William McNicholas & Catherine Burke

I’ve located some records for your McNicholas family, although they don’t add much more info.  I looked into several databases, because I thought I might be related to your McNicholas’s.  I probably am, in fact, but apparently not closely enough that I can establish the connection.  My McNicholas relatives lived a bit further east in Bohola parish, and also just across the parish boundary in Killedan parish (Kiltimagh).

First off, the townland of Boleyard is not actually in the civil parish of Bohola, but just on the western boundary in the civil parish of Kildacoomoge (Bellavary).  Here’s a link to more info about the townland:  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/gallen/kildacoomoge/bellavary/boleyard/

Boleyard may, however, be in the Catholic parish of Bohola.  The boundaries of the civil parishes and the Catholic parishes, which often share the same name(s), are not always identical.  When the established (Protestant) church took control in the 1600’s, they initially kept the parish boundaries as they then existed, and those eventually became the civil parishes, although there were some changes later on.  When Catholics were allowed to organize again starting in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s (even earlier in some places), the hierarchy established parishes based on what worked for them at the time, not necessarily following the old parish boundaries or using the older names.  As a result, different kinds of records may use different names for the parishes.

There does not appear to be a townland in Bohola or Kildacoomoge (or anywhere else in Mayo) named Clooneen, although there are half a dozen Clooneen’s in County Roscommon.  It may be, however, that Clooneen is a local name used in the area of Boleyard, rather than a formal townland name (sometimes referred to as a “sub-townland”), and it’s also possible that there once was a townland named Clooneen in the area, but the name stopped being used officially later on.  The official townland names (some of which are quite ancient) and their boundaries were not formalized until the 1800’s, and some changes have taken place even after that.  Perhaps someone from Bohola will respond who can answer that question.  I couldn’t find for certain the origin of the place name Clooneen (the logainm.ie site doesn’t show it) , but it might be from the Irish cluainín, meaning “little meadow”, which may have been used in many places.  Boleyard, by the way, is An Bhuaile Ard in Irish, meaning “the high cattle-fold” or “the high summer pasture”.

I found records for William and Catherine in the Family Search database, along with their nine children, although the records don’t go back earlier than that couple thus far.  The records show their marriage on 3 March 1859, with the sponsors being John McEvey & Biddy McEvey.  FamilySearch is operated by the LDS church, and is free to use, and the site is located here:  https://www.familysearch.org  You have to create an account to use it, but they don’t ask for much personal info, and no missionaries will contact you or anything like that.  The database does not have separate family trees, and is essentially one huge tree of linked records, in which there is a single record for each person, with a unique identification number (although sometimes people unknowingly create duplicate records for the same person, which you can merge when you spot them).  You can search by name, but also by that number, and the number for William McNicholas is 9V84-S7G.  Once you are at that record, you will see how easily you can move up and down the tree by clicking on the names of other people who are shown.

That set of records lists all nine children of William and Catherine, but shows the eldest daughter as Sally, not Sarah, and that she was baptized 13 June 1860, shortly after the birth date which you have.  Perhaps her name was actually Sarah, but she was called Sally (or vice versa).  Baptismal information for all the other children is also given, as well as a birth record for the youngest child, Mary, but no marriage information is given for any of them, nor are any of their own children listed.  The birth record for the youngest child, Mary, says that she was born in Clooneen in County Roscommon, but I think that was a transcription error, because it also refers to a place call “Scornford”, which I suspect is a mis-transcription of Swinford, which is the civil registration district for the Bohola area.  When looking at records at the Family Search site, you can see in the right-hand column who has added specific info, and can send that person a private message.  You’ll see me there (kevin45sf), because I fixed a few records, but most of the info was input by a Cathy van der Horst.  You might try messaging her to see if she can add anything, but it’s possible that she was an LDS volunteer who simply added the info to the database from written records which had been transcribed by someone years ago (many records make it into Family Search that way).

As you may already know, there are parish records for Bohola available online, which you can find at this link:  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0122  The records only go back to 1857, but that’s far enough back to cover a number of the people you mentioned, and you might enjoy looking through them, because it’s one way of noting other relatives, who may have acted as sponsors or witnesses at the family’s baptisms or weddings.

