Matthew McElroy

Hello Judith,

welcome to the Ireland Reachiing Out site, I have searched the Roots Ireland subscription site and there are no Matthew McElroy's born in Ireland between 1785 and 1805, a lot of McElroys but no record of a Matthew, this would not be unusual at this remove in Irish records and we are relying on church records, that is why giving a religion assists, however while Roots has not a full collection it is as complete as the other subscription sites, there were about 15 birth records for McElroy in Louth in this period. 

I checked the site for Louth genealogical sources here http://jbhall.clahs.ie/index.html and see a Matthew McElroy labourer in 1809 in Dowdallshill, Newry Road Dundalk, and some in 1740 in Kilsaran about 5 miles south of Dundalk.

I looked up the convicts lists published by CLAHS (County Louth Archeaology Society) and see Matthew and 9 others were convicted in Dundalk and transported a couple of weeks later, convicted 28th December, and deported on the 18th January 1817. On the 30th October 1816 nearby to both the above places there was an attack on a landlords house in which the entire family and others were killed, subsequently a number of people were hanged, so huge unrest in this period and it is possible the convictions were related in some way, but as they were not hanged it is likely they were not involved. There is a book on it and a Netflix film plus a small piece on the above site. 

There is a Flax Growers list for 1796  and there is a Bryan McElroy in Kilsarnan on it, it proves nothing as the list is only of flax growers. You can see townlands of Ireland here by county. https://www.townlands.ie/

Sad to say it is difficult to get RC records for this period as a result of the Penal Laws, and a lot of Church of Ireland records were lost in the civil war in the burning of the public records office at the Four Courts, Dublin. 

Sorry there appear to be no further records, there is an outside chance the parents wrote a letter of clemency to the powers that be then and it would be on this site I think, however a lot f this stuff was also lost if it ever existed, given the parents would probably have had to get someone to write it. http://www.nationalarchives.ie/

The Louth archives are here and may have court reports but I doubt it, https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/services/archives/ 

There is a Louth Genealogy Facebook page, private group who may have some McElroy members if you want to check it out.

Sorry the news is not better,

Regards

Pat

Hello Pat, thanks for your reply to my enquiry, Matthew McElroy was sometimes called John or Michael when he was working in New South Wales, I have never found his burial date or his wife's Sarah burial date. I have a lot of records of his work on the Parramatta Roads in New South Wales, where he lived, spent time in prison about the same time as his wife Sarah and where they lived. The records of his prisonment in Dundalk his age and the time he travelled out here onboard the vessel Chapman, but finding his baptism and burial are a mystery would love help.