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I have searched diligently for almost twenty years for documentation of the births of Roger and Jane McKeough's children, Anne, Sarah, Cornelius and James. Anne, Sarah and Cornelius emigrated to Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, ca 1855. James emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. in 1860. I have found numerous records in Ontario and Massachusetts linking them as brothers and sisters and, through Anne's marriage record have tied them as children to Roger McKeough and Mary Jane MacNamara of Ballina, Co. Tipperary. I have found Roger's name on Griffiths in Gortlassabrien, Templeachally, Ballina and, apparently after his death have also found Jane farming the same land. We have visited Ballina where we met Jimmy and Sheila McKeough and Sheila though our families were connected. Last year,before the Catholic registers were digitized, I spent a week at the NLI searching for a baptismal record of any one of the four children. While I found many, many McKeough baptisms and marriages I did not find any for the four siblings. Subsequently, I repeated the research in the online digitized records ( a much easier source for research) and again found nothing. So, we have records tieing the children to Roger and Mary Jane McKeough in Ballina. We have Griffiths records documenting Roger and Jane in Ballina. But we are unable to locate any baptismal records for the children. I'm hoping that someone with Ballina roots may be able to shed some light on this search.

 

 

 

 

blainewi

Friday 15th Apr 2016, 09:16PM

Message Board Replies

  • blainewi:

    Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

    We have a parish liaison in Templechally civil parish. I will send him an e-mail alerting him to your message.

    Roger McDonnell

    Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Friday 15th Apr 2016, 09:56PM
  • Dear Blainewi

    I am also related to McNamaras and McKoeghs from Ballina - although my lot came to Australia.  I don't klnow if this will assist you, but I thought I would mention that some Australian records spell McKeogh as McHugh and variations of that name - McKew etc.,  I think it was becasue that is what the person recording the information heard when the name was said.

     

    Good luck with you searching.

    Julie Quigley

    JulieQ

    Friday 10th Apr 2020, 04:11AM
  • John ( aged 32) and Mary (aged 27) McKeogh arrived in Sydney New South Wales on the Sir Edward Parry on 17 February 1848 with their children Honoria aged 5 and William aged 3. They came from Ballina Tipperary Ireland. John was a quarryman. Mary's maiden name was Carey. Any info?

    Peter

    Friday 10th Apr 2020, 07:02AM
  • Hi Peter,

    Although I have not found the connection yet, I feel sure they are related to me.  The proven connection I have is my great grandmother, Margaret Riordan who was born ca 1852 in Killary frea, Ballina.  her parents were Patrick Riordan and Margaret (peggy) McNamara.  In looking for connections, I have come across a number of McKeoghs, Leos and others from Killary Ballina. There are  lots of inter-marriages between the McKeoghs, McNamaras and Leos.   I visited the area last year and realised how small it is, and that they were all living quite close to each other.  There was a ship that came to Sydney in 1841, the Adam Lodge owned by Francis Spaight.  This ship had a number of McKeoghs and Leos on board.  They had been tenants on land owned by Francis Spaight in Killary.  He paid their passage to Australia in return for them surrendering their leasehold on land he owned.  By doing this, he was able to consolidate a number of small leasehold properties into larger properties as a means of "clearing" his land of unwanted poor families.  I am working my way through all the people I have found that could be connected, and the John and Mary you mentioned are among my candidates.

    Not sure if any of this helps you, but if I find connections, I will certainly let you know.

    Cheers for now

    Julie

    JulieQ

    Saturday 11th Apr 2020, 07:05AM
  • Hi Julie, Strange you mention the Adam Lodge as one of my other g grandmothers came on that ship to Sydney on 30/8/1841as a bounty immigrant. She came from Killaloe across the river from the McKeogh’s. She married the convict John Champley (see my book The Campbelltown Convicts). Her parents were Patrick and Anne (nee Hewitt). Little is known about them apart from the fact that Patrick was a farmer.

    After the McKeogh’s arrived in Sydney in 1848 they had a daughter in 1852 called Maria Mary. She is my g grandmother. I have a very nice photo of her.

