Looking for information: James Flood (born 1800 Wexford County) and Margaret Connors (born 1799 Wexford County)

Unfortunately none of the Catholic Parishes in the area around Ballycanew have records going back far enough to include a baptism of your James or any of his siblings. Ballycanew was a village and also the name of a civil parish, and in the 1830s it was part of the Catholic Parish Union of Camolin, baptism and marriage records for the parish go back to the 1850s.

The chapel for the parish was located in Camolin. The current church in the town of Camolin is at the same location and seems to have been built in 1855.

The c1840 OSI map shows a slightly smaller church at the same location.

Two of the adjacent parishes covered parts of the same area - Craanford and Ballyoughter, the first of these only has records going back to the 1870s, but Ballyoughter baptisms back to 1810 and marriages back to 1815, although both appear to have gaps.

A search of these three parishes baptisms of children with the surname Flood finds up two children, baptised John 1865 and William 1869 both to a Stephen Flood and Anne Cullen. Based on the corresponding civil birth records this Stephen Flood was a baker in the village of Ballycanew.

I didn’t find any Flood marriages in the registers for Camolin, Craanfield or Ballyoughter, and a wider search of the Catholic records available for Ireland did not show any promising matches for a marriage of James Flood and Margaret Connors.

There is a graveyard adjacent to the Catholic Church in Camolin, although like many parishes there are no records of death or burial recorded in the registers. There is also a very old graveyard just north-east (abt 3km) of the town of Camolin named Toome/Tomb, which contains ruins of a Church of Ireland church. The graveyard seems to have been shared by other denominations in the area - it's probably an old pre-reformation site. The grave yard is located off the main road the N11 - see attached map extract.

An entry for the civil parish and village of Ballcannew is included in Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of 1837 which provides some details of the area at that time.

Hi, I have no information about your ancestors, but I couldn't help but notice their emigration date of 1826 to Canada. My GGGrandparents (Andrew and Anastasia Redmond) and first 2 kids also emigrated in 1826--from Kilmuckridge which isn't terribly far from Ballycanew, winding up in Frampton, Quebec. I have no knowledge of their emigration or arrival port or ship's name, despite contacting the Canadian Archive folks. Good year for leaving middle County Wexford!

-Alice

Thank you Shanew 147 for your thorough reply. My mother in law will be thrilled with your help. She will likely take a stroll through the cemetary in Camolin just in case she finds something of interest.

It still seems a bit of a dead end - would you know how to look up the muster rolls for military pay and discharge information? I was poking around a bit last night and could not figure out how to do it. I found some records for other people and noted that they sometimes included a next of kin and address. This may give me a clue.

Not knowing the area at all, I also wonder if they would have boarded a ship in Wexford County to come to Canada/US. Maybe they were from somewhere else all together, but their place of departure was Wexford.

Another thought is maybe their last name was not Flood, but something similar. My husband's great grandparents were illiterate even after two generations in Canada. So perhaps their grandparents were too, or if they spoke Irish, would there have been a different word meaning Flood?

I am not quite ready to give up! Thanks agian for your help, Michelle

That is a neat coincidence Alice. Are you from Canada yourself? Frampton is just outside of Quebec City and there is a rich Irish-Canadian history in that province. - Michelle

When using ancestry.ca, I found another tree with James Flood (same dates, wife, and children) with a birthplace listed as Trevalyan, Wexford. I cannot find it on a map. Is Trevalyan also in Wexford county? 

On this tree, birthplace of parents (Bridget and Matthew) and siblings are apparently are in Clonoulty, South Tipperary. This seems quite a distance away, and I am not sure it is likely at that time, that one would have one child in a family born 140km away from the home of the rest. Also, the military records (57th Foot, first batallion) and an American place of residence for our James are incorrect on this tree. 

Do you have any thoughts?

Hello, I'm going to tell you how I found information about my 3 x great grandfather who was born in Enniscorthy, Wexford in 1771 and joined the British Army in 1799.  Firstly I want to say that I am surprised that James Flood joined the British Army with him being Catholic , my 3 x great grandfather was a Protestant. 

Enniscorthy was where the Battle of Vinegar Hill was during the 1798 rebellion and perhaps joining the British Army was either a way of getting out or just surviving.  Stephen Whitty, my 3 x great grandfather, first joined the Cumbrian Fencebles and then the British Army who at that time were fighting Napoleon.  Using Ancestry uk I have found records of him being stationed at many places. The Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900 shows him stationed there in 1802.  Also there are Muster Rolls and Royal Chelsea Pensioners, both on Ancestry uk. James may have been stationed in Canada and decided he wanted to live there.  Wives also were allowed to go with them to where they were stationed and at that time some men absconded.

