McGowan or McNicholas

Sue:

I checked the subscription Roots Ireland and found a February 7 1861 marriage between Thomas McGowan and Biddy McNicholas (Biddy is a nickname for Bridget). The marriage was in Bohola church. (Civil registration of RC marriages and all births did not start until 1864.

Mary was baptized February 5 1863. Family lived in Treenduff which must be a local place name.

Michael baptized July 23 1865 (no civil record located)

Bridget baptized July 24 1870 See seventh record for civil record 

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_retur…

Thomas baptized September 8 1872   See fifth record for his civil birth record. His birth was registered late and they adjusted his date of birth to avoid paying a fine. Likely Thomas was born right before September 8th

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_retur…

I did not find a record for a Cecelia or an Agnes.

I will keep looking for more records. We have another volunteer, Kevin, who is very familar with the Bohola area and hopefully he will comment also.

Roger McDonnell

Sue:

Michael McGowan married Anne Jordan in February 1890. See first record

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_re…

Townland for Michael is Ballyglass which may be Treenduff.

1901 census for Michael and his in laws  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Mayo/Toorcananagh/Tooc…

This 1894 death record for a Thomas McGowan in Ballyglass may be the correct death record. Daughter Mary was informant.

See sixth record---https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

Roger

Hi, Sue.  I'm the Kevin whom Roger mentioned.  Ballyglass is actually a townland in the parish of Kilconduff, and is very close to the parish border with Bohola, and also close to the border with the parish of Killedan, which lies just to the south.  I have many relatives from the area where those three parishes come together.  If your Bridget McGowan married a Martin Davin, and died 6 Sep 1905 in St. Louis, then you and I are definitely related.  I'm not certain right now, but I believe that Bridget McGowan was an older first cousin of my grandfather, James Peter Gallagher, who grew up in that area.  I will check my records further to see what I can find.  Many of my grandfather's cousins ended up moving to St. Louis, although he moved to NYC.

I'm still not sure of the exact connection, but from what I; ve found so far, I think I may be related to both Bridget McGowan and her husband Martin.  In any case, here is some more info:

In case you don't already have it, I'm attaching a copy of the baptismal record for Mary McGowan, showing that she was baptized in Bohola parish, and that the family lived at Treenduff.  There is no townland of that name in Bohola, Killedan, or Kilconduff parishes now, but I located it on Google Earth, and am attaching a map showing where it was/is in relation to the towns of Bohola and Kiltimagh.  In some older records, place names were used which were not official townland names, but which were treated as such locally and are sometimes referred to as "sub-townlands".  In addition, some townland names and/or boundaries were changed at various times.  From what I can tell from the maps, I believe that Treenduff lies in what is now the townland of Toocananagh, about which you can see more info at this link:  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/gallen/bohola/toocananagh/toocananagh/ (the same townland mentioned above re the 1901 census).  That townland is very near the townlands where my known McNicholas relatives lived, in the townlands of Altbaun and Carrownteeaun (which is just across the border in Killedan parish).

In Griffith's Valuation (mid-1800's), there were a half dozen McNicholas tenants in Toocananagh, presumably all related to one another, and also three McGowan tenants. In addition to the 1901 census mentioned above, in the 1911 census there were several McNicholas families, and Michael and Ann McGowan appear again, with their children.  You can see those records at the Toocananagh site mentioned above.

In case you're interested, the Irish forms for Treenduff and Toocananagh would be Trian Dubh and Tuath Chanánach, respectively.  Trian Dubh means "black third [of a section of land]", and Tuath Chanánach appears to refer to what must once have been a community of lay priors ("canons") living in that area.  The parish name, Bohola, is Both Chomhla in Irish, and scholars say that it probably refers to a "hut of shelter” and not “Comhla’s hut”, as local lore sometimes says.

Bridget McGowan's baptismal record shows that the baptismal sponsors were Darby Kilgallon and Mary McNicholas.  There were a number of Mary McNicholas's in my family, so I'm not sure who she was, but there were Kilgallon's living in Toocananagh, and there were also some in the nearby townland of Treannagleragh (who intermarried with some McNicholas, King, and Gallagher relatives I have in that area).

The final document here is a map showing where Ballyglass is located, nearby over the border in Kilconduff parish.  Not sure why Michael and Thomas McGowan were shown in Ballyglass in the other records mentioned above, and there are no McGowan's (or McNicholas's) shown there in Griffith's Valuation or the 1901 census, although there's an elderly Mary McGowan (73) shown there in the 1911 census.  It's not very far away, though, and with the large number of people emigrating in that time period, they may have taken up farms in that area which became vacant.  Here's a link to more info about Ballyglass, in case you're interested:  https://www.townlands.ie/mayo/gallen/kilconduff/brackloon/ballyglass/

It's also possible that the Ballyglass in those records is yet another sub-townland name used locally.  Ballyglass is An Baile Glas in Irish, which can have several meanings, but in the context of a townland name it usually means "the green homestead", and that name has been used in many places around Ireland (there are more than 30 official townlands in Ireland named Ballyglass).

kevin45sfl

Kevin, thank you so much for all the information you sent me.  It will take time for me to process  everything.  I do know that Michael was my grandmother's brother and Thomas Mcgowan her father.   Bridget b. 1870 emmigrated to Chicago, Illinois when she was 23 and gave birth to my father in 1899.  I didn't find a marriage certificate, but I did  find a birth registration with a Peter Davis as the father.  Haven't found anything on him.  She eventually moved to St. Louis with my father.  I believe to be close to  her sisters.  

I am planning a trip to Ireland at the end of August.  I can't wait to visit your beautiful country and the birth place of my grandmother.  This has been a life long dream and now it's coming true. .I will be with my 2 grandkids Shannon and Kevin. We  will be staying in Dublin, but are planning day trips to Belfast and a visit to The Cliff of Mohr and Galway. 

I appreciate all the work you did gathering the information.  Sincerly, Sue Buzard

Sue Davis Buzard (email: suebuzard@yahoo.com).