The Durnins of Bea More Droghedia

Local volunteer contacted.

Hello Faithanne, the parish for Beamore (local spelling) is St Marys, Meath and it straddles the counties of Louth and Meath south of the river Boyne in the town of Drogheda, Beamore is in County Meath and the parish is in the Diocese of Meath.

Church records for the parish are missing, the church was built in 1832 and baptisms are available from 1834, however marriages only commence in the church records in 1874, civil records are from 1864 and are free on line at Irish Genealogy. I think you are a generation out with Mary Francis as she is 14 in the Irish Census of 1901 and a dressmaker.

It would appear that a Matthew Durnin married a Margaret Connolly circa 1850 and they had a number of children from 1851 to 1866, they are Cath 1857 mother transcribed as Mary;  Margaret 1855; Jane Dec 1858; Bridget July 1853; Mary Anne 1851; Peter 1861; James 1864; Maria Agnes 1874: The mother is Margaret Connolly on all baptsims except the one saying Mary. 

Mathew appears to have died aged 50 in 1877 and his wife Margaret in 1897 but the age is given as 56 which cannot be correct but that is not unusual, think it is Mary Agnes present at death. The post 1864 records can be viewed for free here https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ Select civil records and sign in but all free. The church records section is not applicable for all counties so not covered there as yet. You can read the church records here but can only search by month and year and then read, https://registers.nli.ie/ The parish is St Mary's Meath in Drogheda. 

If Mary Francis is a niece in the 1901 census, see here http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/  It defaults to 1911 so select 1901 and it is Bey More here, House 6, this is an admin number and not a house number. From the children of Mathew the most likely father would be Peter but there is no record of his marriage or a birth of a Mary Francis and I have looked.

I checked Griffiths Valuation for Mathew Durnin (Land valuation done in Meath in 1854) but there is none, there is a James Durnin in Colp or Colpe now, (say Cope) this is beside Beamore, there is a map on the site to show where the plot is and a visit to the Valuation Office whould show how the land transferred but a visit to Dublin required. They did not own the land as the landlord was a Kelly. 

Please revert if you have further follow up.

Good Luck

Pat

Hi Pat,

Thank you for the information above,  I will certainly use it, to see if I can find out anything else.

Faith