Ask About Ireland website - McCOSKER and McCUSKER

[jj.carroll]

I have had the pleasure of using the “Ask About Ireland” website, a collaboration by the National Library, Enaclann, and OMS, and its Griffiths Valuation and place name search tool. There is a problem and I was hoping someone in the netherland could help us solve it.

I will use the example of my gggrandfather, Patrick McCOSKER (c. 1813 – 1868).

It took a lot of searching to locate him mainly because of the spellings that were used. All “records” we examined, and that includes my great grandmother’s name, indicated that we were looking for a McCUSKER (and variants that included McKuscar, but not McCosker).

It further developed that we were looking for the townland of Augaronan, with a variant of Augharonan. It would probably be in the parish of Donacavey because we had an oral record of Catherine McCusker’s marriage to Owen McCarroll in the Roman Catholic church in Donacavey. (The two Catholic parishes separate apart, one going to Donacavey (Fintona) and to Clogher at this point).

We finally located Catherine’s father Patrick, but it was as a McCosker (just a little difference between an “O” and a “U”).  And it became clear that he was a farmer living in Agharonan (another spelling “error,” but made it hard to locate him). Because we had been successful in locating the McCarroll homesite in Corkhill (and we have pictures, just as it was being torn down in 1982), we wanted to see where Catherine’s beginning were, now that we had finally survived the challenge of her name (she went by McCUSKER all those years).

The problem was that the map citation was incorrect because the western portion of the townland of Agharonan was not on sheet number 51. So I attempted to bring up various townlands, such as Garvallagh and Derrybard, in order to locate the missing western portion of the townland we were interested in, those properties or holdings, numbered 34 and 35 in the townland.

But, to no avail and we still do not know just where the McCosker or McCusker property was.

[kintree]

jj.carroll

I would say that most of your spelling variations are easily within the tolerances for that period (even for now!).

There is indeed a townland of Agharonan in the civil (administrative) parish of Donacavey, and it could easily be spelled Augharonan on certain documents. Augaronan would be less likely.

McCosker & McCusker are certainly interchangeable: in MacLysaght's The Surnames of Ireland, the entry for Cosker is "see Cusker".

You need to be sure that the Patrick McCosker/Cusker you find in one set of records is the same Patrick McCosker/Cusker you find in another set.

To identify the various Donacavey properties recorded in the Griffith Valuation you will need to see the Valuation Office (VO) maps in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Eneclann only gives us access to VO maps of the 26 counties - ie the Republic of Ireland.

See:
www.proni.gov.uk/your_family_tree_series_-_04_-_valuation_records.pdf

Adrian

[jj.carroll]

Regarding your comment about the 26 counties I believe that if you look at http://griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/gv4/gv_start.php you will find a little more is added than that contained in Eneclann.

This is the address of the Ask About Ireland website that includes the Griffith's.  It has been expanded to include Ulster, but as we have found out it does not have all of the maps in their data base. It does state that it is only a prototype/test site still under development.   

To fill out the information on Catherine McCusker the following might be considered.  While the information is not definitive, and most of the records available bare this out, it is known that a Pat McCOSKER (or McCusker) of Agharonan died in 1868. He did not have a will on file. Pat McCosker would have been born around 1813. And the name of the registrar’s informant indicates that there was a John McCusker in the family.

We do know that Catherine had a number of siblings: possibly a JOHN McCUSKER of Legamaghery, but little is known of him except that he was a single farmer. Another possible connection was Thomas M’GARRITY and JANE McCUSKER of Agharonan. There also was JAMES McCUSKER, an unmarried farmer who was aged 40, according to the 1901 census. That would have placed his birth about 1861.

Catherine married OWEN McCARROLL, also formally known as Eugene, “at full age." However, family oral histories have indicated that she was only 17 at the time of her marriage, and she was living at Legamaghery. She was married in Fintona which is also in the civil parish of Donacavey. They were wed on 25 June 1867 in my great grandmother’s Roman Catholic church at Donacavey (Fintona).

After her marriage she moved to her husband’s small farm in the townland of Corkhill (sometimes referred to as Corkill, as the years pass), where they raised their family. Corkhill is about 2 ½ miles south of Agharonan and Legamaghery and it is in the civil parish of Clogher, as well as the Catholic parish of Clogher at that time. It had a chapel within walking distance, in Eskragh (Eskra), which originally was part of the RC parish of Clogher, but broke off to become a parish in itself.

But, as is the case with most old Irish records, there is a discrepancy as she listed herself as a 60 yr old widow in the 1911 census, while the 1901 census indicated that Catherine was a 45 year old widow. That may be the result of the old age pensions law that went into place in 1908.

Owen and Catherine had at least seven children, all born at number 2, Corkill. All of the baptisms were actually located in the original church records in Clogher when viewed in 1982, but they were not found in the PRONI records in 1997. There is some discrepancy between the birthdates and the baptism dates, as recorded, for these children.

[kintree]

jj.carroll

You are of course right about AskAboutIreland Griffith Valuation - but as long as it remains a trial site it can't really be used for serious work.

Interestingly you can (by devious means, copying URLs and changing values) access various map-pages, including the next-most-western: Tyrone 50.

BUT... they only seem to offer images of the right-hand pages of two-page maps. The western half of Agharonan would be on the left-hand page of Tyrone 51, not the right-hand page of Tyrone 50.

Frustrating!

[jj.carroll]

Actually I do not know much about "serious" work just looking up my ancestors before I make that journey into netherland. 

