Ballymacward Graveyard

According to FindaGrave there are four graveyards in Ballymacward:

• Ballymacward New Graveyard
• Ballymacward Old Graveyard
• Church of St. Peter and St. Paul
• Trench Mausoleum

Thank you.

Hi,

I am near Ballymacward and in the next couple of weeks can ask if any headstone inscriptions have been recorded. This is often done locally and may not be published.

Best wishes, Kieran

Thank you Kieran, that would be wonderful. Carroll, Curley (Curly), and Qualters (McQualters) are the family names I am particularly interested in.

Bob Carroll

Bob,

I was in Ballymacward today to see the cemeteries. There is Ballymacward Old Cemetery. See attached photo. I would guess that this cemetery was closed for new sales of burial plots maybe around 1980. Burials of people whjo had already purchased plots continues, but there are no new graves sold. There is also Ballymacward New Cemetery - see attached. I would say this jhas been in use for about the last 40 years. So I would guess that if you are looking for ancestors the Old Cemetery is the relevant one. I didn't see anybody to ask if the headstones were transcribed and under the current circumstances it is difficult to call to a house. Generally, if the headstones are transcribed there is a map in the cemetery, but there is no map. That is not always the case so when Covid restrictions are eased I can ask, if you like. That will probably be a few months though.

Best wishes, Koeran

Kieran,

Thank you so much for the wonderful pictures.  My 2nd g-grandfather Patrick Carroll died sometime between March and October of 1857. His wife Ellen, my 2nd g-grandmother, re-married to her neighbor John Qualters. Ellen died in 1920. I'm attaching a pic of the death register entry for Ellen. Any additional graveyard resources you can point me to in the future will be very much appreciated. If, after looking at the death register entry, you think Ellen and/or Patrick are more likely to be buried elsewhere please let me know.  

Thanks again for taking the time to pursue this and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Bob

Bob,

My apologies if this is a repeated message. I know that I’ve read your exchange with Kieran a few weeks ago, and seem to recall that I replied, but don’t see that reply here, so maybe I didn’t

Anyway, Simon Carroll and Catherine [Trena] Curley, were my 2^nd great-grandparents, and one of their sons, Patrick James Carroll was my great-grandfather (born July 1855 in the Loughrea area, immigrated to California in the 1870s, and died there in 1925.

I strongly suspect that Trena Curley had a sister named Ellen, who married John Qualters [rationale: in the 1900 SF census, there’s a “Patrick Qualters, b. Ireland June 1867, living in the household of my great-grandfather’s sister Anne [born Ireland 1854, married surname Donovan] and this Patrick Qualters is listed as a “cousin”, which works if Trena Curley and Ellen Curley were sisters]

Reading your post, however, I wonder if “your” Ellen Curley and “my” Ellen Curley are the same person, and so if “your” Ellen Curley’s first husband,  Patrick Carroll might be a sibling to “my” Simon Carroll, i.e., if two Carroll brothers had married two Curley sisters.

Do you have any information on the siblings of your 2^nd great-grandfather, Patrick Carroll? And if so, did he have a brother named Simon?

Is your Carroll tree on Ancestry? You can look up mine as “Pasta and Potatoes 2017”

Also, if you ever get transciptions of the gravestones in the old Ballymacward cemetery, could let me know.

I know that the Qualters are associated with the NIL Ballymacward parish registers, but I haven’t found any clear connection to my Carroll ancdestors.  The California obituaries for my great-grandfather, Patrick James Carroll and his siblings only mention that they were born “in Loughrea”, which could only be shorthand for both Loughrea and the surrounding region.

Mike,

There's a lot to unpack here and it's very interesting. 

I don't have an active Ancestry subscription at the moment so I'm limited in what I can do there.

I don't have any solid information on my 2nd g-grandfather Patrick's parents or siblings, however, he did name his son by Ellen Curly, my g-grandfather, Simon (1857 - 1931).

Based on Petty Session records which list Ellen as a widow in 1857 I'm assuming her husband Patrick Carroll died before Simon's birth in 1857. Ellen subsequently married her neighbor John Qualters with whom she had 4 more children, including your Patrick Qualters from the 1900 Census in San Fran.  Ellen and her Qualter children and grand children are a very colorful bunch!

The commonality of names and the San Francisco connection lead me to think we are talking about the same people.

Have you by any chance taken a DNA test?  

I would be happy to share any information I have with you.  It will probably be easier thru email rather than this message board.  My email is rpcarroll@hotmail.com. 

Bob