O'Brien Patterson Ditty of Lurgan

[aus73]

I've just joined and posting my interests:

Looking for the family of Joseph O'Brien and his wife Mary Ditty, both born early 1800s.

Their son Joseph O'Brien and his wife Margaret Patterson had their family in Lurgan and moved to Glasgow in the late 1870s.

The O'Briens were tenant farmers of Lord Lurgan (Charles Brownlow) and lived in the hamlets of Boconnel, Drumnakelly and Knockramer.  These were all part of the Brownlow Estate.  I have a book about the Brownlow Estate which mentions many leaseholders.  Look ups available.

Joseph was born c.1831, his brother William c.1834 in Armagh.

I suspect, although have not proved, that Joseph was related to Charles O'Brien and his wife Mary McAlindon.  Many of the tenants on the Brownlow Estate followed the O'Briens to Glasgow, i.e. the Cassidys, Haugheys.


cheers
Maz.

[Ken Austin]

Hi

I will have a look in my database for you to see if I can find any matches.

Can you throw any light on why Glasgow was such a popular destination for emigrants from Ireland. My ancestors went there too and they too were from farming stock. Which makes me wonder why they would be attracted to the big city.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Scotland had many natural resources that Ireland did not eg coal, iron ore etc, many of which were in the Glasgow area. So this lead to a huge increase in jobs there in the mid 1800s coinciding with the famine and decline in the rural linen industry in Ireland. Glasgow was very cheap and easy to get to (just an overnight ferry crossing, from Belfast to the Broomielaw, and with very low fares as there was a lot of competition on the route. Freight was the main earner and passengers were just seen as top-up revenue). It therefore meant you could easily make return trips home to the farm in Ireland for weddings, harvests and Christmas. You could also send children back to stay with the grandparents whilst both parents worked in Glasgow. Something not so easily done from say New York or Sydney.

The jobs in Glasgow were comparatively well paid if you consider that the alternative was subsistence farming, and there were also plenty of opportunities for paid employment for women, something that didn't exist in Ireland other than in the Belfast linen mills.

[Ken Austin]

Hi Elwyn

Many thanks for clearing that up for me. It was very interesting.

Ken

[aus73]

Hi
I think Elwyn answered your question admirably.  My family crossed the water to work in the shipyards of the Clyde.  Some of them worked on the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh, and some on the new railway system.  A lot of Irish people used to work seasonally in Scotland in the agriculture sector.

If you could come up with anything on O'Brien and Ditty in Northern Ireland, that would be fantastic.  Family oral tradition says that the O'Briens were originally from County Clare before they went to the north.

Many thanks
Maz

[sheenamac]

Hello there.  I've just returned to researching my Family Tree after a break (a fairly common occurrence) and I found your post.

Thomas Patterson and Maria Ferguson were my ggg grandparents.  I believe that their daughter Margaret married an O'Brien, their marriage being the first "mixed" marriage in the area.  My Patterson farmed on the Lurgan estate and I was luckily enough to visit the Brownlow Mansion in Lurgan earlier this year when I was on holidays from Australia.  Thomas Patterson (the son of Thomas and Maria) went to live in Scotland and lived in my hometown of Greenock in Renfrewshire.  It is possible therefore that the O'briens did too.  We're clearly related and I would love to communicate with you further.

Sheena