Searching for Fairfield descendants.

Hi Jaybee:

I will forward this query to a Wicklow volunteer who may have further information.  It may be also something that a local historical society can assist you with.  If you have any questions, please let me know at:  jhalloranryan@irelandxo.com

The above reply was spam and has been removed.  

All the best,

Jane

Hi Jane. Thank you for your reply and here's hoping something comes of it. I see you removed my reply to the   post by Best Coursework Writing. It makes no difference  but I think that their post could be a scam. Thanking you again. Jaybee.  

The surname Fairfield certainly does not seem to be Irish so most likely descends from people from Britain that ended up in Ireland as a result of general migration or maybe as part of one of the plantations, it’s not usually possible to trace individuals or families involved in these unless they were landed gentry or military. The surname was quite rare in Ireland in the mid 1800s with two main areas - county Down and County Wicklow around Aughrim where you found your Fairfields. At the time of the 1901 census most of the people with the surname in counties Antrim & Down are shown as Church of Ireland, smaller number Presbyterian and Catholic which could fit with English and Scottish ancestry. At the same time it appears that all the Dublin & Wicklow Fairfields were Roman Catholic.

There are three Fairfield households that I can see in the Bray area on the 1901 census :

A widow Mary with her son and daughter living at Green Park Road in Bray, the son is a labourer and mother and daughter housekeepers

The second household is a William Fairfield and his wife Bridget living in Oldconnaught, Little Bray, technically County Dublin, but close to Bray - William is shown as a labourer..

The third Fairfield household is Michael & Catherine Fairfield also at Oldconnaught with their son & two daughters, the father & son are shown as ‘Gardener, D. Servant’ - all except one of the daughters were born Dublin or County Dublin. Although they lived on the other side of Bray, it’s possible that Michael & his son worked at Kilruddery..

I found one other Fairfield link to the area, a marriage in 1886 in the Catholic Church at Bray of a Margaret Fairfield to a Thomas Giles - both full age and living at Kilruddery, he is a labourer, she is a servant, their fathers are James Giles a labourer & David Fairfield a gardener both deceased.

Is this couple your Fairfield connection to Kilruddery ?

I can see this couple with a number of children on the 1901 census living at Newtownvevay near Bray - Thomas is shown as a Gardener, he and Margaret both born County Wicklow most of their children are shown as born County Dublin. Based on births of the children it seems that the family lived for a time in the area near Dalkey and later Blackrock county Dublin. There should be some further details of these families available on the free IrishGenealogy website, which has Civil Birth, Marriage an Death records up to the privacy cut-offs - ~100 years for births, 75 for marriages and 50 for deaths.

You can add details of your Fairfield line to the Ancestors database, that way any others researching the same family lines can find the details and possibly make contact - see the  Ancestor Database

Thank you for that shanew147. Yes, they certainly were few and far between. John, William and Margaret are names that seemed to be pupullar in the family. I have found others, mostly spinsters or widows who died in the general Aughrim, Avoca and Rathdrum areas in the late 1800s. Some of those names were popular in the Bray connection. What I was looking at was the Lord Meath link between Coolatin and Kilruddery. It is possible that the original Fairfield moved from England or Northern Ireland to work on the Coolatin Estate. I would imagine that following the Coolatin clear out of tenants and more intensive farming taking place there might not have been a lot of work in that part of Wicklow which might explain them moving to Bray or South County Dublin. I certainly will explore that ancestry site that you refer to. Jaybee.