NZSG Conference 2017

Thanks to a tweet from my Burke cousin Maggie I heard about the NZSG conference in Auckland this weekend, which promised some interesting Irish lectures. Two researchers came out from Ulster, Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt. They delivered a treasure trove of info- and I will give just a few highlights of what I learned from them.

-Think laterally when looking for census substitutes- e.g. dog licences give addresses down to rural sub post office level.

-Extracts from the census were used to prove age for the pension, and these quite often list other family info. Many were issued in 1911 and these extracts escaped destruction in the 1916 fire.

-If there is a priest in the family it is worth searching for them, as they often had quite a lot written about them.

-Look at post-dated records- after ancestor left Ireland, as records often ‘refer back’ to other family members, especially land records.

-Fragments of records exist for various areas, e.g. a list of Tithe Defaulters is useful in Kilkenny. (Book by John Grenham can help identify these.)

-Search by Place can be helpful if name might be transcribed in various ways.

-Can register for free on Trinity College of Dublin site- which has several record types online e.g. the ‘Down Survey of Ireland'.

-Griffiths Valuation-by parish and townland- land often stayed in families for centuries.

-Church of Ireland records also include Catholics, as it was the state church responsible for whole community, so include cemetery info, financial aid for the poor etc. Women in community might be mentioned e.g. if they received aid for fostering.

-Poor Law Unions replaced parish help, crossed borders of parishes and counties etc.  These later became the Registration Districts.

-PLU had vaccination records for all, not just those in workhouses.

-Registry of Deeds is intact from 1708- connected with Penal Code - strictly enforced  e.g. Catholics could have maximum 31 year lease; had to subdivide land amongst all sons.

-Family Search has recently released online some indexes to land deeds, and actual deed documents.

-Related penal documents include Poll Book objections if someone said someone on roll was Catholic; Catholic Qualification Rolls at National Archives

Riordan- where is Curraheen?

Curraheen-Riordan connection
aka where exactly in Ireland did Patrick Riordan come from?

The New Zealand death entry for my great-grandfather Patrick Riordan in 1911 stated that he was born in “Curraheen”.

Now that various Irish records have become more freely available online, I have been dipping into the Catholic Parish registers. I had begun searching for Riordans in the Kildimo/Adare parish region in Co Limerick where there was a townland of Curraheen, not far from the River Shannon, but was not finding many likely looking names in this area. Also it seemed a bit distant from other known places for the family in Ballyhea (Malone), Charleville, Glenroe (O’Donnell) which were all further south near the border of Co Limerick and Co Cork.

To check whether I might have transcribed “Curraheen” incorrectly from the register in my original search (back in the early 90s), I paid for a digital image of Patrick’s death entry from the official RGO register. Definitely Curraheen. And his mother’s surname was definitely Quane.
Today I changed tack from searching Irish parish registers, and plugged ‘Riordan, Curraheen’ into Google.

Bingo! In the online 1829 tithe applotment books, I found a ‘widow Riordan’ living in Curraheen, in the parish of Ballylanders.(Also found a John Quane in Knockbrack, in the parish of Ballylanders, on the same page.)
(Ballinlanders was the spelling used in the applotment books, but Ballylanders was the spelling on the parish registers.)

A check on the parish map on the National Library of Ireland website showed that Ballylanders parish adjoins Glenroe parish, where Dean James Joseph O’Donnell, Patrick’s first cousin, came from.

 

So I returned to the National Library of Ireland website to look again at the Catholic Parish registers, this time looking for Ballylanders Parish. Unfortunately, the entries in the register of baptisms only start in 1849, and it seems that Patrick Riordan was born around 1847. But I soon found that I was finding plenty of familiar names in the register- lots of Quanes, and O’Donnells, as well as Riordans. On 16 Dec 1849 there was a “Bidy Riordan” who was a sponsor for a baptism. I wondered if this might be Patrick’s mother.

