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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Offaly (Kings) => Topic started by: hazza on Wednesday 17 May 06 16:26 BST (UK)
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Hello Everyone,
I am from Australia and new to this, so please bare with me.
I visited Ireland in 2004. I had found some relatives, by accident ten years ago, and have been writing to them ever since. We went to meet them, and find as much family info as possible.
We were taken to the Croghan Hill Cemetery where my great, great grandparents, Christy and Mary (nee Moore) BEATTIE are buried.
On Sunday night here in Australia we watch a program on TV called 60 Minutes. There was a segment this week about some bodies that were found in Ireland (not sure when) but they were thousands of years old, and been found in the bogs. One body they called "OLD MAN CGOGHAN" The program showed a view looking down on the bogs, and also of old headstones. To me it looked very much like CROGHAN HILL. I was wondering if anyone knows if they were found at Croghan Hill.
Regards Hazel
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Sorry that should have read:
OLD MAN CROGHAN
Hazel
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Hi Hazel, it would appear you are right. Here is a link to the BBC report on Old Croghan Man. I hope it works.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4589638.stm
He was name after Croghan Hill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Croghan_Man
I was very pleased that you were able to visit the area and found your relatives' graves in the cemetery as I recently discovered, after searching for 4 years, that my family is from Croghan and I hope to visit this summer. My great great grandfather came over to Scotland and I hoping I might be able to find some graves, including those of his parents, when I go over. You might be able to give me some advice on this as I have been unable to find a site which details cemeteries in the area. Do you know of any in the area around Croghan which I could look in? I am assuming, from what you wrote, that there is an old cemetery at Croghan Hill itself. Do you know if there are any others in the area I could try? I would be very grateful for any advice you could give me so I am as fully prepared for my visit as possible.
Incidentally, my great great grandfather's father was the blacksmith at Kilcorbry, just north of Croghan, in 1850s.
If you can give me any other hints on the area which might help me those would be more than gratefully received also.
I hope you continue to have success with your family history.
Kind Regards
Lesley Gegan (Geoghegan)
PS, as Croghan seems to have been a smallish place, our ancestors probably knew each other. I live in a fairly small town in Scotland which is certainly bigger than Croghan and sometimes it seems everyone here knows each other!!!
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Hello Lesley,
Thank you so much for your reply. The link did work....it was an amazing report.
When my husband and I saw it on TV, I recognized the area straight away.....it made the hair stand up on the back of our necks. I was so intrigued with Croghan when we were there ...it was a beautiful place. Just to think we were actually there made the segment so interesting.
The Croghan Cemetery is now on privately owned farm land. People are allowed to visit, and the village have a yearly Cemetery Day where lots of families visit on the same day. Although we were with one of my relatives, Margaret Sherridan of Tyrellspass, I insisted we ask permission from the owner for us to go up. It is on a hill as the name suggests, and the view from there is magnificent. It is quite a task to get up to the cemetery, as there are cattle in the paddock, and the track up was fairly rough from the cattle and I guess the rain had worn gutters in the earth. BUT, I was determined I had to see where my ancestors were resting peacefully, and the trip up was well worth the effort I can assure.
The cemetery itself is not huge. It has a stone fence all the way around, a locked gate, but also a style to go up over the fence. There are some graves with headstones, some are readable, some are not. Unfortunately ours had no headstones, but Margaret knew where our great grandparents were buried.
There is also another cemetery down off the hill where Margaret's parents, grandparents, and baby brother are buried. It is a newer cemetery. I'm not sure of any others, but I could possibly find out.
I can't thank you enough for your help.
Regards,
Hazel
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Thanks so much for your help with that, Hazel.
I am used to trawlling old cemeteries here in Scotland but it's good to know that it's on private land so I shall definitely ask the owner. As my family were very poor, I suspect they may not even have headstones but I really want to try anyway. Nothing ventured....... The people I am looking for died at the end of the C19th, so I will be concentrating on the older graveyards. However, it would be interesting to see if there are any more recent graves which could be descendents who stayed in Ireland. I am hoping to get over this summer so fingers crossed.
Take care
Lesley
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Hi Lesley,
Just came across your message again regarding Croghan Hill. I remembered when I was looking for our relatives in Ireland, I had no idea if any would be still there or not. The family name was Beattie, so I wrote to the Beattie family at the old address. I had no reply, so decided to write to the postmaster at that address to see what would happen.
