My great great grandmother Rebecca Jackson was sentenced to seven years transportation on 1 January 1847 at the petty sessions court at Lifford in County Donegal. She was sentenced with three other members of her family: her father William, her younger brother William and Jane Steele (not known yet how she is related). But you ask how is this related to the title of my post?
Anne Jackson, yet another member of the family but still not proven how related, was also a member of the Jackson gang who had been stealing for many years in the Carrigans area of County Donegal. But on 1 January 1847, she turned on the gang and dobbed them in to the authorities.
Anne Jackson of Garsney??? and John Craig of Corneamble a(gainst) William Jackson the Elder and Jane Steel both of Garsney
Anne Jackson of Garsney and Anthony Gallagher of Ruskey? a(gainst) William Jackson the Elder, William Jackson the Younger, Rebecca Jackson, Jane Steele and Mary Jane Gallagher
Anne Jackson, Caldwell Motherwell of Monglass, sub constable James Love?, Nelly Jackson of St Johnston and Joseph Wray of Curry free? County Derry a(gainst) William Jackson the Elder, William Jackson the Younger, Rebecca Jackson, Jane Steele and Mary Jane Gallagher
Remember this is the time of the potato famine in Ireland, so was William and his family stealing just so they could eat and survive? What would happen to the rest of the family once they were convicted and sent to prison or transported to Van Diemens Land?
Anne Jackson very quickly found out that the remaining members of the Jackson family could turn against her. The following information found in the Donegal Outrage Papers at the National Archives of Ireland.
By May 1847, Mr McClintock and John Ferguson (from the Newtown Cunningham Petty Sessions) had sent a letter to the Under Secretary at Dublin Castle applying on her behalf for a passage for Anne and her two children to one of the colonies at Government expense. The reason for this request was she had been threatened with personal injury from other family members still in the county. Anne was a pauper, unprotected and had two children aged 10 and 6 to look after.
A month later, a reply came from the the Government Emigration Office in Londonderry.
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 22 Instance respecting the providing passage for Ann Jackson and her two children and to arrange for 5 pound to be paid her on arrival at the port of Quebec. Have received from H McMahon Esq fifteen pounds for the purpose of providing such passage and remitting the five pounds – I shall provide the passage and remit the pounds to the Emigration gent at Quebec.
By 4 May, Dr Douglas and his staff were ready for the ships arriving from Ireland. There was one steward, one orderly and one nurse as well as the doctor. They had 50 iron beds and lots of straw, ready to hold 200 cases for quarantine. The rest of the island was very marshy so not really suitable for extra tents to be erected to expand the quarantine station.
But by December 1847, Dr Douglas reports the following statistics:
inspected 442 vessels – mid May to mid December equals 7 months, therefore roughly 63 vessels per month or 2 vessels per day
8691 emigrants taken into the hospital, sheds and tents with typhus and or dysentery
95 smallpox cases and 25 other diseases
3238 dead: 1361 men, 969 women and 908 children
To read more about the conditions of ships and emigrants, check out this information from Padraic O’Laighin. More reading about the coffin ships and journey to Canada is found here.
In my research, I found a list of passengers booking for the ship Superior (570 tons Captain Mason) for Quebec 5th-16th July 1847. On board was Ann Jackson, Carrigans, Co. Donegal and children Mary Jane 13 years and Robert 9. Had Ann misreported the ages of her children as 10 and 6 in order to get more sympathy from Mr McClintock? Or is this not my Ann?
Looking at immigrants with surname of Jackson at Grosse Ile Quarantine Station 1832 – 1937, there is mention of chattels belonging to Ann Jackson, a deceased person. Her name is also included on the station memorial. There is no mention though of Mary Jane or Robert on these records. Did the children survive the journey and then adopted once they landed in Canada? I have not researched further on these two but do have some DNA matches on mum’s side in Canada whose trees go back to a Jackson surname.
As part of the UTAS diploma of family history, I wrote a couple of stories relating to Anne – one about Garshooey townland (is this the Garnsey mentioned in the cases above) and a fictional piece about Anne’s last day on Grosse Ile.
Readers: How are you coping with lockdown, quarantine or isolation during this time of Covid?
