Foleys and Cottons

Ellen:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Can you advise who William Foley married? It may be that no records are available for only a few RC parishes have records back to 1800 or so (Limerick city parishes were an exception).

Roger McDonnell

Dear Ellen:

You mention that William Foley's headstone notes that he was from County Kerry, and that is fairly good evidence that that was where he originated from.  If he was part of the Peter Robinson Scheme, there is quite a bit of work that is being done at the moment with the 200 year anniversary of the scheme cpming up in 2023. 

There is a good website that gives some information about the scheme and some of the passenger lists associated with it here:  https://www.geni.com/projects/Irish-Peter-Robinson-Settlers-Canada/2553

In addition, the parish registers for County Kerry (and some parts of Cork) are located on the Irish Genealogy website under the "church records" section.  You may find information there pertaining to Foleys.  I'm aware of quite a number of Foley families in the Kerry/West Cork area due to some of my own DNA connections.  

https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/

If you have any further information (such as William's mother's maiden name or other families who travelled with them) that you would like to share on this thread, please do so and we will be happy to assist you.  

All the best,

Jane

I think it is a bit improbable that somebody who went with the Peter Robinson migration would have come from a Limerick City parish like St. Michaels.  One of the requirements was that the families be peasent farmer families and St. Michael's is mostly urban.  Also the vast majority came from further south mostly from the area north of the Blackwater river in Co.Cork extending into Co. Limerick  I believe they were nominated by local landlords who may have had holdings extending back into Co.Kerry.

John Tierney of https://historicgraves.com/ is sort of a local expert on this subject and may be able to help.

Tim

Thanks, Jane, Roger and Tim,

The guess was that William Foley the elder b. 1779 in Listowel, County Kerry, married Catherine Cotton b. ? possibly from England. Cousins believe the Cottons hailed from England because my DNA test surprised us showing DNA from the midlands of England. We--to this point--can only find one birth reference and that is to a William the younger b. 1812 in n Castellyons but perhaps baptized in Limerick. Now that I write this down I see that looks odd. Thanks for the links. 

My Foley family was quite secretive about its history. Once they hit Canada, we can see they are adventurers, trying farming and then building small general stores in Canada and then in Wisconsin. They made money selling land in the 1890s but otherwise were poor, at least in money, but perhaps not in spirit. 

They ended up in Milwaukee, Wis, about 90 miles north of Chicago on Lake Michigan, in an enclave with all my other great-grandfathers and mothers in the boom of the 1890s. They and my other great-grandparents, mostly from the Robinson Expedition, were very poor when they came to Wisconsin about 1840. They pioneered the state. Somehow in one generation, they went from poor farmers and miners to doctors and lawyers, my grandfather's generation, who pulled us out of poverty. They were all intense workaholics and very different than the friendly, laid back people we have met when we have visited Ireland. 

I am in the last phases of writing a memoir on how the spirits of our rugged individualist but clannish Irish ancestors inspired us with their values. I pray to them the way one would pray to a saint. In my mind, they were true, boots on the ground saints whose miracle was me. 

Best, Ellen

Hi Ellen.

William Foley & Catherine Cotton, their Son William was Born on the 28 February 1805, St Michaels Parish Limerick City.

www.rootsireland.ie

Roots Ireland

The Record can be viewed on the link above, there is no record of the Marriage, i could find no other Sons & Daughters to that Marriage.

John.

Hi Ellen:

Your memoir sounds very interesting and it will be very valuable for future generations.

I see that John has copied the baptism record for you.  I would tend to agree with Tim that the Peter Robinson scheme was for rural poor tenants and not for urban tenants, however the above baptism record may be valid for your research. 

I would also concur with Tim's comment about contacting John Tierney who has done a lot of research on the Peter Robinson Emigrants.  There is a big anniversary celebration coming up in 2023 and John is working with Ballyhoura Community Development with regard to same.  David Whyte is our local contact for Ballyhoura and I would recommend that you write to him as well as to John.  David's email address is:  dwhyte@ballyhoura.org. 

If you need any further assistance, please let us know.

All the best,

Jane

Thank you. I found some Foleys through a DNA match. They were born iin Kiltrop Kanturk. The family folklore is that during the famine the English sent the family "up the hill." I am not sure what that means. In any case, there are a lot of Foleys out there in Ireland in many place but at least the DNA test says I am related to these Foleys in Kiltrop. 

The story is that the English sent the Foleys up the hill to starve to death but didn't realize that they were sending them to a place where fishing supported the population. So the family flourished. My relatives likelly left about 1825 so it may not have been a great place to stay for many reasons. 

Any information on this is helpful. I saw another note somewhere on this website that said it was unlikely my Foleys were not from Listowel and that there may have been a misspelling. It could have been Lispole, which I find is near Dingle. 

My head is spinning. Were they from Kilarney or Dingle. These places are far apart, right? Could they have been sent to Kilarney from Dingle? Does "up the hill" mean moving from Dingle to Kilarney? 

Thanks, Ellen Foley

My second great grandmother was Mary Foley. She emigrated from Ireland abt 1865 and settled in Chicago. On her death certificate her place of birth was Castle Maine, Kerry. I did find a baptismal register from the diocese of Kerry at the time of her approximate birth for a Mary Foley. She was baptized on 20 October 1842 in Keel, Kerry, Ireland. Her parents were Daniel Foley and Margaret Celbert. She was abt 85 years of age at her death on January 28, 1927 in Chicago. She married Edmund Fitzgerald, also from Kerry, before the great Chicago fire in 1871.

I don't know how she came to Chicago, whether fro Wisconsin or across the pond to New York or Boston. I wish I could help you more.

I made a connection with Cathleen Sullivan on Ancestry through a DNA match with Nora Foley from Kanturk. Cathleen says her grandmother Mary emigrated to the States. Do you know each other? Daniel is not a family name but if this is the family Nora came from, there were several other boys who could have started my line. Thank you for your tip. How do you get to the baptismal records for Mary on a computer in the US. Did he come through Canada first? Thanks again. Ellen Foley

Hello Ellen,

The only information that I have on my second great grandmother, Mary Foley, is her death certificate in Chicago. On the certificate, the names of her parents are not given and there is no date of birth. The only reference to her birthplace is Castlemaine, Ireland and her age was listed as about 85 years. Ancestry.com has access to Catholic church registers where I originally found the names of who I thought her parents were. Since that time Ancestry has added additional registers and other parentages for which I will now have to do some more research. Unfortunately, I have little else to go on.

Mike Wheeler

Thank you.