Birr: Drought Family

Hi,

Thank you for your message.

As I mentioned in my response to your message regarding the Hulls, it may be hard to find information pertaining to this period.

You may want to contact Irish Midlands Ancestry- a fee may apply. Here are their contact details:

Irish Midland Ancestry,

Bury Quay,

Tullamore,

Co. Offaly,

Ireland.

Phone: +353 (0) 57 9321421   Email: info@offalyhistory.com

The Co. Offaly Library website may also be of interest to you, particularly the Local Studies section. Here is a link:

http://www.offaly.ie/eng/Services/Libraries/Local_Studies_And_Archive_Service/Local%20Studies%20and%20Archive%20Service.html

Also genealogylinks.net gives a list of resources that are available in each county. For Offaly follow this link:

http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/offaly/index.html

I hope that this information helps.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support

Hello, 

I'm looking for William Drought, b 1831 Birr, Offaly. 

I'm not sure exactly when he attived in Australia, only that it was the 1850's, and that he was here by 1861 as that's when he married Marie Elizabeth Kilpatrick in Merton, Victoria. 

One story is that he brought horses with him from Ireland and another is that  he came to Australia via America. Another  story is that his forebear was John Drought who came to Ireland with William of Orange and married the daughter of Lord Lovatt, Simon Fraser. 

He gave a set of silver dueling pistols to his daughter, my grandfather's mother. She discovered later upon communicating with a Drought lady in Canada that she also had a pair of silver dueling pistols. There must be a story in there somewhere. 

William also always wore a locket with a painting of a Miss Georgina Parsons. Apparently  Parsons was the name of Earl Rosse, Castle Birr, Offaly, so there was a question mark related to whether he’d perhaps been asked to leave! 

He and Marie Elizabeth Kilpatrick had 10 children. 

In 1891, when he was 60 years old, William had called his family together, he said, to tell them his story. Unfortunately he had an accident and died in the paddock whilst showing horses to buyers,  and so the family never knew his story.