Looking for Alexander McEvoy/Elizabeth Bailey

Edenhope:

Welcome back to Ireland Reaching Out!

Philippstown is a civil parish in western Co. Louth near the border with Co. Monaghan. I will alert a parish liaison in another part of Co. Louth to see if he can assist with your message.

Roger McDonnell

Hi Edenhope & Roger

I have done a few searches and I see it is the Church of Ireland parish of Charlestown, Armagh (Louth is in the diocese of Armagh) and records start for CoI in 1822 see https://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers…;

There appears to be  no matching record in the Tithe Applottments or Griffiths Valuation for McEvoy in that area, I will do a better search later in the week, McEvoy is a common name in the area, particularly around the Termonfeckin / Clogherhead area, Bailey less so but I will be speaking to a Bailey over the next few weeks but he has done no genealogy that I am aware of.

There is an interesting Louth site here http://www.jbhall.freeservers.com/ 

Griffiths valuation was printed in 1854 so it is likely that they were gone when it was taken. The Foster family local landlords have done a census of tenants in 1852 for Philipstown but your family do not feature, it is worth noting however it was done with a view to assistinp people to emigrate as the land holdings were becoming too small. It is also worth noting the Foster famile Vere Foster instigated teaching of children particulary females at the this time too, see http://clubnamuinteoiri.com/about_vere_foster.php Given the number of daughters he may have had an influence, there is more about him online too. The Foster house is still in the village of Collon (Cullen as spoken locally) their house called Collon House is in use as a bed and breakfast now, one of hte was the last speaker of the Irish Parliament.  However that does not help you.

I will search some more later but it will be a week or so.

Regards
Pat

Thanks Roger and Pat for your quick and informative responses. I will read through Pat's reply in greater details and revert to you.

Regards, Edenhope

Roger and Pat

A couple of pieces of information that may help.

Alexander McEvoy's death notice in the Auckland Newspaper in 1857 said that he was formerly of Philipstown House. This piece of information would be reliable as his wife and daughters were all there at the time. So he and family may have lived on the Estate or maybe Philipstown House was also referred to as a townland.

When his daughter, Elizabeth, married in 4/1853 she gave her residence as just Philipstown on the certificate. She married James Lee (my great grandfather) at the Registry Office in Dundalk.

When same daughter Elizabeth gave birth to a baby daughter in Sydney in early 1855 (before they all went on to NZ), the baby was baptised at the Church of England. 

I will follow uo Pat's leads. Regards, Edenhope

Hi Edenhope

done a quick google search on Philipstown House and there is such a place on the border with south Armagh, said border in the news on Brexit just now. There was such a place but it is not in Philipstown as I know it, between Collon and Ardee but north west of Dundalk (see Wild Goose Lodge Murders on Louth Genealogical Sources site, there is also a book and film on Netflix) It is associated with the Bell family, http://www.philipstownhouse.com/history.html As the bride is often married in her own parish this is closer to Dundalk and may fall in that parish. 

The Church of Ireland and England were basically the same, each was the established church in the country and for that reason had a certain civil role to bury the dead etc

This is the catholic registers site but click on the map, Leinster, then Louth and enlarge and you can see where Dundalk parish extended too in the RC faith am assuming the CoI parish would be similiar but assumptions are not a good bet. https://registers.nli.ie/ 

 I have noticed a few queries from that part of Louth from New Zealand from 1830s to 1860s so wonder if they followed friends or relatives, at least two queries were CoI I think. A few years back  now.

Back to the drawing board here for the "expert" I see three different townlands called Phiilpstown in Louth including one as per the house, study this townland map and names for awhile, I must be off to bed and am busy for about the next week but will look in on the query. https://www.townlands.ie/louth/ The maps attached to each townland are very clear, the mapping agency for Ireland is here https://www.osi.ie/ There are old maps on it too.

Regards
Pat

Edenhope

I have been off piste for awhile so sorry for the delay, I have as yet not met the Bailey man and it is now unlikely to occur before Chistmas. I did howeve contact another man and he sent me a piece from the book Great Houses of North Leinster and I attach a very short piece on Philipstown House from it, nothing for you really but a bit of detail, also a short extract from a business directory on Philipstown the actual townland come parish but again no real info.

The library in Dundalk and the Louth Archives may have something more on Philipstown House but it is unlikely to list tenants.

https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Services/Library/Genealogy-Research-Sources/ and https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Services/Archives/ 

It has come to my attention the the Louth History Society have there publications on line (CLAHS) and I will look into access for myself and let you know as it is very reasonable to join for a year if searching articles for clues interests you.

Regards
Pat

Hello Pat

I am very grateful for this assistance you have been providing and the information provided. From what I have found out from your leads, it would appear that before coming to Australia/NZ, the McEvoy's resided in the townland of Philipstown in the civic parish of Philipstown-Nugent (one of 3 Philipstown parishes in Louth). This townland/parish is located on/next to the N53 not far from the Louth/Armagh border. Philipstown House seems to be located in this townland/parish. This area seems to be the Catholic parish of Kilkerley/Haggardstown/Blackrock, Diocese of Armagh.

There is a website for Philipstown House which says that the Bell family came over from Armagh and bought up a lot of the land in 1733. Much of the land was then rented out to farmers. Knowing that Alexander McEvoy was a farmer suggests that he may have rental property here or even his family before him.

The challenge now is to try and locate some Church of Ireland birth/marriage records of the McEvoy/Bailey marriage and the McEvoy children baptisms (between 1831 and 1844) and also to find some information regarding the Bailey's.

The Directory notes you attached on Philipstown in the parish of Dunleer is a different Philipstown apparently.

I will be very grateful if you are able to follow up on the Bailey's at some stage and also with the Louth History Society.

May all teh joy and blessings of Christmas shine on you. Edenhope

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Edenhope

I have got online acccess to the journals of the County Louth Archelogy & History Society and will be perusing them and will revert if I locate anything. Philipstown House is in a townland which is the smallest land measurement with a given name, they vary in size quite a bit, there is also a Phillipstwon Parish which would be many townlands.

There is a Louth Genealogy Facebook page but I am not sure of the information quality at that remove.

Regards

Pat 

Hi Pat

Thnks for this latest post; I appreciate your continuing efforts to assist. Apologies for the delay in acknowlrdging this message, I have been dragged into following up some matters on my father's side. All 8 of my mother's great great grandparents camr ro Australia from Ireland in the 1840 to 1855 period and it is much the same for my father, so there is a lot of Irish digging to be done.

Very best regards, Edenhope

Hi Edenhope

have used  my access but am limited to a small monthly quota, saw nothing in the few I looked at but you can join J Stor for I think $9.99 a month, https://www.jstor.org/ 

Will hopefully get some more info and revert.

Pat

Hi Edenhope

have used  my access but am limited to a small monthly quota, saw nothing in the few I looked at but you can join J Stor for I think $9.99 a month, https://www.jstor.org/ 

Will hopefully get some more info and revert.

Pat

Hi Pat. Thank you continuing to follow up and for your note. Very appreciative of your efforts. I will have a look at J Star and consider joining uo.

Hope all is going well for you, Edenhope