    My McKeogh’s were lucky to leave Tipperary when they did as it seems things were appalling in that County during 1847.

    I had a close DNA connection with a lady on Family Tree DNA who had McKeogh connections in Tipperary but unfortunately she was unable to tell me much about them.

    Peter

    Peter

    Sunday 12th Apr 2020, 10:13AM
  • My g grandmother who came from Killaloe was Julia Salmon

    Peter

    Peter

    Sunday 12th Apr 2020, 10:19AM
  • It is so nice to see some discussion on the Ballina site, particularly for McKeough and MacNammara. This family has been such a dead end for me. I have located many, many of their children's records records in the USA and Canada linking the family of Roger McKeough and Jane MacNamarra to Ballina, Templeachilly and Gortlassabrien. And, I've found first Roger and subsequently Jane as leaseholders of propery in Griffiths. (It appears that Roger dies ca. 1848 because, all of a sudden Jane showed up as a leaseholder of the same property.) I have not been able to find a baptismal record for any one of Roger and Jane's four children (James, Ann, Sarah and Cornelius.) We visited Ballina about eight years ago and found the people to be genuinely interested in helping us. Everyone was so friendly and went out of their way in an attempt to link us up with someone who could help. Ballina is a lovely area with beautiful people.

    blainewi

    Sunday 12th Apr 2020, 03:27PM
  • https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/assisted-immigrants-digital-shipping-lists

    I noticed that there were a number of Leo's, McNamara's including a McKeogh on the Adam Lodge in 1841. The ships list gives 33 passengers coming from County Tipperary and 16 from County Clare.

    On the Sir Edward Parry in 1848 I counted 31 of the passengers as coming from County Tipperary and 4 from County Clare.

    As for my McKeogh's on the Sir Edward Parry notice how Ballina has been spelt phonetically – Ballinagh.

    Peter

    Peter

    Monday 13th Apr 2020, 12:23AM
  • It’s astounding how many convicts came from Tipperary including some McNamara’s

    http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/cgi-bin/irish/irish.cgi

    Peter

    Peter

    Monday 13th Apr 2020, 04:14AM
  • Peter

    Wednesday 15th Apr 2020, 07:11AM
  • I would also recommend a book that I found last year in the library in Nenagh.  The details are :

     

    Ballina/Boher Parish Our History and Traditions Griffin, Kevin M. and Griffen Kevin A,,  2000 Ballina Killaloe Print, Ballina, Killaloe Co. Tipperary.  I actually purchased a copy from Australia when we returned from Ireland last year.  I found it really interesting, and gave me a lot of background about the parish.  Chapter 6: Violence, Unrest Famine & War was paprticularly good.

    Julie Q

    JulieQ

    Wednesday 15th Apr 2020, 08:11AM
  • FRANCIS SPAIGHT & LAND CLEARANCES

    Julie draws attention to the land clearing activities of Francis Spaight of Derry Castle. It’s something I've not heard about before and it got me thinking. Julie thought that Francis Spaight was responsible for his “tenants” arriving on the Adam Lodge in Sydney in 1841. I have a particular interest in the Adam Lodge as my g grandmother Julia Salmon arrived in Sydney on that ship.

    I’ve done a quick bit of research on the internet (no libraries are open in Sydney) and have found that Francis Spaight does not seem to have purchased Derry Castle until 1844. So it would seem that the people on the Adam Lodge may have come to Sydney for other reasons.

    Most of the immigrants on the Adam Lodge were bounty immigrants brought to NSW by the firm Gilchrist & Alexander who were general merchants and mercantile agents operating in Sydney. They brought in large numbers of immigrants into NSW in the 1840”s and were paid a “bounty” by the NSW Government for each immigrant.

    Some interesting snippets:

    The Derry Castle and Burgess estate, county of Tipperary, was knocked down to Francis Spaight, Esq, of Limerick, for £39500 at the Chambers of Master Goold, on Tuesday. The highest bona fide offer for this property at the sale last May was £37500, and it was then bought in at £38000. The estate comprises 3000 acres of land, with mansion house, and offices, on the most picturesque and frequented part of the Upper Shannon, near Killaloe.