This week’s chat was run by those very knowledgeable about Irish land records particularly the Griffith Valuations. I have not used them yet, but now I am finding more Irish on my father’s line maybe the following will come in useful for future research.
For those who have not used GV or need some free tutorials, there are some excellent ones on YouTube and some specific to several Counties too
Griffith’s Valuations are/were a multilayered response to determine the rateable value of land and property to share the cost of the poor law support. It involved calculating the size, productivity and estimated rates on any property.
Critically, GV offers us an alternate insight into possible ancestral families during the mid 19th century especially given the absence of census records for that period. We will have to work a bit harder than we would with census data.
the key thing about GV from a #familyhistory POV is that it lists most land-occupying residents of the island of Ireland between 1847 to 1864…tenants and owners. It does not include whole families.
What I most want to know about Griffiths Valuations is whether the owner or renter of the property is named?
The occupier (renter) is named, and the person who rents the property to him/her is named, not always the owner
The immediate lessor is mentioned and then the person they rent to. The lessor may not be the absolute owner because they in turn may lease from higher up the chain. If you follow the overall links, and other sites, you can usually work it out.
For me Griffiths has been invaluable, it’s basically a mid-19th-century, head of household census, covering 70% of the population.
I found my 2xgreat grandfather on them and have used them to try and work out my rather unknown Ulster family, the one where I started with one person born in Castleblayney.
Griffith’s Primary Valuation of Ireland is the major part of a comprehensive land and property survey, for the purpose of levying taxes. I’ve found it indispensable in tracing my Irish families.
When I worked out my Riordan townland I used the mapping feature with Griffiths. I could go from the property number on an old map, to slide and work out where it fitted on a new map.
Exactly! Although it also works in reverse if you’re not too familiar with the geography.
It took quite a while with enlarging the map etc but eventually I could find it quickly with the curve on the roads.
There’s so much more to GV than a list of names: there’s revision lists (the amended valuations over time), maps, field and quarto books, tenure and house books (how I wish for these!). census.nationalarchives.ie/search/vob/hom…
a crucial thing for me is that they are limited for urban ancestors. I have found none of mine in it.
But you should still check it out, some of my Dublin city ancestors are listed, just not the ones who live it tenement houses.
Possibly because if they lived in tenements they were sub-tenants not the primary renter? I have had more luck with villages
I agree with @Rosiemonstre about GV’s limited used for urban areas, although occasionally this has been useful as it can demonstrate somewhere that has been urban for years wasn’t when the records started!
I watched a really informative webinar at ‘Ireland Reaching Out’ about Griffiths Valuations and Cancellation books … some time ago now. I think the link I posted may be a follow up article to that webinar
A1: The name listings by townland are informative but be aware that all those numbers and letters have significance. Here is one of my examples. Be aware there may be more than one entry if they had land and a house separately. #ANZAncestryTimepic.twitter.com/PIvwX3wz5R
My top tip for researching GV for your families is to learn your locations in depth. Where the townland is on a map, what parish or barony it is in. Look it up on a current map or on John Grenham’s website johngrenham.com/places/ or on townlands.ie
Field books are like Swahili to me. I haven’t a clue what they mean in terms of agricultural productivity though the assessable value suggests they weren’t great. Why couldn’t I have had tenure books instead?
I have found GV useful seeing families living near each other, hence helping explaining the subsequent marriages
And witnesses to events, or perhaps a joint inheritance of land due to sharing an ancestor. Proving it is of course another problem!
How have you verified that you’ve found the right family on the GV? Do you compare and consult other record sources as well as the GV?
Try to accumulate as much information on your family before you turn to Ireland eg parents’ names, and maybe siblings’ names. This helps to “triangulate” your data and narrow down the options. An unusual name helps too 😉
Cities can be a pain in which to research in many ways. I never trusted the 1851 Dublin census was my bloke until I matched it up with church records.
There are revision lists for the GV currently only online for Nth Ireland through PRONI or for the whole country via Family Search. Latter is in black and white. You need to search by keyword not place. Fingers crossed the digital images are coming!
I believe there is a plan to put the revision books online eventually. They have been slowly computerising them
Always need to cross reference with other records and FAN network, and follow the land holdings through the Cancelled Land/Revision books, to verify you have the right family.