Then finally I found an entry that made it seem almost certain I was looking in the correct register. On June 4th 1850, Ellen, daughter of John Riordan and Bidy Quane, was baptised. One of the sponsors was Dan Quane. Ellen would seem to be a sister for Patrick Riordan, out great-grandfather.

It seems that I have quite likely found the “Curraheen’ that Patrick Riordan hails from, in the parish of Ballylanders, in the diocese of Cashel and Emily, Co Limerick. I have read that it is possible to trace births prior to 1849 in this parish but accessing the records is expensive. But I will search further in this online parish register later to see if I can discover other siblings for Patrick Riordan.

27 May 2017
Sidenote: Funnily enough, I have maternal ancestors (Heneberry/ Cronage) from the same diocese, just over the border in Co Tipperary, in Ballyporeen.

Burke/Flynn grave

Thanks to someone posing a genealogical question on one of my blogs, I have been prompted into opening a few folders. Then I realised that my 3rd cousin Margaret Gaffney had even posted a photo of our 3X grt grandparent's grave in Perth, Scotland. Michael Burke and Bridget Flynn originated from Co Mayo, but left Ireland for Scotland around the time of the Famine.
Here is a screenshot of the photo Maggie took. Spine-tingling, wonderful thing to see!

I guess this means that Wellshill Cemetery, Perth, Scotland has to be on my list of places to visit whenever I next get overseas!

And while I am at it, here is an earlier Burke posting from Maggie.

More about Corippo

The village of Corippo in the Canton of Ticino, Southern Switzerland, was the home of my Scettrini ancestors. I was fortunate to explore the village and valley in 1998 and 2006. The photos included here were taken on those visits, but have been scanned from prints. 

After the 1998 visit I wrote:

"As the train swept northwards into Switzerland, mountains began enclosing us in a dramatic landscape. I was heading into the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, to find the small mountain village of Corippo. There I hoped to walk in the paths of my Swiss ancestors.

The next day dawned fine and sunny and at 9am I joined a regular "Postbus" service headed up the steep, winding road into Val Verzasca. After thirty minutes there was a breath-taking sight of the village of Corippo, with its stone houses perched steeply against a mountainside. Corippo lies at an altitude of 560m, with mountains 2500m high around it. It was founded in the fourteenth century, and is one of the few mountain villages in Ticino where the building structure has stayed the same over several centuries. I approached, very conscious of the link that I was making with my family's past.

The first place I reached was the village cemetery, set on a small flat terrace, slightly apart from the rest of the village. I pushed open the gate and entered. The names of my ancestors seemed to present themselves on the headstones in front of me: - Giovanni Scettrini, Giuseppe Gambetta, Abbondio Scettrini. Yet these were all more recent burials, as in this part of the world, the same land has been re-used for burials many times over the centuries.

cemetery, Corippo

 I soon reached the village itself, and there was much to explore in every part of it. The narrow winding streets of Corippo are steep, and only suitable for humans and animals.

Most of the houses are built close together, and only the cemetery, bakeries, and two mills near the river, were slightly separate.

mill by stream, slightly separate from main part of village

All the houses in Corippo are made of mountain granite, with slate roofs, in a design that is specific to Ticino. The house fronts all look out across the valley, built to face the prevailing rain direction. The buildings tend to have two or three floors with small rooms, plus an attic. Because of the steepness of the terrain, hay and wood were often placed in the attic at the top, from the upper side of the house. Chestnut wood from the valley provides a framework for the roof, and is also used in furniture and joinery.



