McMahon, Farrelly, Garragan of Nobber, Meath

[Brien Bellwood]

Any further info on the following would send me into orbit!
My ancestors left Nobber in 1853 as assisted emigrants to New South Wales
James McMahon b: 1820 son of Michael McMahon & Mary Guardian
Catherine Farrelly (Farley?)  b: 1820 daughter of Timothy Farrelly & Mary Garragan
James and Catherine married in Nobber during 1838
son Michael McMahon b: 1839
daughter Mary McMahon b: 1841
daughter Ann McMahon b:1843
son Patrick McMahon b: 1846
son Thomas McMahon b: 1848
daughter Catherine McMahon b: 1851
Parents Michael & Mary were deceased at the time of their departure in 1853
Catherine Farrelly's parents were still alive residing in Nobber
I will be visiting Nobber in 2014 and would love to confirm details of this family.
Please help!  Cheers,
Brien

[shanew147]

Your McMahon family left Ireland about 10 years before the start of civil records, so you would have to check for church records of baptism etc. You appear to have years of marriage, and for the baptisms of the children already - have you already accessed films or transcripts of parish records?

two sources for property records that might be of interest the Tithe records, mainly cover agricultural land and date from 1820s/30s, and Griffith's valuation, which for Co. Meath dates from about 1854, so slightly after your McMahons left.

see : Introduction to Irish Records

I had a quick look for Timothy Farrelly on Griffith's to see if there was any sign of him to help narrow down a location but didn't see any listing for him in the town, or Civil parish of Nobber. They may have lived in a townland nearby and listed Nobber as the nearest town.

[GerryS]

Hi Brian,
As an aside I noted your "Farrelly (Farley?)". Locally around the area that part of Meath as far as I know, Farrelly is generally pronounced Farley, and often you found when Farrelly's emigrated (and also for some that didn't) the spelling changed to Farley (remembering that on the whole they would have been illiterate) and would be unable to correct any misspelling.
Hope this is helpful.
Gerry

[Brien Bellwood]

Firstly, thanks so much Gerry & Shane for your replies. I am learning something new everyday.
I was more helped by dates from the Australian end with records, ie. James & Catherine's death certificates which show age, parent's names, how long  in colony, at what aged married. Also listed was children's names and ages. I guess it's putting all these pieces together and backing up info with other bits.
Thanks about the "lost in translation" info as I was floundering for years even with a place name. My family told me "Norbik in Meath" which understandably I could never find. Then the ship's passenger list gave me "Norbur" another lost in translation which was meant to be Nobber. The ship's passenger list also gave me the McMahon's ages and that James was a farm labourer and had a brother Patrick already in the colony who was in fact their sponsor.
Ancestry has given me records of some of the McMahon kids corresponding birth years which match. Interesting that a couple of births are missing though.
No doubt I will have to  check parish records when I get there next year. They were all roman catholic.
Any clues on how the emigrating Irish, in my case from Meath, got themselves to Southampton to sail to Australia. It must have been difficult for this family of so many children (as young as 2) to make the journey.
Cheers guys and thanks again. I see if I can attach the Talvera's passenger list, if anyone is interested.
Brien

Moderator Note - please use extracts of images, rather than full pages

[meath999]

Hi Brien,
I am from County Meath, and lived in the Nobber area for a number of years but for all my adult life have been living in Dublin. However chasing up my own family roots have meant often dealing with Nobber RC Records among others. You will find a Microfilm of the Nobber RC church old record books in the National Library in Kildare Street, available free for you to search through. Its Reference number is P4183. It covers Births , Marriages and Deaths from approximately 1755 to 1865. The writing is sometimes very faint and hard to read, and I think some pages are missing but I had a quick half hour looking for your McMahon family and I can say I found their Marriage record on May 14th 1838 , Sponsors Tim Farrelly and Patt McMahon !! I also saw births of some of the children, Michael on March 20th 1839, Thomas on Dec 18th 1848 and Catherine on Aug 30th 1851.  When you come on your visit you will be able to look longer and more closely and you may well find the others as well, perhaps in the adjoining years as they are often a bit inaccurate.

As for tracking back any farther you should know that "Farrelly" and especially "McMahon" are fairly widespread names in that area and it will be difficult to which one is the ancestor.

As for spellings, you are also entering a time when in that area a large percentage of the RC   population in particular were Irish speaking and whenever some clerk had to write down their name he would write down what he thought it should be spelt as in English. Hence the various spellings you will come across.

I wish you luck with your search, and if I can be any further help I will be delighted to assist.   

[Brien Bellwood]

Hi meath999,
It astounds me the generosity of some people. This gesture was so kind of you, to take time out of your day to search records on my behalf. I really appreciate it and the excitement you provided was electric. Cheers mate!
I am so looking forward to visiting next year. To imagine what it would have been like for a no doubt poor farming family to get everyone to Australia. I wonder how they got information about assisted passage. I know James' brother was already in Australia and sponsored them. How they got to Southampton to set sail with children ranging form 2 years of age to 14.
Thanks again for your assistance and file numbers,etc. Slainte to you.

[meath999]

Hi Brien,
Glad to be of help. Relating to your question of "How the the family got there" , you will be aware that they were getting out at the time of the Famine, which was particularly hard hitting on farm labourers and small cottiers , many of whom were evicted from their homes and smallholdings at the time and had a very stark choice , try and emigrate or starve.

 Can I recommend in particular two articles in the "Atlas of the Great Irish Famine"  a very large, beautiful book, published by Cork University Press in 2012. One is by Thomas Keneally  headed "The Great Famine and Australia" and the other is by Jennifer Harrison headed "Ireland and Moreton Bay 1848-1851". Both articles deal with the various assisted passage schemes in some detail. However, as this book is a really very expensive reference volume, you may well want to search for it in a State or National Library.

Best of luck with your search.

[meath999]

AS a PS to my above reply, the State Library of New South Wales  in Sydney appear to have a copy of the "Atlas" available in the "State Reference Library" reading room in their building on Macquarie Street. Call reference #GQ 2013/458