Mary Bridget MEER came from Paradise

[annmck]

Hello All!

Yesterday, after a search of years, I stumbled across the death notice of my gt gt grandmother, Mary Bridget Marshall, nee Meer, who died, as I now know, in NSW (Australia), on the 18 Sep 1912. Using the notice's information about her place of death I was able to trace a pic of her headstone, but it only shows her name, age and death date.
However, the death notice stated that she was "the relict of the late Joseph Marshall, in her 80th year, and was the eldest daughter of Patrick Meer, of Paradise, Co Clare.
Now then,
Paradise appears on a google map of Clare, but I wonder if it is a locality, in the general area of the house once occupied by the Henn family, or whether it refers to the actual  Paradise estate. Working out the relevant parish & townland for further research is a bit tricky from such a description of place of origin.
(The usual Irish websites look at me blankly when I enter Paradise!) er, no pun intended.
I'm also trying to work out if the Mary Meer "from Dysart", who arrived in NSW in July 1855, is my Mary; and if Patrick Meer(e), 30y, single male, & Ellen Meer(e) 28y single female, both from "Lisacasey (sic), Co Clare", who arrived in Aug 1863, are possible siblings of Mary Bridget. (No parents are listed for Mary, Patrick or Ellen.)
Would these locations be sufficiently close to Paradise to be plausible possibilities? (I have a photo of Mary B taken, about 1872, with her sister, who looks more like her identical twin, so they both came to Aus, but I don't know when...)
Any help gratefully accepted! Cheers

[shanew147]

the Paradise reference on Google maps seems to relate to a Paradise House, which was located in the townland of Ballynagard. The townland is located on the banks of the river Shannon and on the road between Ennis and Kildysart.

See : Ballynagard townland / Paradise House
(select either of the historic map options - 6" is c1840, 25" is c1890)


Shane

[shanew147]

Ballynagard is in the civil parish of Kilchrist (sometimes written Kilchreest) and there's a mentioned of Paradise House in the entry for this parish in Samuel Lewis's Topagraphical Directory of 1837 - see :

  Kilchrist civil parish, Co. Clare

The occupant of the house at that time seems to be a Thomas Arthur esq.

There's a townland named Liscasey located about 10km north west of Ballynagard.


Shane

[annmck]

Shane, great map, and very specific, thank you.

Ha, ha, you beat me to the draw!!

Is it likely to be in Kilchreest/Kilchrist RC parish, do you know? Or is Kilchrist the civil parish?

[annmck]

Oops, should have read the link before I replied so hastily.

Although, I'm still not quite clear about this; as Mary Bridget was RC, which parish record should I be researching for baptisms, marriages etc 

[shanew147]

Do you know that your Meer family were RC ?

p.s. check out the Clare resources & Links topic at the top of this boards if you have not already done so, particularly the link to Clare Library website.


Shane

[shanew147]

if they were RC then you may be a little early for church records - the RC parish named Kilchrist covers the civil parishes of Clondagad & Kilchreest, but baptism and marriage records only go back to 1846.

NLI film Pos. 2471 / LDS film 0926092


Shane

[annmck]

Shane, you're a mind reader; our posts keep crossing.

Yes, I checked the resources, but will do so again..it's very, very late, er, early here-2.41.am (slowest typist in the world)

& I'll also check out the NLI film.

thank you again, kind sir

[shanew147]

There's a Michael Meere entry on Tithe records dated 19th October 1825. Maybe Mary's father or relation ?

His location is given as the townland of Paradise, civil parish of Kilchreest. I dont see any listing for a townland named Paradise in Co. Clare on the townland  database at thecore.com/seanruad, which is based on an 1851 index.. maybe this townland was previously known as Paradise - after the estate/house..

Also listed is a surname you mentioned earlier - a Richard Henn   Esq. who based on his esquire status in the return, might the the occupant of Paradise house at the time...

see : Tithe records for the Parish of Kilchreest


Shane