Hopefully the parish registers may overlap with the timeline for the GV – this will help you confirm the correct townland and lead you to the right person on the GV.
Beware! when I started genealogy, I knew where our ancestral home was (we lived there) but the map did not correspond with my ancestor on Griffiths. Properties were renumbered over time, and the attached map was from a later date than the published valuation
That’s a great tip Dara! I’ve been looking at FMP maps and Ask About Ireland maps today – it gets confusing and you really need to understand the geography and location, don’t you.
My understanding is that the numbers and boundaries drawn on the attached maps date to the 1880s and will correspond to the Valuation Revisions of that date, though the maps used are earlier OS ones, so mightn’t include recent buildings. Can anyone confirm?
I thought it was the maps and numbers corresponding to later revisions than the primary valuation.
My reading of the @findmypast GV maps suggests no tenancy numbers. I need to re-read my Reilly.
My understanding (may or not be correct) is that the maps on @findmypast are the originals used by the surveyors. Happy to be corrected if wrong.
Yes, I think so too. The ones on askaboutireland don’t match.
One of my first stops in Dublin is usually to the Valuation Office to follow up more info from the Revision lists…they’re gold!
The marriage record for my great grandma gave her father’s name and occupation. Also found him in Slater’s Directory. Then we found her brother, same name and occupation. Gradually got six siblings.
That’s really cool Margaret. I had the parents + siblings which helped confirm I was on the right track. #Irishfamilyhistory requires mental gymnastics and perseverance.
Mine seem to go to and from Scotland – and every generation some seem to emigrate to the USA. Thousands of DNA matches back to Ulster. Well before GV.
I think there was more seasonal migration than we anticipate as well as permanent. And international migration was a constant among those with enough cash to fund it. They then supported those at home. Fascinating!
Ulster migrants went every year to Scotland for work & then came home – up to relatively recent times.
A2: Maps for GV can be confusing and challenging. This is why you need to be familiar with the location and use the slider for modern to historical map image on Ask about Ireland. The @findmypast are supposed to be the earliest – but can be the most confusing. #ANZAncestryTimepic.twitter.com/6AeRK6xqIv
When using the Valuation prep books, be aware that they often measured in Irish acres and then converted to standard for the published results.
I had planned to visit Ireland last year and a volunteer from @IrelandXO was going to take me to where the land was
We were really lucky when the relieving parish priest took us to meet a relative as he had a different surname but the priest was right. We’d bonded over lives in a missionary country. The GV revisions, and a chat with the bloke confirmed it.
What websites are available to search the GV? What are their benefits or weaknesses?
The most commonly used one is probably Ask About Ireland. askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valua… Downside is it can be temperamental and clunky and for the maps you need to know where you’re looking. Upside: use the books option and the slider for variations.
Revision lists enable you to follow the inheritance pattern for a property and lead you perhaps to a cousin today, give clues to approx dates of deaths of ancestors, or who inherited the land – possibly not the eldest son as you might think.
Ah, I only use the ‘askaboutrieland’ ones as FindMyPast doesn’t include maps for the six counties in Northern Ireland, and that’s what I was referring to. So you could well be correct!
I don’t use Roots Ireland except when I need to. You need to be sure you check what they have compared to others. Grenham’s site is good for this sort of comparison.
Can you recommend any books/blogs/websites to learn more about the GV and associated records?
My absolute favourite book for GV research is James Reilly’s book which can be found via Googling.”Richard Griffith and his valuations of Ireland” amazon.com.au/Richard-Griffi… If you can’t beg, borrow or steal it, read this pdf file. leitrim-roscommon.com/GRIFFITH/Griff…
Even though we are an ancestry chat for Australia and New Zealand, we also have genealogists from other countries join us each week. Tonight, some of our regular chatters were there from Ireland. They gave us lots of hints, tips, websites etc to help with our Irish research. Many thanks to Tara, Claire, Dara, Claire
Only two questions this week in the twitterchat.
What are your top tips for a beginner searching their Irish genealogy?
What roadblocks have you encountered in your Irish research? What strategies have you used to overcome them?
If you can trace your Irish Ancestors back to a rural area, then townlands.ie is going to be really helpful along with Shane’s site. Look for land records (Griffiths and Tithes) and pay attention to the maps that accompany them neighbours/kin
The government in Ireland have also created a website with links to many records. Also on this site is a link to the National Archives of Ireland workbook for researching your Irish ancestors. While visiting this government website check out the other links at the top navigation going to useful links as well as help for research.
