Shanks Family - Seagoe Parish

The irishgenealogy site has a death for John Shanks in Kernan on 3rd Jan 1875 aged 81. Wife Mary died there 11.4.1879 aged 82.Griffiths Valuation show John on plot 6 in Kernan in 1864. He had a farmhouse, outbuildings and just under 5 acres. The Valuation Revision books (on the PRONI website) show his name deleted in 1868, indicating he had apparently given the property up.

Thank you so very much for that information - that helps me a lot for sure. Many thanks Elwyn - you were very prompt answering my request.

Hello Jennifer , I saw you post .  I also have  John shanks and Mary Bradford as my GGG Grand parents . I have their son James Shanks as my GG Grandfather  b 1822 Armagh   d  1906 Melbourne Vitoria Australia . His wife was Mary Bradford  b 1799 Seagoe , Armargh Ireland  d Unknown .  the shanks family name comes down in my tree to my Grandmother that was Born a Shanks in Melbourne Australia b 1908 Carlton Victoria Australia d 1985 Victoria Australia . Her name was Ellen Margaret Bird nee  Shanks, her fathers name was Thomas Joseph Alexander Shanks b 1869 Templestowe , Victoria  d  1908 Victoria Australia . He was a soldier in the Boer War with the 5th Mounted Victorian Rifle  A Company  .  I would like very much for us to compare family tree information , if you would like to . Please contact me , i would be very happy to hear from you 

Best wishes 

Chris Murray 

Hello Chris,

My sincere apologies for not checking Ireland XO for quite some time - until today. There was your post - so good to hear from you. Yes, we have the Shanks connection.

Your James Shanks (1822-1906) was married to Mary McDowell (1823-1897) on 30th Oct 1845 in Lower Seagoe and they had 3 children there before emigrating to Melbourne - arriving in 1856. They had another 6 children here in Templestowe. The youngest was Thomas Joseph Alexander (1869-1908).

James' brother John (1823-1904) and wife Sarah came around the same time but I haven't been able to find their shipping record. They also began their lives here in Templestowe but moved on to Box Hill and Ringwood. I am descended from them - my G G Grandparents.

Your Thomas Joseph Alexander Shanks who married Margaret Wheatley in 1907 are both buried at Boroondarra Cemetery, Kew with Mary (McDowell) Shanks in C of E, Comp A, Plot 984. I have a photo of it but it has no name on it. I could send a copy if you send your email address via this msg?

You have probably already done a lot of research since your post and I apologise again for not checking out this site beforehand.

Let me know what you already have on James and If there is anything you don't have that I can help you with then I am happy to share.

Cheers,

Jennifer

Hello Jennifer , 

It is wonderful to hear from you .   Do you have a family tree on Ancestry or My Heritage ?  If you do i can invite you to my family tree , so that you can see the details  of what i have on the Shanks family .                                 

      My email address is       cmurray56@yahoo.com.au       

       Im not sure how to work out  what cousins we are , but i will work on that, this will be interesting.

     The most further back Shanks i have is    John Shanks  1805 Belfast  and his wife Mary Burford / Bradford ?  my 3rd Great Grandparents .    

Thank you  for offering to send    to send me a photo  of the Shanks grave at Kew cemetery , my nan Ellen Margaret  Bird nee Shanks    used to take me there to help her tent the grave and i have been there in the last couple of years . My mum told me that there was a large Marble heart with the Irish Claddagh design on it placed as a monument on the grave , it disappeared long ago    . 

I have a photo from a book , it is a photo of  Thomas Joseph Alexander Shanks in his uniform  [only head shot]  his regiment was the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.  The photo was taken when he was leaving to go to the Boer War 1902 .

I would like to send it to you. 

I have some information on James Shanks 1823 and  Mary McDowell  but not very much on James 1823  father and mother ; John Shanks 1805 Belfast and Mary Burford / Bradford  ?  I havent got a correct DOB for Mary . 

Thank you so very much for your reply to my post .   I hope to hear from you real soon 

Best wishes 

Chris Murray 

To Ireland XO Volunteer

Information from Elwyn - Ireland XO Volunteer (above) absolutely correct with details of my GGG Grandfather John Shanks death at Kernan on 3rd Jan 1875 and the Griffiths Valuation in 1864 showing where he lived at the time. This Plot 6 in Kernan is now a Cemetery but I cannot find where John and his wife Mary (nee Bradford)( died 11th Apr 1879 at Kernan) are buried.

Any clues on where to find them as I will be travelling to Ireland next year?

Thank you,

Jennifer

Jennifer,

The Shanks family don’t appear to have been very wealthy judging by the fact that they only had 5 acres. It’s therefore possible they are in unmarked graves (as much of the population were in the 1800s). The Ulster Historical Foundation has a list of all the graveyards in Seagoe parish. Knowing the family’s precise denomination may also help narrow the search.  (There are 7 in Seagoe but 1 is Quaker and 2 RC so that leaves 4).

http://www.ancestryireland.com

Only the Church of Ireland (COI) generally kept burial records and then only for its own members. (Many other denominations are buried in COI graveyards. They were open to all denominations). If your family was COI, copies of the burial records for Seagoe are in PRONI - up to about 1881, so the years you are interested in are there.

