Ancestry.com has opened Morpeth Roll index and images just ahead of St. Patrick's day. These pages signed across Ireland in 1841 are sometimes without a stated location, but the R.C. Vicar of Castletownshend, Robert Troy, has signed a page and I was happy to see FOURTEEN Courtney names on the same page he signed. The Morpeth Roll had the following Courtneys, and I would be happy if Courtneys in this parish could tell me more about these families. The Courtney names appear on the page sometimes singly and sometimes in little groups amid the other parish names (sometime I should transcribe all he names for you?) For now I will list the Courtneys who signed: Michael Courtney; Daniel Courtney; John N. Courtney; then all together these three names: Den. Courtney, John Courtney, Tade Courtney; a little later Daniel Courtney; then these three names all one after another: Michael Courtney, Patrick Courtney, Daniel Courtney; another group of names together: Dons (Dens?) Courtney, John Courtney, Patrick Courtney, Timothy Courtney; and lastly amid other names, a Denis Courtney. In fact, ancestry.com's index of the Morpeth Roll has all 3 of the Denis Courtneys who signed in ireland were all in this parish page. I do not subscribe to the ancesry.com database but can use it at my library; and have only so far studied the one page. It is a roll of pages and the next page may have even more parish names! It is slow reading, and I only had the chance to see one page so far - five columns of tiny handwritten signatures on the one page. The "roll" is made out of these pages glued end to end and put onto a cloth and wrapped around a roll. A very interesting piece of history.
cgreen
Monday 11th Mar 2013, 01:02AMMessage Board Replies
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I should have added to my earlier note, my mother is the great-granddaughter of John Courtney born about 1822 in County Cork. I'll make this note more of a genealogical request. John Courtney and his older brother Denis Courtney both died in Illinois in 1867 of cholera. John had married in Iowa to Ellen O'Hea of Lislevane parish - we don't think they knew one another until meeting in the U.S. Ellen O'Hea Courtney died before John - after a childbirth. With both young parents dead, the Courtney orphans were too young to know much of their parents' history. We had very little U.S. records other than U.S. census and land purchase. We knew Ellen's Cork Catholic parish because John wrote in the family bible about her when she died; but he did not write his own parish. My great grandpa Michael Courtney believed his dad was from a part of Ireland somewhere near Skibbereen; and we found the tithes and Griffiths census substitute show the names John and Denis in Castlehaven parish area. Denis's U.S. naturalization paper just says "County Cork."
cgreen
Tuesday 12th Mar 2013, 06:29PM