Surname McGARRY and place name "Ahascreagh'

[Bryan1]

Is Ahascreagh a village/town in Longford?
I am searching my gg g'ps (Catherine FARRELL and Patrick LOGAN) and I found this connection in a shipping record to NSW, Australia:
Joseph McGARRY on the ship Lloyds from Galway in 1856, aged 5. "Native place' is noted as Ahascreagh. Noted his parents "born Longford, sibs elsewhere". (I can't as yet find a record of his parents). The 'relatives in the colony' noted seem to be my gg gp's.
There is some confusion in the record. The listing in the columns seems to suggest the my gg gp's were his parents. But that may be transcribing error.
I had been looking in Cty Down for my gg g'ps.
I guess I'm just asking  about 1) Ahascreagh and 2) the McGarry name - this boy would be born around 1851.
Thanks
Bryan

[leprechaun]

Hi Bryan. Ahascragh is in Co, Galway both Townland and Civil Parish. In the province of Connaught.
       The surname Mc Garry or Mac Garry was first found in the Province of Connaught.
       Hope this helps. Lep
                 

[Bryan1]

Hi lep
Thanks for that. Could you just explain "Townland"? Is the hierarchy: County, Province, then village/town etc?
Thanks
Bryan

[aghadowey]

See www.thecore.com/seanruad to find townlands and parishes anywhere in Ireland.

Townland, parish, barony, county, province.

A few bits to explain about townlands:
www.ulsterancestry.com/ulster_townlands_by_county.html
www.ulsterplacenames.org/land_division_in_ireland.htm
www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/topics/history/A738470.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townland

[leprechaun]

Aghadowey as given you afew websites to look at.
   The smallest official division used in Ireland is a Townland.Townlands can vary in size from a single acre or less to several thousands acres.
   There are 64,ooo townlands in Ireland.They were used as the smallest geographical unit in official records from the mid -eighteenth century on,were standarised after the Ordnance Survey in the 1830's and are still used today.
   Anything from five thirty townlands may be grouped together to form a civil Parish.The Parish's are a legacy of the middle ages, pe-dating the formation of counties with parish's of the Church of Ireland.But they should not be confused with Catholic Parish's,which are much larger.

 Today when Irish folk talk about Provinces they mean Leinster,Ulster, Munster and Connought. In acient times there were more than four each ruled by a King { boundaries}
 In modern times they have been associated with groups of specific counties but have no legal status.
                  Lep.

[Bryan1]

Hey..thanks lep and agha for all that info. I appreciate your time.
Bryan

[Christopher]

 Today when Irish folk talk about Provinces they mean Leinster,Ulster, Munster and Connought. In acient times there were more than four each ruled by a King { boundaries}
 In modern times they have been associated with groups of specific counties but have no legal status.
                  Lep.

Hi Lep,

I think there were five Provinces in the old days as the Irish word for the Provinces ... "cóiceda" ... means fifths. They were Ulster (Ulaid), Connacht, Munster (Mumu), Leinster (Lagin) and Meath (Mide).

The Provinces may have no legal status in this day and age but they mean quite a lot to followers of GAA, Golf, Irish Dance and Rugby. There may be other activities in which the Provinces compete against each other.

Christopher

[leprechaun]

 Hi Christopher,
  Originally there were five provinces but over the course of time the smallest Meath was absorbed into Leinster.
   And Yes they are today seen in a sporting context for Professional rugby teams etc and play under the name of the provinces.
                                             Lep.

[JohnMP]

Bryan - For what it's worth (in case the handwriting on the ship's list was hard to read or they just got the name wrong), in Co. Longford there are two townlands called Aghareagh: in Templemichael parish just W of Longford town (and there's one nearby called Aghareagh Bog) and in Street parish near the Westmeath border (Street parish is mostly in Co. Westmeath). As if that weren't confusing enough, in Colmcille parish is a townland called Aghagreagh, which is perhaps a little closer to "Ahascreagh". All of these have tended in the past to be spelled "Aughreagh" or "Aughreaugh"; my attention was drawn to them by an old Pennsylvania family memo which said that my g-g-grandfather came from "Aughreaugh".