Hugh Hough : Short Biography

Ó “Ag Cuardach Hughie” a ag aimsiú Hughie

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From “Looking for Hughie” to Finding Hughie

Ten years ago I wrote a little family history. It began like this;

“Is Americeánach mé ach ba Éireannach mo sinsear. Is Éireannach mo chroí. Go brónach, níl a aithne agam mo muintire hÉireannach. Ta’m ag cuardach mo sinsinseanathair.  Ta’m ag cuardach Hughie. (I am an American but my ancestors were Irish. My heart is Irish. Sadly, I don’t know my Irish family. I’m looking for my great-great-grandfather. I’m looking for Hughie.)

My father, Joseph Bernard Howe lived for seventy five years. Like Mark Twain, he rode in and out of this world on the tail of Haley’s Comet. As Mark was riding out in 1910, Joe was born in Philadelphia. His father Thomas Anthony Robert Howe lived for fifty two years. He was born in Shenandoah in eighteen sixty five. He worked as a miner, a teacher, and a machinist. His father Robert Joseph Howe lived for seventy four years. He was born in Ireland and immigrated to America in eighteen sixty five. His father Hughie Howe was born in Ireland in the early eighteen hundreds.

My father has looked. My brothers and sisters have looked. I have looked. We can’t seem to find Hughie. We aren’t sure of his exact name, first or last. We aren’t sure where in Ireland he was born, lived, or died. We don’t even know the name of his wife, mo sinsinseanmháthair (my great-great-grandmother). My father told me that his father told him, that his father told him, that our family name is actually Hough and it was changed at the time of immigration. Is that where the name Hughie came from? Was this fella actually named something like Seán Hough? Could he have been named Hughie Hough? Is that story about our family name true? Where in the murky records of early to mid1800’s Ireland could Hughie be hiding? Who was he? How did he live? Who did he love? How and when did he die? Where does he rest? It is important to me to know these things. In a progressively more accurate fashion, I can answer these questions for Robert, for Thomas, and for Joseph, and one day Connor and Kate will answer them for me. But Hughie, what a puzzle he is.”

The actual story of who Hughie is/was and how his son Robert, my great-grandfather, came to America is both sad and heartening. Through the efforts of many and the good fortune of recently expanded digitized records available on the Internet, Hughie and Robert have been found in mid-1800 Ireland working, struggling and for Robert, finally, leaving.

At one time or another all of my brothers and sisters helped my father look for Hughie but the lion’s share of the credit for this decades-long search goes to the two Joe’s, my father and my brother. They amassed a treasure trove of information on our family and did most of their investigations, of course with the help of Mom and Shirley, at a time when the ease of searching the web was not an option, especially for one’s Irish ancestors. It should also be said that most recently my daughter Kate deserves honorable mention for her help in searching out crucial details of the lives of these elusive folk. In the past few years, largely because of funding from the Irish government, a concerted effort has been made to visit parishes all around Ireland and record and digitize records into searchable databases. As a result, we have been able to identify our Hughie, his wife Mary and their son Robert and his wife Honora with surprisingly detailed information. Honora’s parents and her sister have also been uncovered, as has Robert’s sister, Bridget. 

Hugh Hough (my great-great-grandfather) was born in Ireland in 1814. He was very likely born in some proximity to Portumna, County Galway, in a place called Derryhiveney. The exact place and date of his birth is as yet unknown.  We first find Hughie listed in the Tithe Applotment Book in 1840. He is also documented in 1840 on the baptism certificate for his son Robert. This is in the Portumna Baptism Register and on this document we also learn the name Mary Burke, Hughie’s wife and Robert’s mother. The Catholic Parish of Portumna includes the civil parishes of Kilmalinoge and Lickmolassy, and was formerly two parishes called Parish of Kilmalinoge and the Parish of Lickmolassy. There are still chapels located in Lickmolassy and in the town of Portumna.   Portumna is very close to Derryhiveney, at a distance of four or five miles. Hugh is also listed in Griffith’s Valuation in 1856 still in Derryhiveney in Kilmalinoge Parish. Here he is scratching out a living renting a few acres of farmland.