It has taken me some years to find this information and more too pertaining to my family, starting with finding out Stephen was a soldier.  The trail took me to Lichfield England, Bath, Liverpool to Manchester where I live.  I have found that just a google search of name and regiment can find information that later down the line you may have better information to look for certificates. You may have to search a lot before you find the hidden gem that you need but it's worth it in the end.

Hope you what you are looking for and that the above may be of some help to you.  Regards Jill

Thank you for your response Jill. I will pursue the muster rolls and see what I can find. It sounds like it was a very difficult time in history. Your ancestor was a man at the time of the battle, mine was an infants and who knows what may have happened to his parents. Perhaps you are right, joining the army may have been a matter of survival. That may also explain why he left for Canada too. I am hoping that I find the muster rolls and learn next of kin, where stationed etc. Thank you for your help. I am hoping that ancestry.ca has the same kind of information as ancestry.uk

Hi, Michelle - You asked if I am Canadian. Nope. My GGGrandfather emigrated, and some of his offspring started the move south, which, for my direct family, went thru Maine to end in Massachusetts. They'd never imagine I'd end up in New Mexico!

As for the Enniscorthy and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, my theory is that my GGGfather's dad died in the battle. I found 3 siblings--the GGGfather and two more, the last born just 2 yrs before the battle, and later references to "The Wid[ow] Redmond." Tantalizing. Anyone know of a way to verify names of people involved in this battle?

Hello, Regarding Alice's question about verifying the names of people who died at the time of the Battle of Vinegar Hill, I have yet to find anything that does so.  Reading historical accounts I found references to 'Whitty who was killed on the bridge'.  This person my also be an ancestor of mine but I have nothing to back that up.  The Battle was in Enniscorthy where my 3 x great grandfather was born and he started his Army career a year after in 1799 and never went back! 

It does seem a shame and as you say tantalising but I imagine it must have been pure devastation at the time.  Another Google search I did brought up the fact that there is a Whitty Clan web page and I gleaned a lot of information from that.  Maybe there is something similar Flood, Redmond or Connors, who knows!

Best wishes for everyone's family search.

Regards Jill

History of St. James the Minor, Ballycanoe, Ontario:
from:http://www.stphilipstdenis.com/about.html
 
The community is known both as Ballycanoe and Trevelyan. It is west of County Road 5 between Ballycanoe and Caintown Roads, on the Catholic Church Road.
 
St. James the Minor Roman Catholic Church was the first and only Roman Catholic church in what is now known as Front of Yonge Township.  It was a large parish serving an area with boundaries from Lyn in the east to Lansdowne in the west, and included the Township of Rear of Yonge and Escort and south to the St. Lawrence River.

The first Mass celebrated in Ballycanoe took place in 1836 in the home of James Flood, an Irish immigrant who arrived in Ballycanoe in 1828. St. James the Minor Church was built in Ballycanoe in 1861, when the first Mass was celebrated in the new church on Christmas Day 1861. Rt. Rev. E.J. Hogan, Bishop of Kingston, consecrated the St. James Cemetery on July 13, 1869. The cemetery was in use in 1847, perhaps even before then. Ballycanoe became an independent parish in 1884, with Mass celebrated each Sunday and Holy Day by Rev. Fr. Wm. E. Walshe, then a curate at Brockville. The Rectory was completed on October 24, 1885, and on December 27th, 1885 Fr. Wm. E. Walshe was appointed the first pastor. 

St. James continued to be a major part of the community until the late 1960's.  By 1971, there were fewer than 23 families attending St. James. Sadly, the last regular Mass was celebrated on March 12, 1972. St. James Church was closed on March 15, 1972, but the cemetery continues to serve family and friends of St. James, Ballycanoe.
 
The Cemetery is located in Concession 4, Lot 24, in the Township of Front of Yonge, County of Leeds, in the Province of Ontario.
 

Thank you Ann, I have the same article and it goes on to say how the church in Canada was built from the limestone from James Flood’s property. It also gives information about his descendants.  My mother in law was in the area last week and took some pictures of the cemetery and church building. I am so curious about his early life. It seems that he, poof, just appeared in Canada.