I started on it as a "lark" back in the 80's, trying to undertake a little research because I was visiting Ireland as part of a longer trip in that direction.  I sought out my aunt and got some of the oral history, that she remenbered in her own fashion, and went to the area in question looking for my father's birthplace and the pub where he and his brothers and sisters grew up in Fintona.  Seven visits later, with some research tools that I learned on the way, and the initial findings of Brian Trainor of the Ulster Historical Association, I have located some of the ancestors and they all owe their roots to Ireland.

Even though I moved to Utah I still do not trust everything that is found on IGI, and I look to other things.  I had a bad experience with LDS when I visited their Family History Centre early in my search, and even though we did get the matter corrected they would not change their findings.  It was my gggrandfather's marriage to Catherine McCusker where he is shown on the rolls as Eugene but he signed the register with his mark as Owen - a name he went by all of his life.  I even visited the graveyard in Eskragh to locate the person.  I had a real problem working that out, having to go to the original records at the Clogher church to obtain baptismal information on all of the siblings.

So I do know that just because you see a name somewhere it does not necessarily mean it is the person you are looking for.  You keep checking back, and rechecking the sources.  And especially, when you get your hands on a handwritten journal authored by someone that you know, you have to take it with a grain of salt and double and triple check that thing out and sometimes come up with a little jewel, rather than the whole crown.  That happened with a grandparent who made up a lot of things, the great John Gaffigan.

I was interested in your post and wonder just what you meant by changing values and copying URLs you can access certain pages.  Even though I am ancient, I am never too old to learn new things.  Afterall, I learned to type on a Smith-Carona and then moved to IBM word processors before taking up a computer.

[kintree]

jj.carroll

Eugene is a latinized (one might say romanised) version of Owen, which is an anglicized version of Eoghan (though for some reason people nowadays seem to prefer Eoin as an Irish version of Owen) - they are all essentially the same name. There would be no reason for LDS to make any change.

I too followed the typewriter route, and am thankful to have left it well behind.

Adrian

[luas]

It's worth remembering that many Irish placenames were first committed to maps, etc. by the Ordnance Survey, who often used Anglicised forms of their traditional Irish names.  There has been a trend in more recent years to try to restore authenticity to them, although this offends people who live there, and are happy with them the way they are.  A recent example is Dingle in Co. Kerry, which had its official name changed to An Daingean a couple of years ago.  As a major tourist destination, this threatened to undermine the livelihoods of its hoteliers, guest house proprietors, etc.  I don't know if the authorities have relented, but you hear it spoken of as Dingle again, for example on the radio.  Wikipedia has a full explanation of the controversy here.

[Trevor McCusker]

My father was Thomas McCusker born Augharonan on the 8th March 1904. His father (my grandfather)Was Bernard McCusker and he was married to Mary Gunn. Married name Mary McCusker is buried at Aghavea Church of Ireland Brookeborough. Who was a Protestant, Her husband Bernard McCusker was a Roman Catholic and buried in the Chapel grounds Maguiresbridge Co Fermanagh. Many of our McCusker family live in the Brookeborough area of Co Fermanagh now.

[jj.carroll]

I too have been off of these boards for ten years and am just returning.  Trevor McCusker has raised a couple of points that are a bit conflicting. 

I really don't know if Bernard (and Mary Gunn) was related, but Patrick McCusker farmed within the townland of Agharonan (1908 Ordnance Survey maps, obtained from the U. S. depository).  It is known that a Pat McCOSKER (or McCusker) of Agharonan died in 1868. He did not have a will on file. This would make Pat McCosker's birth around 1813. My great grandmother was Catherine, or Kitty.

We do know that Catherine had a number of siblings: possibly a John McCusker of Legamaghery, but little is known of him except that he was a single farmer. Another possible connection was Thomas McGarrity and Jane McCusker of Agharonan. There also was James McCusker, an unmarried farmer who was aged 40, according to the 1901 census. That would have placed his birth about 1861.

Catherine married Owen McCarroll, also formally known as Eugene, “at full age" at the Roman Catholic chapel in Fintona. This is also in the civil parish of Donacavey.

However, family oral histories have indicated that she was only 17 at the time of her marriage, and what is more puzzling is that she was living at Legamaghery, but could have been with her brother.  However, this is just a sign of our times but it could have meant that she was possibly employed as a servant. 

They were wed on 25 June 1867 in my great grandmother’s Roman Catholic church at Donacavey (Fintona). There were two Owen McCarroll families that were farming in Lurganaglare but the Owen homesite was located on a small farm that was closest to Corkhill.

Owen and Catherine had at least seven children, all born at number 2, Corkill. All of the baptisms were actually located in the original church records in Clogher when viewed in 1982, but they were not found in the PRONI records in 1997. There is some discrepancy between the birthdates and the baptism dates, as recorded, for these children.

One of their sons was Michael J. McCarroll, who at eighteen emigrated to San Francisco, California to be with his two brothers Thomas and Patrick.  Born around 1883, he spent some eighteen years there before returning to Ireland where he married San Francisco resident Agnes Bridget Gaffigan.  Much of the guesstimates have to come because of the April 1906 earthquake and fire which leveled much of the City. He was to pass away in 1924.

Some of the mourners included Andrew, Jack, Charles, and Owen Bogans who were related through the Catherine (Kitty) who lived in Dublin; The Devines, both Patricks who resided in Corkhill and Aughnacloy; and cousins Patrick and Joseph McGarrity of Augharonon; and John McCusker who came from Legamaghery.