I am looking for information about a George Calvert born in 1779 in Rockcorry, Monaghan, Ireland. He emigrated to America in about 1800. I think he likely went to New York and then Pennsylvania as that seems to be a common travel route for the Irish at that time. He had two children born in the United States – Edward (1803) and George (1804). In 1805/06, he moved to Ontario, Canada where free land was being offered. I have quite a lot of information about him in Canada where he had eleven more children with a woman called Martha Hopkins born in New Jersey. He fought in the war of 1812 and had two or three more wives after the death of Martha. He died in 1857.
I would like to find out if there are possibly any church records in the Parish of Ematris that might confirm his birth or even his existence in that Parish between 1879 and 1800. It is possible that he married before leaving Ireland although not likely. I would like to know if there is any evidence of any other Calvert families living in Ematris during 1879 and 1800 and general historical information such as the most likely port of departure from Ireland and whether or not (in 1800) all ships would have gone via a port in England. Also of interest would be anything that was going on in the area in 1800 that would have encouraged him to emigrate?
Tuesday 13th Jun 2017, 02:51PM
Message Board Replies
-
glenjns:
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!
I'm assuming your Calvert ancestors were Church of Ireland. According to the first link below, the records for Ematris parish go back to the 1700s and are held in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin (second link). Check the site because for a fee I think they will look up records. Roots ireland does not have baptismal records for Ematris C of I and the marriages records start in 1857 but it appears the RCB has all the earlier records.
https://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers…
https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library
The 1830 Tithe listing for Ematris parish shows nine Calvert records but there appear to be some duplicates. The 1861 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for the parish shows three Calvert records.
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?…
http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/monaghan/ematris.htm
The 1901 census has one Calvert family in Ematris.
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Monaghan/Aghabog/Kilmore_E…
Hard to tell why he left likely for a better opportunity. He amy have gone to Dublin for his ship.
Questions?
Roger McDonnell
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Tuesday 13th Jun 2017, 03:55PM -
Hello Glenjns:
I am also looking for information on this George Calvert. You have clearly done a lot of research, and I am interested to know how you found that he came from Rockcorry. The most information I have from his background is the death notice from McKenzie's book "More Death Notices from Methodist Papers, 1830 -1857" which just specifies County Monaghan.
Best regards,
Leslie
Wednesday 14th Jun 2017, 06:38PM -
Sorry to say it is not based on hard evidence. A fellow researcher has a document passed down through her family. It is a document which was completed by George's grandson (Jabez Turton who was living in Australia) and it states that George was born in Rockcurry, Armagh. I am assuming that was a mistake as there is no such place and it sounds enough like Rockcorry, Monaghan which would corroborate County Monaghan in McKenzie's book. There are two women who have done extensive research into George Calvert and to my knowledge there is no evidence of George prior to his arriving in Canada. I keep 'kicking the can' because I think Ireland has a great story and also I am interested to discover if George's family was one of the Calvert families that came over from Yorkshire. My family descends through George's oldest son Edward which makes George my 4th great Grandfather. I am interested to know your relationship to George. Do you have any information of his time in the United States?
Thursday 15th Jun 2017, 04:47PM -
Hi glenjns (Glen?):
I am researching my friend James' genealogy; his family descends through George's daughter Margaret Susannah, who married Isaac Turton Jr. in 1836. George Calvert is James' 4th great-grandfather also.
If it hadn't been for the death notice to which I referred in my previous message, I would not even have known that George spent time in the U.S. My only information on the family so far comes from the usual BMD, census and newspaper records. However, someone has put up names and dates of the family on the FindAGrave web site (see Memorial # 75887067). Since the data isn't sourced, I have been using it for clues only.
As to the Monaghan/Armagh issue, I suppose technically they could both be right, as Monaghan is in the Diocese of Armagh, and also the Armagh probate district...
Regarding the Calvert Yorkshire connection, have you tried DNA testing? I see that FamilyTreeDNA has a Calvert group
Have you seen the document (or at least a scan) that was written by Jabez Turton? That would be something to see! If the other data it contains is right and consistent, then there would be reason to accept that George came from Rockcorry, although of course, hard proof is always to be preferred. Since more and more records are being made available all the time, I remain hopeful that something will turn up, so keep kicking that can!
I am happy to share with you what I do have, if you would care to email me at leslie.still@gmail.com and I can send you a PDF of the Calvert data I have pulled together.
Leslie
Thursday 15th Jun 2017, 10:29PM