A climb up behind the village gave me a view down the valley to where the Verzasca River began forming the lake that now stands behind the Vogorno dam. Many wayside shrines, some with old painted frescoes, stood near the paths, evidence of the long Catholic history of this place.

uphill behind main part of village

shrine and footbridge near village of Corippo

A downhill path, once probably an old mule track, led across the stone bridge in the rugged Corippo side-valley, then climbed upwards towards the village of Mergoscia. Around lunchtime I found a picnic spot on this path, that gave me a perfect view back across the whole village of Corippo. At midday, chimes rang out from the bell-tower opposite: in past centuries, the devout villagers would have stopped, hearing this, to say the Angelus.

view back to Corippo from the track to Mergoscia

Switzerland is well organised for tourists, and there was an excellent map near the church in Corippo, detailing walks in the surrounding area. The next track I chose led to the nearby village of Lavertezzo. There were some superb mountain views along the way, and sheep with spring lambs ventured out of their old stone hut onto some grassy knolls.

on the track leading to Lavertezzo

 The riverside track passed through forest, still with just the sparse beginnings of spring leaves. Many small waterfalls along the way rushed down to join the Verzasca River. At Lavertezzo the track up the valley could be followed no further because of the current avalanche danger. But the attractive village of Lavertezzo had wonders of its own to explore, most notably the double-humped stone bridge that spanned the river. Great views of this bridge could be had from the middle of the river itself, as there were several safe ways to climb out onto the huge mountain rocks that lay there.

bridge at Lavertezzo

Locals in Corippo have always had a hard life with the rough alpine climate, poor soil quality, and steep terrain of the pastures. In past centuries, inhabitants only got enough from the fields for their own needs and there has often been a high degree of emigration. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, men from Corippo went to Italy as chimney sweeps from November to Easter. In the nineteenth century, the goldfields lured many men away. Marginal agricultural land has since been increasingly reclaimed by forest.

window- Corippo

 Getting there:
Ticino is the southern, Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland.
Locarno lies close to the main Gotthard railway line that links Milan and Zurich.
There are frequent train connections at Bellinzona for Locarno.
Locarno can also be reached via Domodossola on the dramatic Centovalli Mountain Railway. (Eurailpass valid.)
Several Postbus services leave Locarno each day for Corippo and Val Verzasca.

Footnote: Switzerland has a very well developed system of transport that makes it possible to reach many remote villages, and maps and information are readily available. But transport is expensive in Switzerland, so before travelling there it is well worth investigating which of the various discount schemes available might suit your needs.

Margaret, the writer, is a descendant of Giuseppe Scettrini, born in Corippo in 1835,
the first son of John Scettrini and Maria Johanna Scilacci.

There's a bit of info in an earlier post here - but I am expanding on it in this new post. (Originally most of this text was on my homepages, but I expect to 'retire' them soon.)

List of ancestors

I know this blog has had hardly any attention- it's turn will come!- but I have some info on some old web pages I must transfer over here.

Here is a list of ancestors back to 4X great grandparents where I know them.

A related blogger!

The internet has brought whole new ways for people to come together. Last year I was contacted by someone who had found my web page about some of my ancestors. She recognised the Burke family we had in common- and yesterday I enjoyed lunch with Maggie and some of her family. Meet Maggie and her blog- iwiKiwi.

James Lalor & 'Papers Past'

James Lalor, my great-grandfather, mined for gold at South Beach on the West Coast, and was also known as a 'parliamentary messenger'. In the last year I have come to know a lot more about him as a person, by using the excellent Papers Past website.

The most interesting 'find' I had was an article in the New Zealand Free Lance in 1901, talking about his recent service as a parliamentary messenger. I had imagined that this calling was like being a glorified 'postie' who carried messages by horseback along the Coast- but not at all. He did in fact go to Wellington when Parliament was in session to wait on the Members with messages. The article reads: "Yet Mr James Lalor, who came up from Greymouth to wear the livery of Parliament and who has just got back to the Coast this week to resume his avocation as a gold miner could boast of his family connections if he were not far too modest a man to say anything about himself at all." And the article goes on to say he was a 'full cousin of the celebrated Irish orator Richard Lalor Shiel'.

And the Papers Past site was a treasure trove that told me more and more about him, as he was active on the School Committee and various other bodies. His marriage to Catherine Rowland was recorded in the pages of the Grey River Argus in 1871 and then on 4 October 1916, his death is recorded in the same paper, a man who was 'well and favourably known throughout the West Coast.'