On Sunday, March 7 (by report of Robert in documents here in America) in 1840, my great-grandfather Robert Hough was born, most likely in Derryhiveney. He was not baptized until June 12, 1840 indicating a delay due to illness or insolvency (lack of the baptismal fee!). In 1844, Hugh and Mary also had a daughter named Bridget. Bridget is listed by her maiden name on the death certificates of both Hugh (June 12, 1899) and Mary (May 30, 1904). She never married and stayed with her parents all their lives.

 A series of appearances in the Irish Petty Sessions Court from 1852 to 1862 helps track Hugh and his son Robert and paints a picture of their lives during this time.  Place names listed at this time include Derryhiveney, Co. Galway for Hugh and Robert and then Robert alone in Knockfierna and  in Ballingary Co. Limerick (not to be confused with Ballingary, Co. Tipperary).  The court sessions also provided one of the most important clues regarding Robert Hough’s life in Ireland and, subsequently, his leaving for Amerikay.

Robert Hough married Honora McCarthy in Ballingary, Co. Limerick. This is quite a distance from the Derryhiveney / Portumna area (about 60 miles) and typically such travel is not expected at this time in Irish history. Why then do we find Robert apparently so far from home? Here we look back to the court records.  In 1862 and 1863 Robert appears frequently as a Complainant (one bringing charges) in the court records. This led to the supposition that he was a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C.). A search for these records revealed that indeed Robert Hough from East Galway (right where he and Hugh had been living) joined the R.I.C. on November 14, 1859. He lists his age as 19 on the record.

Robert Hough’s first posting was in Ballingary, Co. Limerick. Constables were not posted in or near their hometowns.  Here he meets and marries Honora McCarthy on Friday, February 13, 1863. Honora was born in Rathmore, Co. Kerry which is another forty miles south of Ballingary. Her father was Demetri (Demetrius) McCarthy. Demetrius was the saint’s name given at baptism to children who were to be named Diarmaid or Dermot, a traditional Irish name for which there was no Catholic saint’s stamp of approval. Honora was named for her mother Honora Coffee McCarthy. She also left behind in Rathmore a sister, seven years her junior, named Catherine. The next record for this couple who won’t stay put is a birth certificate for a son Robert. This document  is clouded by a name for the mother of Mary instead of Honora, but the chances of two Robert Hough’s being married to two women with a surname of McCarthy in the low population town of Ballingary is equally suspect. It should be noted that a middle name of Mary was quite common with the given name Honora and that Robert’s mother was named Mary. At any rate the couple had a child baptized as Robert Hough on November 19, 1863, nine months and 6 days from their wedding date. Our family here in the U.S. has no record of this brother to Thomas my grandfather. It can be assumed that the child died before their coming to America.  A diligent search of Irish death records reveals nothing for this child. These records were initiated in 1864 so it is assumed that baby Robert died very early. Being born in November, he did not see the new year.  Sometime in late 1863 or the beginning of 1864 we learn that Robert is transferred to Belfast. This move would have been a very difficult one for a poor, rural, Catholic lad finding himself in a large mostly Protestant northern city. His accent, his manners, his beliefs would have made him a true outsider. It is not clear whether Honora made the move with him but either way, for a couple who had recently lost a child, all this would have been certainly very difficult.  On June 26, 1864, Robert resigns from the R.I.C. for the stated reason “to emigrate to America”.                  

On June 12, 1899, Hugh Hough dies in Portumna, Co. Galway and his wife Mary dies five years later May 30, 1904 in nearby Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary. Bridget Hough is now on her own and her brother Robert is mining coal in Shenandoah Pennsylvania. Honora Howe, at the age of fifty-eight, will pass away on January 4, 1804 and eleven years later, at the age of seventy-five, Robert will pass on March 20, 1915. They will leave behind five grown children. Their son Thomas and his wife Anna McCarthy Howe, have five daughters.  The youngest, Marie, is an infant. She will live but two years. By the time of Bridget’s death in Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary January 15, 1928, Thomas and Anna will have had six more children, one of them being Joseph Bernard, my father, and Thomas will also have passed away a little over ten years earlier on October 19, 1917. Their son Joe will meet, fall in love and become engaged to Fran Wiseley. Just eight months before they marry on June 24, 1931, Anna will pass away on October 13, 1930. June 24 is Joe’s birthday. October 13 is Fran’s birthday.