McNamara or Moony (Muney) in Birr-Eglish-Croghan

Hello Randall and welcome to Ireland Reaching Out

https://www.eglishdrumcullen.com/ is the Parish Web site 

Thank you, Geraldine! I am travellling to Birr next month and would like your seggestion on where to go do conduct further research. Kind regards, Randall

Hello Randall

I will respond to your query next week as I am very busy for next few days. I am XO volunteer in neighbouring parish. Email address kilcolmanoffaly@irelandxo.com

Hello Randall

While I am from Co Offaly I am not familiar with that part of the County, so Margaret is going to help you

Thanks Margaret

Hello Randall

Have you any more information as to who your own ancestor is and the details that you know about them please?  If you are visiting Birr at a time when I am free to do so I will show you where Eglish graveyard is and possibly Clonoghill if your ancestors were also located in Birr.  You mention 2 James Mc Namaras one father of Anne baptised on 28.10.1836 and the other James who got married on 21.10.1838, do you know the connection between them?  

Kind regards

Margaret

Volunteer Kilcolman XO

Hi Margaret,

So grateful to you and the team for reaching out. That James is the same person, father of Anne and the husband of Mary. He also had wives Ellen Mooney (Miney/Muney/Meany) and another unknown wife. James and Thomas (Mack) McNamara were the children of John Francis McNamara and Hannah. That's as far back as I can go. Would be happy to search any clues in Birr from 3-7 June. Have have included research notes below. Many, many thanks, Randall

NOTES:

Anne McNamara, daughter of James McNamara and Ellen Mooney, baptized in the Catholic parish of Eglish, County Offaly, 23 October 1836. Sponsors were Patt Connors and Mary Connors. No townland of residence is given.

No marriage was found in Co. Offaly or nearby Co. Tipperary for James and Ellen, nor the baptisms of children John or Mary between 1830 and 1838; nor a (first)marriage for Thomas McNamara/Mack between 1835 and 1850. These may have occurred in a parish whose registers began AFTER that date. The registers of Birr parish began in 1838, and Eglish parish in 1819.

The death register for Eglish Catholic parish shows that Ellen Mack of Eaglais(Eglish) townland was buried 31 March 1838; no age or other information was given. She was the only Mack or McNamara listed in this death register during that period.

James McNamara married Mary Walsh, 21 October 1838 in the Catholic parish of Eglish, Kings County(now County Offaly). Witnesses were Thomas McNamara and Anne Duan.

An 1840 census of Eglish parish, in the parish registers, did not show James, John or Hannah Mack or McNamara.

Esther McNamara, daughter of James McNamara and Mary Walsh of Aughan or Croghan? townland, baptized 20 April 1840 in Birr and Loughkeen Catholic parish, County Offaly, sponsors John Fogarty and Anne Flanagan. This record is indexed as “Cather”, but by comparison with other “Catherines” in the register, which were usually written “Cath”, not “Cather”, and by comparison with an Esther Hugan(indexed as such)in 1839, this name definitely appears to be Esther, not Catherine.

The Valuation House Book for Loughkeen parish, taken about 1849(no exact date appears on the findmypast website)shows James Mack with a house in Croghan (measurements are given). It appears to have been next to the house of James Evans Esq.

A Mary Walsh also had a house at Croghan in 1849. However, Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland, completed for Loughkeen parish in 1850 or 1851, does not show any Macks/McNamaras in Croghan. Mary Walsh still had a house there(no land). The major landlords were James Fleetwood and the Earl of Rosse.

So, here we have a James McNamara, also known as James Mack, marrying first an Ellen Mooney, then marrying(if the same man)a Mary Walsh at the right time, and having a daughter(and apparently only child)with the unusual first name of ESTHER, at the right time for ours. Moreover, his marriage was witnessed by a Thomas McNamara, perhaps his brother and the same Thomas McNamara/Mack who settled in Liverpool, then in Essex County, Massachusetts.

James McNamara/Mack was living within the bounds of Eglish Catholic parish, Co. Offaly (which was comprised of the civil parishes of Eglish and Drumcullen)in 1836, and his first wife Ellen was apparently of Eglish townland, Eglish civil parish, when she died in 1838. James married second wife Mary in Eglish Catholic parish in 1838, but was not living in Eglish or Drumcullen civil parish on the 1840 census; they were instead at Croghan, Lougkeen civil parish, Co. Tipperary and Birr Catholic parish, when their daughter Esther was baptized in 1840. James appears at Croghan on the 1849 Valuation.

The 1828 Tithe Applotment Book for the civil parish of Loughkeen, County Tipperary, does not show any McNamaras or Macks, in Croghan or in any other townland.

The 1821 census for Birr parish actually survived the 1922 Public Record Office fire, but I do not see our Macks/McNamaras, or an Ellen/Eleanor Mooney of the right age, in the database on RootsIreland. A John McNamara, age 25, labourer, lived in Birr with wife Mary and children Rosa, Jane and Sally, but this was not the right family.

The 1824 Tithe Applotment Book for the parish of Shinrone, Co. Offaly shows a John Mack renting 5 acres from Charles Atkinson Esq. in the townland of Toura (Toora). Toora is about 12 miles south of Birr. Also, an unnamed McNamara shared 51 acres with Robert Lucas, renting from Lord Rosse and Col. Lloyd, in the townland of Kilballyskea, also in the parish of Shinrone. Kilballyskea is about 10 miles south of Birr. The Catholic parish registers of Shinrone did not begin until 1842.

The 1824 Tithe Applotment Book for the parish of Kilcolman, Co. Offaly shows a Francis McNamara renting 5 acres in the townland of Sharavogue. Thomas McNamara’s fourth marriage record called his father “Francis”, although all other records say “John”, and Thomas did name his eldest son Francis. Sharavogue is about 5 miles south of Birr.

The 1824 Tithe Applotment Book for the parish of Lorrha, County Tipperary, shows P. and Jo. McNamara in the townland of Redwood. Redwood is about 12 miles west of Birr.

It is quite possible that John McNamara/Mack, the father of James and Thomas, was a “cottier” who did not hold land(also, he may have died young since he only had the two sons at a time when large families were the norm). If so, he would not appear in the Tithe Applotment Books or on rent rolls.

Thomas Mack/McNamara, several years older than John, was born in Ireland ca. 1818. According to three of his four marriage records, his father was John(it was "Francis" on his fourth marriage record), and his mother's name, Hannah, appears only on his third marriage record). His surname was "Mack" on the 1851, 1855, 1860, and 1865 censuses, on his third and fourth marriage records, and on three of his children's' birth records; and "McNamara" on his second marriage record, on the 1870 and 1880 censuses, on two of his children's' birth records, and on his 1890 death record. Thomas was in Liverpool, England by 1851 when he appears on the census and married his second wife.

Hi Randall. There is quite an amount of information there. I hope to be home on 7th June at least. Please mail kilcolmanoffaly@irelandxo.com nearer your visit with details of where you are staying etc.
Margaret