Hello,
I'm doing some research into a Fleming family that lived in the vicinity of Brosna, Tooreencahill, townland of Barna, Reanasup, etc. A couple was married on 23 Jan 1868, in Kishkeam, Cork. The groom was Martin Fleming listed as son of John Fleming and residing at Barna in Kerry. The bride was Mary O Leary listed as the daughter of John O Leary and risiding at Tooreennagranna, Cork. Starting (to my knowledge) in 1870 and running to 1894 they had a series of children. In the civil registrations of these births the residence is listed as Commeenatagil and variations on that spelling. The descendants of this family consider the birthplace(s) to be Gneeveguilla. There is very little information on the internet relating to the placename Commeenatagil - but, for example, it shows up in some parish records and in a deed registration in the 1830's. I am looking to find what location does it tie to - is it an archaic name for some better documented townland? A sub-townland? An estate? This is a location that could tie together three DNA lines that I am researching (including my own).
Thank you in advance for any light anyone may shed on this.
Regards,
Patrick Murphy
Chicago, IL
padraigm
Friday 11th Nov 2022, 09:07PMMessage Board Replies
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Greetings Patrick to IrelandXO,
There are a few places which may be helpful.
https://paulmaccotter.com/irish-placenames-and-genealogy/
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55115988-that-place-we-call-home
I too looked it up and could not find anything on it. - did a Google Earth on Commeenatagil - see link https://earth.google.com/web/search/Commeenatagil+co+kerry+/@52.0629308…;
Good luck with your research
Phyl Volunteer ☘Clonpriest, IrelandXO Volunteer
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I can't tell you where Commeenatagil is/was, but I can provide some possibly useful info.
The Irish form of Commeenatagil would seem to be Coimín an tSeagail, meaning “rye commons” (an area where rye was grown, shared in common among several families, presumably). Interestingly, there's another townland in the same civil parish as Gneeveguilla (modern spelling Gneevgullia), called Knockataggle Beg, the Irish form of which is Cnoc an tSeagail Beag, meaning “little rye hill”. Commeenatagil could perhaps be (or have been) a sub-townland in Gneevgullia where rye was grown (or was once grown).
However, there's another possibility, if you start from the assumption that the family lived in or near Gneevgullia (and not Brosna, which is about 12 miles to the north of there). There is more info about the townland of Gneevgullia at the following link:
https://www.townlands.ie/kerry/magunihy/kilcummin/coom/gneevgullia/
Among the other bits of info at that site are links to info about the townlands adjoining Gneevgullia, one of which is Coom. The Irish form of Coom is An Com, which refers to a recess or hollow in a mountain. It occurred to me that Coimín an tSeagail might also be read as meaning "little rye hollow" [i.e., "little hollow where rye is/was grown"].
In any case, I noted from Google Maps that the parish church in Gneevgullia, Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church, has its own website, so you might contact them and ask about the name:
kevin45sfl
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Thankyou all for these replies. Some follow-up questions, comments:
Phyl Volunteer: Thank you for your help. I have come across Paul MacCotter's page previously. I'll try various spellings of Commeenatagil there (there are many spelling variations in the parish records that I found - of course). The Google Earth link did not work for me - it returned an error because I think the website engine at IXO abbreviated the URL you typed so it was corrupted. I went to Google Earth and input Commeenatagil and got a completely different location, Cloonametagh. Is that the result you got?
kevin45sfl: Thank you also for your help. I have no Irish language knowledge - though I like to exploit townlands.ie and then logainm.ie to learn about the placenames and their origins and meanings. I find that very helpful to understand the background of various places. So, thank you very much for interpreting Commeenatagil into possible Irish language forms. I do believe that will be very helpful. I did have my eye on the townland of Coom because it just had that feel of a possible shortened version of Commeenatagil - or at least something in common. Even better, however, may be the lead you provided to the parish church in Gneevgullia. I will definitely contact them and see what that may turn up.
Thanks again,
Patrick
padraigm
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Hi Patrick,
Yes, that is what I got too when I did the googlemaps. Also I did a little more digging and found the following:
Martin Fleming married Mary O’Leary in Kiskeame Church Kanturk Co Kerry on 23 January 1868. [ roots subscription website}
Children are:
Honora Fleming born 1872
Johanna 1873
Denis 1875
Mary 1878
Catherine 1884
Martin 1887
Gerald 1890 on the roots website it states the address as Cummeenatagil, Parish/District of Castleisland Co Kerry. Still with the variation of the spelling, I still could not find it on Googlemaps.
Also did a lookup on Census 1901 for the area and found nothing there either and on Ancestry the only one i found was your own one. If you are on Facebook, there is a Kiskeam Area FB page might be worth a query on that.
Good luck with your research.
Phyl Volunteer ☘Clonpriest, IrelandXO Volunteer
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Hi Patrick,
I too have searched for the elusive Cumeenataggle to no avail as yet. My two times Great grandmother was Mary Fleming, sister to your Martin. Parents were John Fleming and Nora Moynihan. They had eleven children according to notes my late father left but I don't have dates at this time.
In no particular order they were:Mary, Andrew, Catherine, Denis, Garret, James, Johanna, John, Martin, Nora and Margaret.
Meanwhile, I will continue to search for Cumeenataggle. I would dismiss Gneeveguilla though. I have a faint recollected that my grndmother once mentioned that her Flemings originally came from Kilcummin. I have no evidence for this. My Fleming branch remains to be investigated.
Lizssister
Lizssister
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Patrick,
Cumeenataggle was within the parish of Castleisland going by church records from the 1800s. The location of the townland remains to be identified though.
Lizssister
Lizssister
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Hello Patrick, I was interested in your query re Fleming families and connections to Commeenatagil. I believe the place you are looking for is in Castleisland parish (the Scartaglen part of). When stations were called out for the townlands of the parish In years gone by Commeenatagil and Barna were considered as one townland. There are very many examples of these subtownlands In many parts of this area in Kerry. If you look into census returns for Barna 1901, 1911 look first for e.d. Millbrook. There are many of the christian names mentioned in your replies coming down along the Fleming families in the census returns. Hopefully this may be of some assistance to you.
J.R.
JOHN P REIDY
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John Reidy,
Thank you for that information. I think it would make sense for Commeenatagil to be an alternate name for Barna - or part of Barna. The husband was listed as from Barna in the marriage registration. Also, an adjacent townland to Barna is Tooreencahill and there are definite associations for this family in that Townland. I have previously identified related individuals in Griffiths Valuation and plotted their locations on the 6-Inch Maps. I may look at that again and see if I can find any indications on the map(s). If Commeenatagil relates to barley, either as a “commons” for barley or hollow planted in barley, etc, there may be some map indications that might relate.Thanks again,
Patrickpadraigm