I'm trying to locate a townland for my ancestors. I have lots of town / place names as clues.
Michael Curran's death records list his address as Derryreel, in the district of Crossroads, in the Union of Dunfanaghy. I have found a Griffith's Valuation record from 1958 that seems to match this - townland of Derryreel, Parish of Raymunterdoney, Barony of Kilmacrenan. When I looked for this townland it also came up as the parish of Clondahorky.
Ann Mulhern was his wife. There is a John Mulhern listed at Derryreel so it could support this theory.
One of his sons, Daniel, immigrated to Australia in 1861. His death certificate lists his place of birth as Muckish, County Donegal, Ireland. His immigration records list his origin as Cloughaneely, County Donegal. Daniel also seems to have sponsored two other brothers or cousins' immigration, with these records referring to where they were living as Cloughaneely, County Donegal & the person listed who could provide a reference to them was the parish priest of Cloughaneely, County Donegal. From my research so far, Muckish seems to be a mountain in the area & Cloughaneely is a Gaeltacht district, one I can't seem to find on any site except Wikipedia.
From everything I have read about researching Irish genealogy, knowing the townland of your ancestor is very important. I would love some guidance from someone who knows the area so that I can narrow down research possibilities.
Monday 22nd Apr 2013, 09:46AM
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Just a quick note. Cloughaneely is a district but not a townland and, as you say, Muckish is a mountain, not a townland. Derryreel is a townland that actually is split across two civil parishes.
In case you haven't already seen this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_townlands_of_County_Donegal
The 1901 census for County Donegal lists many Currans living in a number of townlands in the area. Not easy to know which are appropriate. see http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=curran&exact=&firstname=&county=Donegal&townland=&ded=&age=&sex=&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&search=Search&sort=&pageSize=&pager.offset=0
Narrowing down the search to townlands around Derryreel gives 24 names as: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=curran&firstname=&county=Donegal&townland=&ded=cross+roads&age=&sex=&search=Search&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=
It also lists the townlands
Not sure from here.
Regards,
Kevin
Friday 26th Apr 2013, 08:18PM -
Hi,
You should have a look at Donegal Genealogy Resources - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegal/
You could also contact Donegal Library Service - http://www.donegallibrary.ie/
They hold many rare documents and have access to many directorys that might be of use.
Good luck with your research.
Eimer Shea
Saturday 4th May 2013, 07:16PM