Unbeknown to me, there was family still there, but because of marriage, the name had changed. Anyway I received a letter back from the Post Office explaining this, and also names and addresses of our family. Our family had 2 girls living in Tyrellspass near Croghan, 1 man still living on the original property at Croghan and 1 girl in Dublin.
If I remember correctly there is a shop and Post Office at Croghan. If I were you, I would write to them regarding cemeteries in the area. It's a fascinating place, and definately worth a try.
I wrote to: The Post Master
Derryarkin
Rhode
Tullamore
Offaly
Ireland
Also I have a Question about Scotland for you. I have a member of our family MARY JANE HOLCOMBE born abt 1873 in Somerset England, who married a William Christie Farquharson, in Woolwich, Kent, England in 1897. William C Farquharson was supposed to have been born in Aberdeen, Scotland.
My problem is I can find Mary Jane Farquharson, married, with a son Charles Gordon, born 1899 in Woolwich, recorded on the 1901 census as visitors, at someone elses house.
But, I just cannot find her husband William Christie Farquharson. It definately records her as married NOT a widow. I'm wondering if maybe he went back to Scotland. Are there any Scottish Census records for 1901, if any publically accessable at all?
I must admitt I have seen the name FARQUHARSON spelt many different ways, but have exhausted all I can.
Would appreciate your help or advice if at all possible.
Regards,
Hazel
Australia.
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Hi Hazel, thanks so much for the advice and address re Croghan. I was trying to get over there this year but that will not be possible so I will definitely write and make enquiries for next year. Knowing where to look in advance will save a lot of time when I'm over there.
As for your missing Farquarson, have you tried ScotlandsPeople? They have all the censuses for Scotland online from 1841 to 1901, with images. You have to pay to search but it's not much and it's a goldmine. I don't have any credits at the mo but, if you have a rough birth year from the marriage cert, I will have a look the next time I'm searching, which will probably be soon. If you are searching, use soundex to get the spelling variations on the name and put in an age range, to narrow it down. I wouldn't just restrict yourself to Aberdeen area but try the whole of Scotland.
The site also has BD&M so you might find his death cert.
If you can give me rough dob and maybe parents I will have a look. Here is the site
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
Good luck
Lesley
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Hello Lesley,
Thanks for your message and your advice. I'm afraid I don't have anything else much on William Christie Farquharson. He seems to be a bit of a mystery man.
I applied for the death record of Honoria Holcombe (W C Farquharson's mother-in-law). She was my husband's g/grandmother. It had recorded on the record that, her daughter Mary Jane Farquharson was present at her death. Then I found the marriage particulars of Mary Jane Holcombe and William Christie Farquharson on the Free BMD site. I haven't yet applied for the certificate.
Will keep searching. Many thanks for your help, and good luck with your Croghan search. I was to go back this July, but my son & his wife are coming home from London for a wedding. So will go next year when they are back there and good and homesick again.
Will definately be going back to Croghan Cemetery. I think there is someone there who has the cemetery records as my rellies where going to ask about the exact position of our family graves.
If I find out any more I will let you know.
Regards and best wishes,
Hazel
Australia
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Hi Hazel
Hope you are well
Just to let you know I finally made it to Croghan and made it up the hill to the graveyard. I see what you mean about the hike through the fields and cows etc!!! We had horizontal sleet at the time in March so that was just superb as you can imagine, and I got caught on a barbed wire fence which cheered my boyfriend up immensely. Although the stones were so weathered they were illegible, it was very poignant. I did find a worked iron cross (you might have seen it) and, as my family were blacksmiths, that might have been theirs. I also discovered, on my return (typical!!) where the smithy used to be in the village and where my ggggrandfather's house was, by finding a site where it shows the old map of the area and the houses marked according to name in Griffiths Valuations. It turns out we sat at the crossroads where the smithy was for about 5 mins at one point trying to decide if we should go up the hill (in the wind and rain) and I didn't even realise we were sitting right where the forge used to be. Spooky!!! I only had a day in the area and was a bit rushed as my boyfriend isn't really interested in this so I must get back again on my own and chill out a bit more.
Hazel, I think you said that you thought there might be a record of where people are buried on the hill. You said your friends knew where the grave you were looking for was but that there might be some list or something?? I have managed to identify the name of the parish priest, who is based in Rhode, and was going to write to him to ask if there are any burial records but wondered if your friends knew anything. Any ideas?
