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I am trying to find the birth/baptism of John FOY.  I have him on the 1911 English census in Stoke on Trent Staffodshire.  He is with his wife Catherine (née Power) who he married in 1899 in Stoke.  He gives his place of birth as Bohola Co Mayo.  Can anyone help find his birth details please

Many thanks.  Graham

GrahamAS

Wednesday 26th Feb 2020, 04:56PM

Message Board Replies

  • Graham:

    Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

    I checked the subscription site Roots Ireland for Bohala baptismal records. No John Foys in 1871. There were records in 1866 and 1867 (shown below) and one in 1864 which I did not include. Do you know his parents names? Both records are in the same townland with father Martin but different mothers.

    Roger McDonnell

    Name:John FoyDate of Birth:
    Date of Baptism:17-Jun-1866Address:TavnaghnaboeParish/District:BOHOLAGender:MaleCountyMAYO
    Denomination:Roman Catholic
    Father:Martin FoyMother:Anne WalshOccupation:
    Sponsor 1 /
    Informant 1:Peter FoySponsor 2 /
    Informant 2:Bridget Walsh

     

    Name:John FoyDate of Birth:
    Date of Baptism:15-Sep-1867Address:TavnaghnaboeParish/District:BOHOLAGender:MaleCountyMAYO
    Denomination:Roman Catholic
    Father:Martin FoyMother:Biddy KilgallonOccupation:
    Sponsor 1 /
    Informant 1:Martin FoySponsor 2 /
    Informant 2:Mary Foy

    Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Wednesday 26th Feb 2020, 07:09PM
  • There does not appear to be a townland named Tavnaghnaboe in Bohola any longer (or it may always have been a local, "sub-townland" name), but there is one named Tawnaghaknaff.

    Tawnaghaknaff.is an anglicized form of the Irish Tamhnach an Chreamha, meaning "grassy upland of the wild garlic"

    Tavnaghnaboe would presumably be an anglicized form of the Irish Tamhnach na mBó, meaning "grassy upland of the cows"

    In case it's the correct location, there's more info about Tawnaghaknaff at this link, although I looked at the further records linked to that site, and did not see a Foy family in Griffith's Valuation or in the census records available there:  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/gallen/bohola/toocananagh/tawnaghaknaff/

    All of the townlands in Bohola are listed here, in case you find out that Tavnaghnaboe now goes by another name (there were sometimes changes over time):  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/bohola2/

    You can also check the parish registers for the relevant period.   If you find a relevant baptsm, it may indicate the townland in which the family lived.  For Bohola, they go back to 1857, and you can find them at this link:  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0122

    Two of my grandparents grew up in the area, and I know they had both Foy and Power relatives (though I know of no specific connection to yours).   Some of them moved between Bohola and the parishes of Killedan (Kiltimagh) and Kilcolman (Claremorris), so you might consider looking in those parish records as well.  At the site given just above, there's an interactive map which lets you move on the records for nearby parishes.

     

    kevin45sfl

    Wednesday 26th Feb 2020, 10:09PM
  • Graham/Kevin:

    I located the civil birth records corresponding to the 1866 and 1867 baptismal records. The 1866 record also shows Tavnaghnabo but the 1867 record shows Bohamore which is an official townland.

    Roger

    https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1866/03525/2297324.pdf

    https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1867/03472/2275194.pdf

    Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Thursday 27th Feb 2020, 01:41AM
  • Thank you Roger for your very speedy responce.  I will look at these links and get back to you.

    Cheers Graham

    GrahamAS

    Thursday 27th Feb 2020, 03:07PM
  • You can find more info about Bohamore at this link:  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/gallen/bohola/toocananagh/bohamore/

    You can see there that the townland of Comderrynabinnia is directly to the east of Bohamore.  My family's Gallagher line comes originally from Comderrynabinnia.  One of my collateral relatives from Comderry, a Patrick Gallagher, married a Catherine Foy there around 1860.  I've never looked for their marriage record, although it may be available, since the parish register goes back to 1857 for marriages. I do have baptismal records for 5 of their children, and there were Foy sponsors at two of those baptisms, a Margaret Foy in 1865 and a Thomas Foy in 1868.  If the marriage record is there, it may show one or more Foy witnesses.

    If you've done DNA testing and want to compare results, let me know.  I also have several cousins in that Gallagher line who've been tested. 

    The surname Foy, by the way, is an anglicization of the Irish surname Ó Fiaich, derived form the word fiach, meaning "raven".  Other anglicized forms are Fee, Fey, and Fye, as well as Hunt (based on a mistranslation of the Irish name).  It is originally an Ulster name, but is also found in northern Connacht (including East Mayo), and Foy is the most common form used there.

    kevin45sfl

    Friday 28th Feb 2020, 11:41PM
  • Graham/Kevin

    I just saw your post yesterday, the John Foy that you mentioned is my Grand Uncle who was born in 1866 inTavnaghnabo now known as Bohomore, to Martin Foy and Ann Walsh.

    I know from the 1901 and 1911 English census that John had 4 children in Stroke on Trent and wonder are you a relation of those 4 children.

    Kevin the Catherine Foy you mentioned is also from Bohomore and is also related to me, I have seen her name come up in Family Trees on Ancestry.com.

    I think she is either a sister or a first cousin of my Great Grandfather Martin Foy( John's father). When Martin got married in 1862 a Catherine Foy was a witness maybe not the same Catherine as your Catherine was married around 1860.

    I live in a Village on west side of Bohamore.

    Regards 

    Tommy 

     

    Tommy13

    Monday 13th Apr 2020, 10:59PM
  • Nice to hear from you, Tommy and Graham.  Since our families lived so close together, we're probaby all at least distantly related.   My grandfather grew up in Carrownteeaun/Carrantiane, which is a bit further east of Comderry in Killedan parish, but I believe his grandfather was from Comderry (I'm not sure when they made the move - maybe at the time of the Famine).  I knew there were still Gallagher's in Comderry, but it was just last year that I connected with some of their descendants who now live in the UK, which is how I found out about that particular Foy connection, although I had seem Foy sponsors or witnesses in a few other family baptismal and marriage records..

    I don't have an account at Ancestry, although there may still be an old family tree there which a nephew of mine created years ago with info I gave him.  He abandoned hs account after a while, so I'm sure that tree is very out of date (lacking a lot of more recently found info, and with some mistakes we've corrected since then).  I have all of my up-to-date family records input at the FamilySearch site [ https://www.familysearch.org ], which I've found to be a great site.  In case you're familiar with that site (which is completely free), I created a record for Catherine Foy under ID number KHGH-FGR  (you'll understand more about how that works if you use the site).  At FamilySearch, it's all one big family tree (not separate ones), but one needs to find the relations and link them up, and also merge duplicate records which people may have created.  Some of the Comderry descendants had already input info on their branch, and now we have the records all linked up, but none of us had any further info about the Foy's.  I'm going to go ahead and indicate Catherine as having been born in Bohomore, and maybe eventually we can find other Foy records on the database (or create them) and link them all up.

    Take care!

    -- Kevin

    kevin45sfl

    Tuesday 14th Apr 2020, 05:28PM

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