Ring Family

Hi Naula

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I haven't been able to locate a baptism record for Mark or Patrick in Kilkenny. Do you know if Mark married before leaving Ireland? There is a marriage record for a Mark Ring in Kilkenny (parish of St. Patrick's) to Mary Hoyne on 9th August 1847. Parents' names are not recorded.

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

Hi Claire,

No birth or baptism records. Mark Ring Married Mary Hoyne before leaving Ireland as you correctly state.  He joined the army and travelled to the Falklands and India before settling in Australia.  I think another brother may have joned him there at some stage but not sure.  I know of two of his children although there were more through ancestors on the Ring and marriage sides.

Patrick Ring married Mary McGrath and I know for definite his brother was Mark but there were 3 maybe 4 brothers along with 2 sisters. Possible names of John, Joseph, Edward, Thomas and Bridget but not certain on this.  There were certainly 3 in 1843 but 2 x grandfather Patrick was born in 1853 so there may have been others between these two dates or after. This Patrick moved to Dublin and hence there is little detailed knowledge of who he left behind and any records/letters he kept were destroyed years ago.  His son Christopher was my grandfather.

There father back in the 1700s may have been Patrick or James but not certain but whatever there was a brother called John I have this from a book written in 1843 nothing to do with genealogy but it details part of the life of Patrick Ring 1812 as a tenant farmer during 1843.  I must go back over it actually because I thought I had clarified his father's name through this and updated all finds in my tree and James struck me as wrong.  So may check again.

It is the 3 x grandfather's brother's I am wondering about did they stay or leave, there are some in Castlecomer and my mother's cousins used to go on holiday from Dublin to Castlecomer town but those that I spoke to had no knowledge.  Then there are Clashduff and Raheen Rings and there was also one in Clogh village Edward.  Am not sure if they are all connected.

Have been doing this for 6 years now and have got quite far with immediate family thanks to my mother's excellent memory but others with older relatives once gone will lose the knowledge that was passed down through stories often but can then be confirmed by research.

Mother told me of a couple who used to visit when she was a young child living with her great grandmother hence her memory and thought the lady's name was X and lived by a a large building with a long wall.  She wanted to just know did she imagine it I checked found them and mother was 14 months old when the woman dies yet remember her!

I know there are some Rings still in and around the Bennetsbridge, Burnchurch areas and am just hoping someone still alive might be able to link up and fill out the story for mine and their own families and prevent it from being lost to future generations.  Sorry for the length but when it comes to this research all of us doing it could write a book about our families.

Kind regards, Nuala

Attached is a death cert for Patrick Ring 1812-1879 aged 66 years.  Not sure if this will help you at all.

In relation to the army aspect, I wondered if you had contacted The National Archives in London about obtaining any surviving information from army records? London will have retained them as we were a colony until 1922 and administrative and other records like military would have eventually made their way to Kew in London.

I tried the online phone book but didn't see anyone listed in the residential tab that would be useful to contact (neither a Ring nor a Ring in Burnchurch and Bennetsbridge).

Clare

Genealogy Support 

Thanks Claire, we know probably most of what we need to know about Mark Ring and his army life before moving to Australia.  His descendents have little knowledge of his children after that time, one of them married an aboriginal lady and this was not well though of.  A cousin has only found this out recently and had absolutely no idea her mother and grandmother never spoke of it.  Her grandmother she describes as white as the driven snow almost transluscent.

No, quite a lot about Patrick Ring but little about his brothers and sisters or indeed my great grandathers brothers and sisters.

Useful to have a forum like this though, you never know your luck that someone will remember something, a story or whatever.  Will just keep at it.

Regards, Nuala