Shane Wilson has a fantastic website including historic maps, townland info, directories. Check out the dropdown menu on the left as well as the articles on the right side.
Putting in the term Irish in the search at RootsTechConnect brings up many videos to watch.
Carmel suggests the following YouTube channels she finds useful Genealogical Society of Ireland, John Grenham, PRONI online, FndmyPast Ireland and Genetic Genealogy Ireland
Now for the hints and tips, brickwalls and mysteries mentioned in the chat tonight relating to our own personal Irish research
Jenny: collaborate – send a polite email or message giving enough info to demonstrate you are a relative & you may stumble on a treasure trove – I did for my convict John Madden & I always share documents etc if contacted
Pauleen: Just checked. The Irish Newspaper Archives is available free with your #NLA library card (National Library Australia)
Dara: Records of a sibling (identified through DNA) in Australia, confirmed my GG-grandmother’s parents, Not confirmed in Irish records.
Pauleen: The University of Limerick were very helpful to me
Tara: It’s worth checking @irishmanuscript too for sources especially early wills and sometimes just a random google search will strike gold. I discovered my grandfather is mentioned in an academic article based on an oral history with a neighbour.
Tara: Also check academic thesis and local histories – you never know what you’ll discover. Some family members of mine are mentioned in a thesis about tenants and land agents in a particular parish
Tara: Most Irish universities publish theses on their websites – not easy to search direct from the college site in my experience but google search picks them up. I will often put in e.g. Parish + Surname
Pauleen: I got great help from the local historian and he gave permission for me to use his thesis. Similarly for an Aussie one. ….always with recognition and citing.
Sophie: Name variants so important. Any time there’s a new personal/place name in my tree, I try to write down a list of possible variants & how they interact with typical wildcard searches – definitely improves search success!
Sue: I bought The Great Irish Famine part of the Thomas Davis lecture series when I was travelling around Ireland to get background. Lots of sources throughout the different essays
Pauleen: “Triangulating” the names of siblings with location helps to ensure that you have the right family. #DNA triangulation offers further proof.
Angela: Not a brick wall as such, but discovered descendants of a grand aunt who went to USA in 1922 and disappeared
ANZ: That’s fantastic. A local historian referred to that as “bringing them home”.
Sharn: I am lucky that my grandmother told me about the place where she grew up as well as names of cousins still in Ireland. My Mary Kelly arrived who knows when from who know where is a different matter
ANZ: Timelines can be a useful strategy to find gaps in your research and where else you might look. It’s easy to miss things!
ANZ: JSTOR is excellent for the context of the times and place. Available through National Library of Australia with an NLA card.
Pauleen: IF you know your ancestor’s townland, follow through who inherited the land using the Valuation Books. They may have the missing piece you need, letters or photos
Angela: Sadly not online for the republic. Northern Ireland has theirs digitized
Maggie: And Northern Irish ones (Revision books) available online via PRONI
Angela: One of the most important things to know about your Irish ancestors is their religion so you know where to look for record
Dara: The biggest road block in my research is when the document trail runs out!!! DNA is providing some useful avenues for further research.
Claire: consider the different spellings of the surname & the Irish version. Spelling was much more fluid in the past. @johngrenham has a good variant checker or you can go old school with The Surnames of Ireland by MacLysaght.
Sharn: This is a good tip. I couldn’t find an ancestor named Mary Ann Couple but when I searched under CUPPLES I found the family. DNA matches have shown me where they wee from
Claire: Also try thinking phonetically and what rhymes. Looney/Mooney/Cooney/Rooney are totally different names but easy mistranscriptions.
Helen: I had this with Kinsella/Kinchler/Kinsala
Sharn: I have a family fortune to claim for a son in law if I can just locate a marriage record for a couple from Sligo who eloped…. surname O’Rourke/ Rourke/ Rorke sigh
Sue: If your Irish family gets in lots of trouble, make sure to check out the Outrage papers for your county at Irish archives in Dublin if you ever visit. Apparently they are online at FMP as well now
Pauleen: Yes, they’re gold! Also the petty sessions records and news reports via FMP can be good clues to find them
Shauna: I found some of mine in court of petty session records on FMP – he liked drinking! Something he did out here too.
