Find hometown in Ireland of Thomas Mullen born: February 16, 1854

Art:

I think the civil parish is Kilkerrin which is in northeast Co. Galway. The Griffiths Valuation survey was conducted in Co. Galway in 1856. I've attached the head of household listing for Kilkerrin parish. There are Mullen, Gavin and Wards in this parish.

Roger McDonnell

http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/galway/kilkerrin.htm

Roger, thanks so much for your help. I have been working on this for 15+ years and you may have made a major discovery for us!

Here's a little more background; in 1856 when this survey was completed my great grandfather Thomas Mullen would have been two years old and living with his Mom, Mary Mullery Mullen. Thomas' father; Lawrence Mullen, my great-great grandfather may already have left for the USA by 1856 as he came here before the others and worked here long enough to buy a ten acre farm in 1860 with John Gavin. Then he returned to Ireland to bring the others back to the USA in 1862/1863. The others included Bryan Gavin (born in 1849) and he was the son of Nicholas Gavin - and a Nicholas Gavin is listed in the 1856 survey you sent to me. This makes me think that maybe my great-great grandmother was living with Nicholas Gavin and something happened to Nicholas between 1856 (the time of this survey) and 1862/1863 and my great-great grandmother took Bryan Gavin with them to the USA? Thomas Ward also shows up in the survey and if it's the same Thomas Ward that was their neighbor here in Enfield Connecticut he left Ireland in 1870 for the USA.

All that said maybe you could help me better understand the information in the 1856 survey....my questions are;

• not many women are listed....any idea why?
• would kids like my great grandfather at age two be listed?
• in the survey between the name and Kilkerrin another name is listed; example: Nicholas Gavin - Carrowntober West - Kilkerrin or Thomas Ward - Shannagh Beg - Kilkerrin....do you know what  "Carrowntober West" and/or "Shannagh Beg" are?

I think you have us on the right track and I can't thank you enough....any additional thoughts or references or bits of infomation you can add would be greatly appreciated.

Art Mullen

Dear Art

There is also a Winfred Mullin baptiam record listed on the Roots Ireland website who had a father 1st name Laurence and a mother 1st name Mary in 1856 in Co. Galway - it might be no harm to have a look and see if it is a sister of Thomas.

In answer to the above - and I 'm sure Roger can tell you this

(1) Griffith's Valuation lists landholders who were mostly men, so that's why there are few women, probably widows

(2) Griffith's Valuation is sometimes called a 'census substitute' because of the lack of retained records (outside of church records) in the country, due to the destruction of the Four Courts, Dublin in 1916 where records were kept (and other reasons). Despite this it cannot be seen as a Census as it does not list the names of those in the household, just those who were listed as leasing land in a particular townland.

(3) the name you refer to is the townland within the Parish, there are about 64,000 townlands in Ireland. If you look at the Ordnance survey map (google) will be able to see all of these townlands

Hope this helps

Mrs Doyle

Thank you Mrs Doyle for the great information. I'll google the Roots Ireland website and check it out....I'm hoping there will be a baptiam record for Thomas in 1854 as you found for Winfred in 1856. And I will check out the Ordinance survey maps on Google to see the townlands. Great stuff! Thanks very much.

Art:

Mrs. Doyle covered all of your questions. Glad we could help. Let us know if you have further questions.

Roger

Roger, thanks again for your help. Yesterday it all seemed so promising when you translated "Kilcurn" to Kilkerrin but after a frustrating day of searching I have not been able to find out any more. My main resource has been Roots Ireland as suggested by Mrs Doyle. Do you have any sugeestions on where I can go from here. You wouldn't perhaps have a telephone book for Kilkerrin....I thought it might have a Mullen or Gavin or Ward connection still living there? I know it's a long shot but I'm not finding any other records and can't think of any other options.   

Hi Art

You are having a frustrating time!