Finally, in case you’re interested, the McNicholas surname (Mac Nicoláis in Irish) is of Norman origin.  It was assumed by a thoroughly Gaelicized branch of the Burke (de Burgo) family.  It is believed to have originated in Ulster (in County Tyrone), but many Ulster families took refuge in Mayo after the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th Century, so it may have come to Mayo then.  So, ironically, William and Catherine may have been distant relatives of one another, which is not really surprising, since many families in the area intermarried repeatedly over the centuries.

Kevin:

William McNicholas lived in Clooneen in Meelick civil parish.

Roger McDonnell

Aha, I see that now, Roger!  Somehow I missed it when looking at the list of Mayo townlands.  It's on the other side of Bohola town from Boleyard, in an area where many McNicholas's lived (including some of my relatives).

So, BL, here's a link to more info about that Clooneen townland:  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/gallen/meelick/meelick/clooneen/

At that link, they do confirm that the original name was Cluainín (An Chluainín when you add the word "the").  They don't actually translate it at logainm.ie, but "The Little Meadow" is what An Chluainín means.

Thank you Kevin for your reply and for Roger helping Kevin find Clooneen.

I do use the townlands.ie website quite a bit as I know a quite a few of the places around Bohola, Ballyvary, Swinford, Kiltimagh and Kilkelly but sometimes I struggle as to some of the less well known and how close or far away various townlands are having not growing up in the area unlike my parents. It has been very helpful.

I did initially get confused because of the Sally/Sarah name but on requesting some family research from the North Mayo Family Research centre it was established they are one and the same person.

I picked Bohola for the focus of my research because William and Sarah were married in Bohola church and Kevin's explanation regarding civil parishes and the catholic parish really helps. I am never sure which particular area is covered by which particular parish.Is there something available that would help? I have found relatives in the same family married in Bohola, Keelogues, Swinford and Kiltimagh. I do use the NLI website but I can only do it for so long before I get bog-eyed. I found transcripts for Bohola parish on www.connorsgenealogy.net which have made life easier at least for that parish.

As for McNicholas I reckon it is highly likely Kevin that we are related somewhere along the line. I say this because not only does my family consists of McNicholas's from Clooneen but Danganmore (Bartley McNicholas/James McNicholas), and probably Keelogues before that, and Carranteane though I've yet to establish what links Danganmore with Carranteane other than one person. I will look into the website you recommended as I noticed others recommending it.

Interesting.  We might be more closely related than I thought, because Carranteane/Carrownteeaun/Carrantiane (which is across the parish boundary from Clooneen, in Killedan parish) is the townland where my grandfather grew up.  He had an aunt, Catherine McNicholas, who was married in Bohola parish in 1866, which is a few years after your William was married there.  Perhaps she and William were siblings.  The McNicholas's lived in both parishes.  There were also quite a few of them not far away in Killasser parish, where my grandmother grew up.

BL:

Marriages were almost always held in the bride's parish. So if you had a male relative, who married someone from ten miles away, the marriage would have been in a different parish. 

I have a reference book developed by Brian Mitchell  "A Guide to Irish Parish Registers" which is an invaluable resource to me in finding the RC parish that corresponds to a civil parish. There are online resources available also. johngrenham.com is a great site in general.  One of our volunteers, Shane Wilson, has a great site  https://www.swilson.info/    for Irish research. This sublink  https://www.swilson.info/rcparishbrws.php should be helpful for converting RC and civil parishes.

Roger

Thank you Roger for the information which I am endeavouring to navigate.

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to the journey that my relatives may have made either to England or America. I know from Mary O'Brien book on Keelogues Parish there was a train station in Ballyvary from 1894 to 1963 and I know about the train station in Kiltimagh which is now closed. Many of my relatives went to England or America from Boleyard, Atticahill, Carranteane and Kilkelly. Some sailed from Queenstown/Cobh and others from Liverpool  to America or Canada though I found one recently who sailed from Galway to Boston. Where would they travel from or through and what was the journey like? Who could afford to make the journey? Are there any good sources of information or stories available particularly online. I am especially interested in the first thirty years or so of the C20th. 

BL