Tara: I’d agree with you about FMP (Find My Past) for IrishGenealogy but not about the newspapers – the selection is different on both sites and for 20th C ancestors INA (Irish Newspaper Archives) is much better.
Tara: I’m often struck by #Genealogy chats for places like USA, NZ, Australia -minutiae were recorded, like family visits/vacations. You will not get that in Irish 19-20C papers unless for gentry/nobility. Occasionally you’ll get reports of returned migrant
Claire: I wonder why though? Emigrant communities still developing & sharing news to find commonality whereas Irish ones already bedded in and everyone knew everyone’s business without needing a paper.
Tara: Yes, that’s what I think too Claire. People’s lives were far more closely intertwined so no need to announce it. I do wonder if there might have been a “modesty” factor too
Pauleen: And they knew the family stories to some extent – at least locally, but I was told in my place of interest that no one left the village for Australia. I’ve found over 1200 emigrants. At the risk of causing a fight, I think the emigrants to Australia were sometimes “written off”.
Helen: I’m fascinated by the missing friends notices. Sometimes people are trying to locate family/friends who left Ireland/UK more than ten year ago. Imagine that not knowing for so long.
Shauna: That reminds me I have seen lots of missing friends adverts in police gazettes and they often give detailed places of birth
Claire: I actually discovered one of my families had emigrated via one. It’s going to be the subject of my #StPatricksDay newsletter.
Tara: In late 19thC and especially 20th C Irish newspapers you will start to see detailed accounts of *some* funerals. Just bear in mind that not every “cousin/relative” mentioned is a blood cousin/relative.
Helen: I do look for siblings. I’ve done some research for others who wanted a focus on the ‘main’ line, but the FAN is important!
Sharn: I have found obituaries for Irish in Australia in Irish newspapers to let the folk at home know of the death
Carmel: Currently finding some great Irish resources in the AJCP but you’ll have to wait for letter I on 10 April in A-Z blog posts
Pauleen: Don’t just search for your ancestor’s direct event in the parish registers – look for them as witnesses too. That combined with DNA helped confirm a family relationship for my 3xgt grandmother
Dara: I often transcribe details of all baptism/marriages for a family unit in a spreadsheet, noting all the witnesses, addresses, etc, then investigate these details further, and build an extended family picture. Amazing what you learn.
Claire: Sometimes presenting information you have in a new format gives you ideas for other angles of research
ANZ: One of the reasons why I like writing up my discoveries in blog posts. Also serves as a future reference library 😉
Claire: I’m up to 3 significant breakthroughs with DNA. One led to a discovery of English ancestors. Gg grandfather came from Liverpool to Dublin.
SOPS: I have no known Irish ancestry myself. Of course, there’s always the potential that once a parish or townland of origin for Irish ancestors has been found, a #OnePlaceStudy of that place might prove useful!
Shauna: I have Irish families from Islandmagee just north of Belfast
Tara: The other site that I really would recommend is @IrelandXO Especially if you can only make it back to the county or parish of origin. There are local volunteers always willing to do look-ups and in some cases take photos of ancestral photos/graves
Shauna: A big roadblock was no parish records for my ancestor’s parish in Wicklow for the time he was born. So I haven’t been able to prove his parents so far but I may have found some of his siblings. A work in progress
Margaret: My most recent known ancestor had left by about 1841. Finding anything is very difficult.
Pauleen: So much depends on what survives doesn’t it? Parish registers in a leaky barn with the mice, restrictions on Catholicism etc
Claire: Yes, a lot of parishes only get going with records in the 1820s-30s
Sue: Roadblock was just the county name, no towns or anything but found a bit more in the Irish Australia Transportation database – brother, father and another relative all same conviction
Pauleen: sibling’s certificates, oral history, distant cousins info, have all helped with my #irishgenealogy.
Sharn: newspapers can be a wonderful source of information about Irish ancestors especially if they were in trouble with the law.
Pauleen: We need to remember that pre-1922 records we need may be in UK (or later if estate records).