I think church records  for Kilkerrin/Clonberne Parish begin late (I just checked) in or around 1892 (for baptisms), so I assume the Winifred Mullen Baptism was not relevant to your search. In lieu of actual records or concrete information all you can do is to continue to collect what info you can and see if, over time you can connect names like Mullen to the Gavin's etc etc through the various bits and pieces you find. If for example you were to find a marriage record for a Mullins that includes the names of witnesses that were Gavins you could be more certain that they were connected to your family.

In terms of collecting more info, your main task should be to collect everything you can about Mullen/Mullins in Kilkerrin:

(1) include the 2 John Mullins listed in the Tithe Applot. Books on the National Archives website in 1827 in the townlands of Shankill and Big Meadow, (google 'national archives' Ireland and 'Tithes' and the database will appear, it is similar to the Census database and easy to use)

Again they may not be relevant but until such time as you can rule them out it is better to include them as relevant until you can make an informed decision. 

(2) You could have a look at the Clonberne Parish website and see if you could contact someone through that who would know the area better or indeed know someone who knows someone:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~clonberne/

(3) Exhaust your search on Roots Ireland for baptisms, marriages and deaths. If they are not there it is because the records don't exist, because the area is wrong or the surname is worng, though they usually search under variants of surnames to catch all the different spelling. Check the Tithes through the link above and check the Griffith's valuation and print it all out and re-asssess what you have.

You may find that the info you have is all you will find (I hope not), but given that your ancestors emigrated in the mid-1800s and most parish records haven't even started by then, you may be stuck. Surely they didn't all emigrate though, so there have  to be some around after this and up to this day. At least you will have tried everything.

Also have a look at the Ordnance Survey Map for Ireland, you can access the Historical Archive and see the Parish down to the individual townlands with all the old wells, forts etc listed. It won't tell you anything you don't already know but it is nice to get a feel for the place. Check the County Coucnil website frim time to time to see if any of the graveyards are added to the Galway County Council website. The Council has an on-going project whereby some parishes are uploading graveyards memorials - http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/Heritage/Graveyards/

If all else fails and you come across something that you think might be relavent but isn't related to Kilkerrin remember the neighbouring Parishes in the area - Moylough, Kilbegnet, Boyounagh, Ballynakill. Have a look at the Irish Times Website, unfortunately it a subscription one, but she how you are fixed

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/townlands/index.cfm?fuseaction=TownlandsInCivil&civilparishid=1036&civilparish=Kilkerrin&citycounty=Galway

Good Luck

Mrs Doyle

Art,

There are too many coincidences here to ignore - I would put my money on Kilkerrin.  1854 is not that far back and there may be local knowledge to assist you.  I think this can be solved - and think you are very near!

Many thanks Roger and Mrs Doyle for your excellent assistance.

Mike

Chairman
Ireland Reaching Out
 

Thanks for the encouragement!

Mrs Doyle, thanks for the great and encouraging response! I'm ready to go back to work on this following your terrific suggestions. I was wondering since you know so much if I can hire you to help me out? Again, my goal is to determine the town in Galway county where my Great great grandfather Laurence, and great grandmother Mary (Mullery) and Great grandfather Thomas came from?

Dear Art

Many thanks for your kind offer but  it would be very unfair of me to accept payment for any of this. I don't work in genealogy anymore (I have a different job now) but helping the odd person on this site keeps it fresh in my head, so really you are doing me a favour!

I think you should work through the suggestions above, you will be surprised at how much you know and will learn in a short time. Ultimately I would not be able to add anything this side at this point without more concrete info - I will be mulling it over here though. If however you discovered something in the National Archives in Dublin I could collect for you as I am there once a month for reserach anyway, I could kill two birds...

Aside from that feel free to contact me at any time either through here or on clare.lowery@gmail.com. I have a new pair of wellies so a trip to a Kilkerrin graveyard may be necessary in the future. I am happy enough to oblige as I am free most weekends. As for payment I am overly fond of coffee (and cake) so should you ever visit these parts we can arrange a cuppa.

Regards

Clare

PS. Just out of interest who were the parents and what was the townland listed on the Winifred baptism?

Dear Art

Hope all is well with you. I have passed your query to a volunteer. I hope you will hear from them soon

Best wishes

Clare 

Genealogy Support