Reo Shires?

Karby:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out

Can you attach one of the civil birth records so we can see how the place name was written. A quick scan of all the townlands in Wexford which start with the letter R did not show any good leads.

Roger McDonnell

Hi Roger,

Thanks so much for the quick response!  I've attached the record of my grandmother, Margaret Duggan.  Hopefully you or one of your associates can determine the name of the town as I've googled it in various spellings and have come up with nothing.  At first I thought it said Red Shires but when I googled that it was a building up for sale but that's the closest I've been able to come.

I do hope someone can find something!

Best,

Karen

Karen:

I think it is Red Shires and the building for sale is likely in the correct area. Red Shires is not an offical townland. About ten kilometers from Wexford Town. We have a volunteer who is an expert on Wexford as well as placenames. I will make sure he sees this message.

Roger

Karen:

I think it is Red Shires and the building for sale is likely in the correct area. Red Shires is not an offical townland. About ten kilometers from Wexford Town. We have a volunteer who is an expert on Wexford as well as placenames. I will make sure he sees this message.

Roger

Agree place of birth looks like Redshires on Margaret's birth, I also looked through a number of the births and baptisms for her siblings and they give slight variations of this Red Shear/Redsheer/Redshear etc. All the births I found are registered in Bridgetown sub-district of Wexford (town) registration district, and the baptisms in "Piercetown & Murrinstown" Catholic Parish - these help to narrow down the general area as being abt 6km south west of Wexford town (see attached maps).

As this place seems to be a local name I checked the OSI maps for this area, but found no matches - some local placenames are shown on official maps, but many are not... The same placename appears on baptisms and civil births for a number of other families, so seems to be a well known.

I located a very promising reference in "The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places", by Patrick W. Joyce, 3rd ed., Dublin 1871 which reads as follows :

"...There is a gap in the mountain of Forth in [Co.] Wexford, which... is also called Reed-shearde or Red Gap, by the inhabitants of Forth and Bargy. ..." (see attached extract)

The Forth Mountain is located close to Murntown/Murrintown, and there's a second clue in the name of a road running north west of Murrintown a "Redshire Road" - these clues combined all fit the description, civil district, parish and general area and a good match to where your Duggan/Doyle family lived. See Google maps route from Murrintown.

I double checked along this road on the historic OSI maps - but found nothing marked to show RedsheerRedshear. Most of this road runs through a townland named 'Forth Commons' (Kildavin civil parish, Forth barony), I've included an extract from the c1840 OSI map.

Griffith's Valuation, dated 1853, for this area show a substantial number of properties at this Forth Commons townland (two other townlands of the same name in Co. Wexford) it's shown as 'Free' so no immediate lessor/landlord - I had a quick look and didn't spot any Duggans, but there is at least one Doogan, and also a Doyle...

Shane:

Thanks!

Roger

Shane,

You are fantastic!  Thank you SO much for this info.  I was intrigued by your comment that you were able to look through “a number” of the births and baptisms for Margaret’s siblings.  My grandmother was the youngest of 14 and the only one to marry.  I’ve found the civil records of 4 of her siblings, the most recent being my great aunt “Annie” who it appears was actually Anastasia!  The date of her birth is off a year (1869 instead of 1870 as we had been told) but the civil parish they lived in at that time was Kildavin which you mentioned in your note and her parents’ names seem to be correct so I do believe she’s mine!!  Can you tell me how many of her siblings you were able to locate?  The only ones we knew of were “Annie”, Mary and Mike.  I’ve found “Annie” and Mary but also a John and a Patrick.  Mike is nowhere to be found and I know from a census record in New Jersey that he was born in 1875.  Would you be able to point me to other web sites that might be of help?  Thanks again for your time and effort in helping me.  Best, Karen

These are the births/baptisms I located :

Mary Anne Duggan Bapt 6th June 1863  Loughmolin, one of the godparents is a Doyle res. Redsheard
Anastasia Duggan (1) Birth 6th November 1867, Kildavin, Bapt. 6th November 1867, Redsheerd, both godparents Duggan res. Redsheerd
Anastasia Duggan (2) Bapt 9th December 1869, Redsheerd, both godparents Duggan res. Redsheerd
Margaret Duggan (1) Born 10th April 1873, Red Sheerd, Bapt 22 April 1873  Redsheerd , both godparents res. Redsheerd
Michael Duggan Bapt : 22nd June 1875  Redsheerd, one of the godparents Res. Redsheerd
Mary Duggan Bapt : 13th June 1877, Redsheerd, Birth 16th June Redshiers
Patrick Duggan Birth 5th October 1879, Red Sheer
John Duggan Birth 15th July 1881
Margaret Duggan (2), Born 30th August 1883, Redshires

All the baptism links are to the free National Library of Ireland website all in 'Piercetown and Murrinstown' Catholic parish, the births are from the IrishGenealogy website, also free.  I also used the index to Catholic Records on FindMyPast.

Thomas is shown as a labourer on the births, appears he was illiterate as the births he registers he 'signs' with his mark.

Piercetown baptism registers online on the NLI website cover up to abt 1881

It looks like they may not have registered all the births - and there some reuse of names, which would usually mean that the earlier child died young - e.g. Margaret (1), Anastasia (1).

The Piercetown and Murrinstown registers also include the marriage for Thomas Duggan and Mary Doyle - on 16th February 1863. The register page is quite faded, the Duggan/Doyle marriage is towards the middle of the page - the only marriage entry for February that year. Residence for the bride is given as Redsheerd, and residence for the groom is given as Scaughmoland, which is a nearby townland in Rathaspick civil parish, but still within the same Catholic Parish. The witnesses are a Mary Wickham and Margaret Harris, there's no mention of parents to the bride & groom.

Shane,  you are amazing and I can’t thank you enough!  My “quest” continues with this great information, have a wonderful day!  Best, Karen.

Hello again, Shane,  So because of information you provided with dates of my relatives births (and names which were unknown to me) I’ve been able to find my great-grandmother’s arrival in the U.S. with my grandmother and three of her siblings.  Since my great-grandfather, Thomas Duggan, was not with them and he does not appear in any of the Federal U.S. or State censuses I am presuming he died in Ireland and that would have been sometime before 1888 when my relatives arrived.  I cannot locate a death record for him however and am hoping you would be able to help me.  Thank you in advance for anything you can turn up.  Best, Karen