Hilary: if you have someone who was in the British army and born in Ireland check out their military and pension records if they exist it may help with clues
Claire: This even works when you are already Irish! Gg grandfather’s place of birth identified from his military record. Had to get from the UK national archives.
ANZ: Great tip – a lot of Irish became policemen in Australia so maybe check out police records here too
Pauleen: Also check out @johngrenham‘s blog and site for what’s available in your parish and compare which of the paid sites have the relevant records you want.
Pauleen: if you know your ancestor had siblings here as well, it’s worth getting their certificates to compare what’s recorded on both.
Shauna: my top tip would be to buy as many Australian certificates as you can for an Irish ancestor including their children’s birth certificates. They may have given slightly different place names/spellings for each child. Might help to pin down location in Ireland
Sue: Read relevant blogs, watch videos from webinars and seminars from different sites eg Legacy, Ancestry etc relating to Irish records, townlands etc
Pauleen: is there an elderly person who might have the oral history about your #irishgenealogy? Be aware some content may be inaccurate so you need to follow it up eg they didn’t come from Cork. 😉🙂
Tara: Also bear in mind that many placenames are not unique. Bishopstown in Cork and Westmeath. Killyon in Offaly and Westmeath, etc etc There is a problem with Ancestry’s algorithm and it will reset to best known one
Helen: It is also a bit frustrating that everyone was called Bridget, Ellen, Michael, Patrick, Martin and Catherine!!!!
Tara: But sometimes you’ll start to see patterns A bunch of men in a parish with the same surname name their oldest sons Martin
Sharn: I only discovered the real name after writing a blog about so many variations of spellings. A family member from Ireland living in Spain read the blog and set me right
Shauna: mine was Bailieborough in Cavan and I had over a dozen different variants before I located it. Then found their baptisms in the church records!
Sharn: I am lucky that one side of my Irish comes from convicts as the convict records clearly state where they were from
Sue: Know which religion is where in Ireland and what records are available for each and where they are held
Sue: read up on Irish history to know when Scots went over there etc and what events happened when the Irish migrated
Pauleen: Don’t forget to check out the #familysearch wiki to see what’s available once you know “your” parish
Shauna: I have trawled this Irish BDMs site irishgenealogy.ie for as many free certificates as I can locate for my surnames in the areas they were in. Trying to reconstruct families in local communities
Fran: The Caloundra Ireland Special Interest Group hangs out every month on Zoom now so if your local group does not have an Irish SIG it would be possible to join another society. Same applies to any topic
Maggie: Very useful to spend time understanding land divisions in Ireland, for example, the difference between a civil parish and a RC parish. Claire Santry’s site is a great resource for all things Irish genealogy-wise!
Pauleen: Research widely and deeply in Down Under records until you find your immigrant’s parish, or preferably, townland.
Tara: Also, if you don’t know where in Ireland your ancestors came from, don’t assume that they came from the place where that surname was popular. People migrated around Ireland quite a bit for various reasons and settled in new counties
Sharn: Check marriages of all known children and relatives of your Irish descendants in the hope one names the homeplace
Sue: Upload GEDmatch numbers to the Irish county Facebook groups that have the matching tool for each county you might have ancestors in
Hilary: As with any research create a research log and write down what you already know and where you found it
Tara: We are very lucky in Ireland to have free access to so many records but newspapers are not one of them.
Sue: Don’t give up, the records are there, they weren’t all burnt in that fire
Jennifer: My Irish family so far are Boyles in Donegal and Calnan in Kilkenny. Have only done the Australian research. Need to start on the Irish beginnings
Helen: Throwing my Irish ancestry out there in case #ANZAncestryTime – Cahill (Carlow), Nolan (Clare), Shanahan, Kennedy, McCabe, Tookey, Dooley, Burke, Erwin, Kinsella, Gilmore, Feney, Hurley (not sure yet), McCormack (Belfast/convict)
Pauleen: My Irish ancestors’ names and places: O’Brien (Co Clare), Callaghan (Courtown, Wex), Furlong (Tullamore, Offaly/Kings), Gavin (Dublin and Kildare), Murphy (Wicklow and Dublin), Sherry (it’s a mystery!!)
Sue: Jackson in Donegal and McCrewney? Newry Parish, Down, NI and possibly Somers (Summers) in Wexford and Cullen in Wexford
