Hi Susan,
I see you are writing from the UK, so I assume your part of the Burtchaell family never left Ireland. Note there is ongoing confusion about Archdall’s marriages. He appears to have been legally married to a Hannah Gore who was quite a bit older than he, but he came to Canada with a woman named Maria, who her descendants thought was a Gore, but there appears to be no marriage record for them in Ireland or Canada. So, at this point we don’t know whether Maria was a Gore, a Doyle or a Howitt.
Father Jim Burtchaell, who did the extensive genealogy document from which I take my information, has this note regarding ARCHDALL BURTCHAELL and MARY HOWITT:
“The paternity of Margaret B Burtchaell as recorded here is conjectural. The baptismal register of the Duiske Abbey Church (Catholic) in Graiguenamanah records the baptism of a Margaret B. Burtchaell, born 28/3/1852 to “Archbold” Burtchaell and Mary Howitt. The father’s given name is quite unusual, and fits ill with all the Murphys and Corcorans and other conventionally Catholic names with which the clan of Catholic Burtchaells in Graig intermarried. It may well be a confusion for Archdall Burtchaell, son of Augusta Byrn and Patrick Burtchaell. Archdall was born in November 1824 and would have been 27 at the time of Margaret’s birth. He was one of those who later emigrated to Canada and did not return. He is reported as having married a woman named Gore. This is mentioned because of a longstanding recollection among the Catholic Burtchaells from Graig that one of the Protestant Burtchaells had gotten a local Catholic girl pregnant.
“More about Archdall Burtchaell and Mary Howitt: Friends: 1851.”
Please keep me abreast of anything more you might learn.
Linda Ford