Hello Elwyn,

Thank you once again for your prompt and helpful reply. I will take your advice re PRONI as the Shanks family were Church of Ireland.

You would be right in saying they wouldn’t have been wealthy and all of their children except 2 came out to Australia as immigrants. You would surmise there were no prospects for them in Seagoe.

Thank you for your time

Christine

Christine,

You wonder if there were no prospects for your ancestors in Seagoe. I would agree.  I am sure they left for the same economic reasons that millions did. To find work, or better paid work. Ireland has very few natural resources (no oil, coal, iron ore etc) and so did not benefit from the industrial revolution in the 1800s, the way Scotland, England, the US, Canada & Australia did, which created hundreds of thousands of comparatively well-paid new jobs in new industries (coal mining, steel making, railways, ship building etc). So that was a big pull factor. There had also been a huge population explosion in Ireland going up from about 3 million people in 1750 to 8 million in 1830. There simply weren’t jobs for all those people. In much of Ireland the only employment was subsistence farming topped up in Ulster and one or two other areas with a bit of linen weaving. And then the straw that broke the camel’s back, along came the famine, numerous times throughout the 1800s. The worst period was when the potato crop failed almost completely 3 years in a row in the late 1840s, and then partially several more years after that.

Many labourers and small farmers were very much one crop dependant, because you could grow more potatoes to the acre than any other crop (a crucial factor on an island where there was a shortage of spare land), and they needed the minimum of maintenance, but as a consequence they had nothing else to fall back on when the blight attacked them, and because it was largely a barter economy they mostly had no spare cash to buy food. When the crop failed 3 years in a row, people ended up eating their seed potatoes, leaving them nothing to plant the next spring. It is estimated that during the years 1845 to 1850, around 800,000 people died of starvation or of a famine-related disease such as typhus, dysentery, scurvy or pellagra. A further two million people emigrated. Unlike earlier famines, in which the population recovers quickly from the catastrophe and continues to grow, the after- effects of the Great Irish Famine were such that the population of Ireland, standing at 8.2 million people in 1841, declined to 6.6 million in 1851. Fifty years later, Ireland's population was still showing a decline (down to 4.5 million), even though every other European country was showing a population increase. Ireland’s population did not return to its pre-famine heights until 1964. Approximately 8 million people left Ireland between 1801 and 1920 - the equivalent of the entire pre-Famine population. The population today is only around 6.5 million.

Other factors encouraged emigration, eg early mechanisation on farms. With new machines to turn the soil and plant seed, farmers no longer needed an army of agricultural labourers to help on the farm. So those jobs were rapidly disappearing. Likewise mechanisation had led to linen factories being set up in places like Belfast. These made home weaving uneconomic and so also upset the labourer’s family economy. Agriculture was the biggest single employer in Ireland, but it was mostly a barter economy. Few people had any ready cash save what they could make from weaving or any government sponsored work such as building new roads. So when the opportunity arose to get jobs with a regular wage packet, as opposed to a few pence from your father each week, the decision to migrate wasn’t really all that hard to make. So it was as much about economic betterment as anything.

There was a massive tide of migration all through that century, including long before the famine. Years after the worst of the famine it’s impact was still being felt across Ireland, and there were still plenty of much better job opportunities in Australia and the USA. (After Scotland and England, the USA was the most popular destination for emigrants with about 40 to 50% choosing it. Only about 5% of Irish emigrants chose Australia and New Zealand, possibly due to the costs and length of the voyage).

If you intend visiting PRONI take your passport or photo id with you on your first day to get your reader’s ticket. Takes 2 minutes, issued at reception and valid for 10 years.

PRONI staff won’t do research for you but will show you how to access the records you need. So you might want to ask for Seagoe Church of Ireland burial records. They’ll show you where to find the microfilm and how to use the microfilm readers and printers etc. The PRONI catalogue for Seagoe has this:

Baptisms, 1672-1731, 1735-1821 and 1829-76;

marriages, 1672-1731, 1735-1821 and 1826-45;

burials, 1672-1731, 1735-1821 and 1829-81; vestry

minutes, 1734-1900.

PRONI MIC1/73 – 75

Analysis of register of baptisms, marriages and burials, 1672-1904.

PRONI T2588   (That’s a paper document not a microfilm. Needs ordered up from the store.)

Index to baptisms, marriages and burials, 1672-1919.

PRONI – In self service room. (Ask the staff to show you where to get it).

The above index looks like a good place to start.

Elwyn,

Sincere thanks for all these hints to follow up. I am sorry I didn't respond immediately but have just returned home from a 4 week holiday.

Many thanks for your time once again,

Christine