned land or paid to lease land were recorded. Family members were not recorded. Neither were farm labourers who didn’t lease land.

GRIFFITHS VALUATION

I next wanted to see who was recorded in Shanonagh, Civil Parish of Templeoran, in an Irish property tax record called Griffiths Valuation.

Griffiths Valuation was conducted in the 32 counties of Ireland between 1847 and 1864. The valuation for Shanonagh was completed by the year 1854.

Like the Tithe Applotment Books, only those who owned land, or leased land, were recorded in Griffiths Valuation.

A copy of the original Griffiths Valuation entry does not show any Ryans or Daltons. You will see the surnames Wallace and Keena in Griffiths Valuation. These are the two surnames found in the Tithe Applotment Books 21 years earlier. See the Griffiths Valuation attachment from the Ask About Ireland website.

With Kind Regards,

Dave Boylan

SOURCES

Replies from Ireland Reaching Out Volunteer Patricia
National Library of Ireland
IreAtlas Townland Data Base
Google Maps
Google Street Views
Wikipedia
GeoHive: Ordnance Survey Maps
Ask About Ireland: The Royal Canal
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage/Buildings of Ireland
wordpress.com: History of Mullingar Cathedral
National Archives of Ireland: Tithe Applotment Books
Ask About Ireland: Griffiths Valuation

Oh my, Dave... I don´t know what to say, your detailed response are just superb! You really took your time to lookfind all that information. It makes me very emotional, because there are so many things that we, those who are descendants of,  from the other side of the qorld, and spanish speakers don´t know . Not only about history , but about the administrations, taxes, etc. You were wonderful by explaining to me.And I love to learn
Thank you

Kind regards

Diana
 

You're welcome Diana, and many thanks for your quick reply and kind words. They are very much appreciated.

Best Wishes,

Dave

Hi Diana

It is me again, it looks as if you are very lucky indeed. I remember Shandonagh very well there was a crooked stone bridge over the canal in an otherwise straight road. Shandonagh is about six miles on the road to Ballymahon from the town of Mullingar. There were a family called Keena living in that area in the 1990 at least.

Regards

GQ.