Rooney's Beware - I'm After You

[Half Pint]

Hi

I'm new to the Irish boards so please be patient with me..........

As this is the festive season and brains stop working (well mine does), does anyone want an easy search!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Inbetween 1854-56 my 3 x gr grandparents James and Elizabeth came over from somewhere in Ireland to Whitehaven (Cumberland).  They brought over with them their two daughters, Leticia and Rosannah Amanda.

James worked as an iron ore miner whilst over here and Elizabeths maiden name appears to be Taylor.

Could anyone please suggest where I start to look for them (polite answers only)  the problem is that their surname is a really rare one - Rooney.

Many thanks for your time.

Little Lil
Now for the really eas

[Jean McGurn]

Probably not a great help but just in case you haven't got it, here are details from the 1861 census. Note the spelling of Rooney.

James Roney, Head, 1835, Ireland, Ironworker
Elizabeth Roney, Wife, 1834, Ireland
Leticia Roney, Dau, 18500, Ireland
Rosannah Roney, Dau, 1854, Ireland
Sarah J Roney, Dau, 1856, Egremont Cumberland
Joshua Roney, Son, 1860, Egremont

A number of neighbours also appear to be Ironworkers so perhaps if there was an Iron works with records it may be you could (or maybe any of those fantastic Rootschatters out there with their fountains of knowledge) may be able to pin down what part of Ireland your family come from.

At least with my Irish kin I do have two Counties to work from.

Good luck and Merry Christmas 

Jean


 

[Pat Reid]

Merry Christmas Lil:

Rooney is a faily common name in Co. Down. I had a look at Ros Davies' site and she has quite a few listed including some who went to US in late 1800s to work in mines. I know yours went to Cumberland earlier.
Check the listings for Taylor also since there are many  of them listed as well. Perhaps some of the names will ring a bell.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/SURNAMES/R/RoneyRooney.htm


Lil, if you are in the Whitehaven area you might be able to get some info  right there.  http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/archives/recordoffices/whrec.asp

Another interesting site is http://www.whitehaven.org.uk/information-historical.html

Good luck,

Pat

[wini]

this reply is of absolutely no help for the Rooney question, but I see someone mentions the 1861 census. Is there one for ireland.?
Pat, I haven,t really spent anytime on my Reids, Samuel with parents John Reid & Jane Mcneice. I have had a look at the Ros Davies and the griffiths but I am still not getting any clues.
Is there anywhere else you could suggest that I might be able to "god forbid" actually write to.
I have a son-in law , whose family is from Eire who will be in Ireland next year sometime and I hope to get him to do some fossicking, but I need to find somewhere for him to start.

wini
Merry Christmas to you all

[Christopher]

Happy Christmas Lil,

Your subject title is a bit like a Christmas Cracker lol You need to pull it to find out what is inside. Once the Festive Season is over would you consider changing the subject title to Rooney Ireland please.

Why this statement Lil the problem is that their surname is a really rare one - Rooney? I checked  http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths.php which shows many families with this surname in Ireland during the years 1848 - 64 when Griffiths Valuation was being done in the country. I am not going to count them all but the list contains a lot of heads of household named James Rooney.

Also I have found you a Rooney family in Co. Antrim. Willie Rooney was a well known jockey of point to point race horses. He later became a trainer. His daughters Ann Ferris and Rosemary Stewart followed in father's footsteps.
I wonder if this family are in any way related to you. I seem to be getting a bit of a reputation for looking toward the field of sport when assisting people to find their ancestors. First pigeon racing, then boxing and now point to pointing. Remember information about ancestors and their descendents may appear in places other than cemeteries and Public Record Offices.  http://where.ie/p2p/content.asp?key=roll_76

Well now Lil, you have a problem on your hands. I apologise but I have to laugh. I cross checked surnames Rooney and Taylor expecting to see these two surnames in one or two parishes. There is a lengthy list. http://scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm Where do we go next?

