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Kildare / Grattan family in Kildare
« on: Saturday 30 October 10 21:13 BST (UK) »
We are American descendants of the Grattan family who lived at Drummin House in Carbury, County Kildare, Ireland (who were linked to the Irish politician Henry Grattan). According to Samuel Lewis's "A Topographical History of Ireland," the owner of Drummin House and the surrounding property in 1837 was a Richard Grattan, Esq., M.D. My mother's father's grandparents were named Angeline Allen Grattan and William Henry Grattan, both born in New York in the 1820s, but I believe their parents (my grandfather's great-grandparents), also named Grattan, emigrated from Ireland. I don't know their names or when or why they emigrated.
What I am interested in doing is tracing the members of the Grattan family who lived at Drummin in Carbury (near Edenderry) from the early 1800s to the 1920s, when I believe two old great (or great-great) aunts of my grandfather, with the surname Grattan (who stayed behind when the rest of the family left for America) willed the house to their physician, a Dr. Wheeler (who I believe lived at Johnstown House, about five miles away) and his family, instead of leaving it to my grandfather, Grattan Colley Dichman, and his brother, Ernest Dichman, as was originally intended. My grandfather, Grattan Dichman, an early US Navy aviator who was apparently too busy to pay much attention to what was happening to his ancestral home in Ireland, was killed in an air crash in California in 1924, leaving behind two young daughters, one of whom was my mother, Elizabeth Braxton Dichman.
In the early to mid 1960s, my parents stopped off in Carbury during a trip to Ireland, where they happened to meet Hubert and Pamela Potterton of Ardkill, who were well aware of the story of the Drummin inheritance. We remained friends with the Pottertons over the years, and in 1984, while studying in Ireland, I was invited to lunch with the De Courcy-Wheelers, descendants of the Dr. Wheeler who had served as physician to the Grattan sisters, at Drummin House. At the time, the De Courcy Wheelers were running a prosperous mushroom business and raising cattle on the property. Later that summer I met their only son, * De Courcy Wheeler, the current occupant of Drummin, who was then living and working in London. He is now living at Drummin (his sister Diana died about 10 years ago), but does not appear to be farming.
I am not interested in trying to claim ancestral rights to Drummin, but wonder if anyone knows what the full names of the Grattan sisters were, and which Grattans inhabited Drummin during the 100 years or so prior to their deaths. In other words, who owned or inhabited the house between 1837, when a Richard Grattan, M.D. lived there, until it passed to the Wheelers, I guess some time in the 1920s? When I met the De Courcy Wheelers in 1984, I made sketchy notes about the story, but these have disappeared, my parents have died, and now I am interested in finding out more about our ties to Ireland, Carbury, and Drummin House in particular. Does anyone have any information or know of any sources I could turn to to help me with my research?
Thanks very much,
C.B.D. Smith
* details of living person removed, as per Rootschat policy
What I am interested in doing is tracing the members of the Grattan family who lived at Drummin in Carbury (near Edenderry) from the early 1800s to the 1920s, when I believe two old great (or great-great) aunts of my grandfather, with the surname Grattan (who stayed behind when the rest of the family left for America) willed the house to their physician, a Dr. Wheeler (who I believe lived at Johnstown House, about five miles away) and his family, instead of leaving it to my grandfather, Grattan Colley Dichman, and his brother, Ernest Dichman, as was originally intended. My grandfather, Grattan Dichman, an early US Navy aviator who was apparently too busy to pay much attention to what was happening to his ancestral home in Ireland, was killed in an air crash in California in 1924, leaving behind two young daughters, one of whom was my mother, Elizabeth Braxton Dichman.
In the early to mid 1960s, my parents stopped off in Carbury during a trip to Ireland, where they happened to meet Hubert and Pamela Potterton of Ardkill, who were well aware of the story of the Drummin inheritance. We remained friends with the Pottertons over the years, and in 1984, while studying in Ireland, I was invited to lunch with the De Courcy-Wheelers, descendants of the Dr. Wheeler who had served as physician to the Grattan sisters, at Drummin House. At the time, the De Courcy Wheelers were running a prosperous mushroom business and raising cattle on the property. Later that summer I met their only son, * De Courcy Wheeler, the current occupant of Drummin, who was then living and working in London. He is now living at Drummin (his sister Diana died about 10 years ago), but does not appear to be farming.
I am not interested in trying to claim ancestral rights to Drummin, but wonder if anyone knows what the full names of the Grattan sisters were, and which Grattans inhabited Drummin during the 100 years or so prior to their deaths. In other words, who owned or inhabited the house between 1837, when a Richard Grattan, M.D. lived there, until it passed to the Wheelers, I guess some time in the 1920s? When I met the De Courcy Wheelers in 1984, I made sketchy notes about the story, but these have disappeared, my parents have died, and now I am interested in finding out more about our ties to Ireland, Carbury, and Drummin House in particular. Does anyone have any information or know of any sources I could turn to to help me with my research?
Thanks very much,
C.B.D. Smith
* details of living person removed, as per Rootschat policy