I am trying to confirm the place of origin of my 5th gr. grandmother, Mary Farrell. Her parents were James Farrell and Honor Hughes (although in some documents Honor is referred to as Emma). Mary was born 8.11.1811and emigrated to Australia per the ship William Turner in 1841, along with her sister Katherine. Both gave their occupations as housemaids and they travelled under the "protection" of a Mrs Donallan (also emigrating with her husband and family). At the time of her departure, Mary's mother was dead but her father was still living. Mary's birthplace is given as Clonvalen, Galway in shipping records. I had thought this may be a corruption of Cloonmweelan, a townland near Clonberne in the Tuam District, however I have been unable to find any records there, of a James Farrell. I recently found a James Farrell and an Edward Farrell listed in the Griffith's valuation at Clonomiran in Inishcaltra, and wondered if this might be our James. However, in earlier records, Inishcaltra seems to be listed as being in Clare, rather than Galway. So I have several questions:
- Is Clonamiran in Inishcaltra too much of a stretch? (note that Michael Farrell, Mary's brother also emigrated to Australia (per Lallah Roohk, 1841) and he gave his home address as "Clewerburn", Clonberne, Tuam in his shipping papers; his occupation was groom and his referees for employment were both locatable in Timards, a Tuam townland);
- Given that all three siblings were in their late 20s when they emigrated, is it likely that they would have moved from home to work in surrounding areas, so that these were given as their homes, rather than where they were born?
Any thoughts or advice from those with local knowledge would be much appreciated. Gloria Wallace
enufclap
Sunday 31st Jul 2016, 02:10AMMessage Board Replies
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Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out
Given that you can back up the Tuam connection, I would think that you should concentrate on that and Clonberne as your best option. It could well be that they moved away from the area for work. While records for Tuam begin quite early in 1790 records for Clonberne didn't start until 1853 for baptisms and 1884 for marriages so if baptised or married there before then there will be no parish records there.
I wonder if it would be any help to refer to the archives of the Tuam Herald on the Irish Newspaper Archive site. This is a subscription site but you can subscribe for a short period, something like 24 hours minimum I think. It would be interesting to see if there is any mention of the family at all as you seem to have the parish search side of things cornered and rootsireland is available for checking those.
Best wishes
Clare Doyle
Genealogy Support