I hope those of you posting replies on this thread do not suffer from too many Festive Hangovers. I suggest, if you have time to spare, you use the turkey and ham leftovers to make a plateful of sarnies, fill your glass and consider the problem faced by Lil. Jean I think you may have spotted the right family.
I would not worry too much about the difference in spelling. Census enumerators tend to get things slightly wrong from time to time lol.

I looked at the lengthy list of Rooneys and found the name Sarah. Jean's list mentions Sarah born in Cumberland in 1856. This girl may have been named after her Granny. The Sarah Rooney I spotted lived in Co. Leitrim (Rooneys and Taylors lived in the same parish in Co. Leitrim) so I looked for the iron ore connection and here it is www.mhti.com/mines_in_ireland_files/creevelea.htm

All the Best. Enjoy your partying everyone. Those of you with families spend your holiday time with them as they are more important than your ancestors. Grans and Grandas spare some time to tell the young ones about their ancestors. So many post messages wishing they had learnt more about their family history whilst the elder generation were still living.

Christopher 

[Josephine]

Lil,

There's probably no way of finding a connection but I have a Mary Rooney who married Patrick Waters and they came to New Brunswick, Canada about 1827.  I don't know who their parents were or what part of Ireland they came from.  (They were Catholic.  There aren't even any death or burial records for them in Canada.  They were farmers, of course.)

Regards,
Josephine

[Christopher]

Hei Little Lil,

Directory of Belfast and Province of Ulster 1852
Belfast
Francis Rooney, mariner, 33, Green Street
Daniel Roney, iron moulder, 5, Frederick Place
James Roney, tracing paper manufacturer, 93, York Street
James Roney, butcher, 76, Hercules Street
John Roney, bricklayer, Shankhill Road
Mary Roney, 16, York Lane
William Roney, 37, Wall Street

Best Wishes, Chris

[scotmum]

You have probably already seen this, but posting anyhow so you can let others know whether or not this has any bearing on your research.

Now taking IGI with a pinch of salt, especially as it is a submitted record with no source info, it has a James Rooney with a dob of 29/6/1833 albeit it says in Cumberland, not Ireland.  This James apparently married an Elizabeth Taylor in Cumberland on  11th October 1853 (can't see this on freebmd or ancestry though) then died on 20th October 1880. Now, do you think that the Birth and Marriage may have correct dates just wrong location (and that Cumberland was assumed for those as that is where he died?).

Have you come across this before? Hope this doesn't confuse matters. Sometimes helps to ask even obvious questions.

ps

IGI parent search also returns the first born Rosannah Amanda and  Leticia/Lotitia as born Cumberland or England but again no source.

[Half Pint]

Hi

Many thanks for your replies.

Rosanna married Thomas Bevil from Egremont (a village very close to Whitehaven), who had been born in Ireland and moved to Tow Law in Durham.  On all of the censuses she states her place of birth as Ireland.

Letitia had a daughter in 1878 who had the surname of Rooney, so I presume that she was born out of wedlock.  I cannot find her on the censuses, looking for her under Roney, Rooney or just searching for her first name.

I have heard that Letitia had her birth legitimised on 01/011/1927.  To me if this was the case, then surely she would have had to have been born either in England or in the northern part of Ireland due to the separation in 1922.  I realise I may be wrong but I have no idea as to how to take this route further.

Would she have been issued with a new birth certificate at this time, and if so why isn't it listed on 1837 for Jan/Mar 1927.

If she was legitimised at this time, does anyone know if and where the paperwork is held and if I would be able to view it.

James Roney was employed as an iron ore miner according to the 1861/71 censuses over here so the James Roney on the previous email employed as a bricklayer would seem the most logical.

Their son Joshua, my gg grandfather married Ellen McAvoy who was definitely a Catholic, but they brought their children up as CofE.

James and his wife Elizabeth are buried in Egremont cemetery but his place of birth is not on the death certificate.  Their youngest son was named Andrew Taylor Rooney and this does fit in with his mother being Elizabeth Taylor.

As you can see there are so many unanswered questions and no route map to follow ...........

Thanks again for your time.

a confused and frustrated Little Lil