    Statesman and Dublin Christian Record
    16 August 1844

    https://irishwaterwayshistory.com/tag/tipperary/

    There is a castle in Derrycastle called "Caisleán an locha". It is situated on an island on the Tipperary side of Lough Derg. There is a road leading from the shore to this castle but during the Winter this road is covered with water and the castle can be reached only by boat. This castle was built by the O'Brien's of Arra and opposite to it on the Clare side of Lough Derg is Kincora - where Brian Boru's Fort can still be seen. From the top of "Caisleán an locha" a grand view can be got of Lough Derg. The castle is of a round shape, there is a stone stairs going from the floor to the top and there are trees growing round it. https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922151/4856551/5012205  

    Thus, Landlord assistance was very low since it represented only 4% of overseas emigration. Moreover its importance varied in the different counties. The counties of Clare, Limerick and Sligo were prominent centres of landlord assisted emigration. In these counties there were important proprietors such as the marquis of Lansdowne in Kerry, Francis Spaight in Clare and Tipperary, or Sir Robert Gore Booth in Sligo who assistance was very uncommon in County Cork. Francis Spaight, a Limerick merchant and also a British magistrate who had himself transported many of his own tenants in 1847, said: I found so great an advantage of getting rid of the pauper population upon my own property that I made every possible exertion to remove them; they were a dead weight and prevented any improvement upon the land they occupied. Almost every landlord agreed with F. Spaight on the fact that reducing the population was the precondition for agricultural improvement. However, most of them looked to the state to help remove the people. spent £15,000 in removing 1340 tenants. On the contrary, even if Sir John Benn-Walsh and Lady Carbery spent considerable sums of money, landlord

     Irish immigration to the United States of America

    1815- 1850 thesis written by Ms. Antsar A. Abed

    19 APRIL 1847

    In Killaloe 100 families, averaging 500 people, surrender their small holdings to the proprietor, Francis Spaight, in return for a free passage to Canada. The Jane Black sails with 500 passengers for Quebec. They are principally farm labourers from Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. The Heaths Bell sails this evening for New York with 105 passengers, ‘including several independent farmers with their families from the County Kerry’.

    Famine Diary Brendan O Cathoir

     

    CONCLUSION

    Francis Spaight was not the sort of landlord at tenant would need at any time particularly during a famine!

    It would seem therefore that the immigrants on the Adam Lodge may not have been tenants cleared by Francis Spaight. However the immigrants on the Sir Edward Parry arriving in Sydney may have been. I’m interested in that ship also as my McKeogh’s were on that ship.

    Peter

     

     

     

    Peter

    Friday 17th Apr 2020, 04:04AM
  • I am trying to find the Irish beginning of my grandmother Christina Adeline McKeough, NSW pioneer family. My Gt grandfather John McKeough and my GT Gt grdfather John Bernard Patrick Pendergast Reed Riley.

    A death certificate states a birth in Rush Island Limerick. Cant find this place.

    Meri Low

    Monday 19th Oct 2020, 12:15AM
  • Having read your posts I think a book I have written might help your research. 

    THE MCKEOGH FAMILY STORY

    NORTH TIPPERARY AND BEYOND

    BY MARY FITZGERALD 

    It traces the descendants of the McKeogh men who were living in the parishes of Ballina /Boher, Ballinahinch/Killoscully, and Newport/Birdhill when the 1664/1665 and 1666/1667 Hearth Money Rolls were compiled. It also includes a brief history of their ancestors. The writer is a descendant of both the McKeoghs of Labbadia Ballina and Grawn Ballinahinch. 

    It is available from: 

    Lettertecbookstore.com.

    The Book Shop Pearce Street Nenagh Co. Tipperary

    Stay safe 

    Mary

    Ms

    Thursday 22nd Jul 2021, 10:15AM

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