Hope the rest of your research is going well.
Take care
Lesley
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Hi Hazel and Lesley,
Just happen to read your mail on roots today and delighted to see so many interested in Croghan. I live at the foot of the hill and well aware of the areas you write about. I'm also very interested in the Old Graveyard on the Hill as its special because my grandfather is buried here.
I have read the headstones over a number of years and have these recorded. I would still love to hear from people who think their ancestors may be buried in Croghan Hill Graveyard. I would like as much info on each person that you feel my be buried there.
Croghan Hill graveyard is probably one of the most important sites in Ireland as it was at this site that St Brigid received her veil from Bishop McCaille. His church is recorded as being located at this graveyard.
If your ancestor was buried here I would love to hear about it as most people had no headstone.
Regards,
Welcome Oliver.
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Hi,
I am a descendant of William Jollie (spelled Jolly/Jolley in Ireland) and Margaret Sadlier of Croghan, Killapogge, Roscommon County.
William was born about 1819 and Margaret was born 8 Aug 1841. William was married first to Annie. We don't know her maiden name.
Son James encouraged and helped his family members to immigrate to North Dakota where he was First Sergeant at Ft Totten and where he met his wife, Marie Belgarde, a member of the Turtle Mountain Tribe and who actually translated for Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at some point. James was a "Winner of the West" and had his own story to tell. Their story is a very interesting one and is kept alive today by family members in ND.
My own ancestor, his sister, came over with another sister at age 16 and made their way to ND while other family members made their way separately. The family did leave some members behind and certainly there must have been other relations who stayed behind.
Some family members have been to Croghan and seemed to have identified the family hearth--a small cottage. In fact, as of the last reunion, they told us that they saw a picture of William and Margaret still in the home! I would like to see this for myself.
We know that they leased property from Guy Lloyd, the major landowner in the area, but we do not know much else except they were probably members of the C of I.
We would love to find information that would lead us to William's family and Margaret's as well as the identity of Annie, the first spouse.
We know that twins Kate and Emma were born 7 May 1873 and were buried in the Croghan, Killapogge area as infants. Their births were registered in the Ballinameen Registrar's District.
Brothers George (b. 1857) and William (1855-1885) were in the English service and it's not known if they were buried near home. George died in service. William didn't fare much better.
We would love to know where these family members are buried as well.
The story of the Croghan Hill Cemetery prompted me to join this thread and add my two cents.
Hopefully, someone in the Croghan area itself will have other information to add as they read this.
Robert
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Hi Robert,
Good to see your message. There are a number of Croghan townlands in Ireland and it seems that you are writing about the one in Co Roscommon.
The Croghan Hill Cementry that I wrote about is located in Co. Offaly.
You family history story is interesting and hopefully someone in Roscommon will be able to help.
Regards
Oliver :)
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The Offaly County Council website states that a register for each cemetery must be kept near or, as close as possible to each cemetry, and only be updated by one person only.
Thus there must be a local register person for Croghan, and Birr Town Council have the responsibility for the cemeteries, and they can be contacted at birrtc[at]offalycoco.ie
and could provide the name of the Croghan register.
Jack
Moderator Comment: e-mail edited, to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please replace [at] with @
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Found these two weddings, but not to Mary Holcombe.
Australian and New Zealand Gazette; Sat. 4/7/1868
London, Middlesex, United Kingdom.
April 29th, at Christchurch, Mr. Willam Farquharson, late of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to Miss Jane Gillian, of Meghroney, Antrim, Ireland.
1862;
Charles, 3rd son of William Farquharson, late of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to Margaret, 2nd dtr of William Hanlon esq, Kilkenny Ireland.
Jack
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Thanks, Oliver.
My Jolley/Jolly query should obviously be ignored on this thread, which refers to Offaly.
Thanks for catching that.
Robert
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Hi Oliver,
I visited Groghan Hill Graveyard in the past few days as my great great grandfather John Nolan(1797-1872) is buried there. The position of the headstone is on entering the gate, it is in far right hand corner. It was erected by his wife Eliza Carlisle (1808-1882) in remembrance of John and their daughter Anne (1846-1871).
I would be very grateful if you had any more information on the text on headstone.
Thank you very much, maybe next time we could meet up.
Regards
Vincent