Healy and Pyne families carrigaholt

[pedroandme]

My great grandmother Serah (Sarah) Healy was born in Carrigaholt on July 3rd 1872 her parents were George Healy and Eliza Pyne. George and Eliza were married in Kilmurry on Jan 22nd 1856. I have done the index search and now will apply for a copy of Sarah's birth record and her parents marrige record and see if it can shed any more light on her parents and location. It would appear she has 6 brothers and sisters all also listed as born between 1864 and 1878 in Carrigaholt or otherwise simply noted as Clare. Their names were John, Susan, Charles, another Susan, Anne and George. I am trying to see if there is anyway to find out more about the family and their life in Carrigaholt . They were Roman Catholic. On Sarah's death certificate her father was recorded as being a teacher. Many thanks for your time and any help you can give. I am coming to Ireland and Clare in May to have a look around. Karen 

[aghadowey]

Civil registration of births in Ireland started in 1864 and since George and Eliza were married in 1856 there;s a good chance that there were other children born 1856-1863.

To find Irish ancestors for such an early period you need to see if church records exist.
Have a look at Introduction to Irish Records and My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?.

[MurrayGinnane]

In reply here to Karen Moloney, --- I wonder if you can check where you found out that George Healy and Elizabeth Pyne were Roman Catholics, please?
Sometimes there are two families in the same area at the same times & with the same names, dates, occupations, etc, but I am 99% sure that your Healy family were some form of Protestant, but maybe not Established Church of Ireland, and definitely not Catholic.
I refer mainly to a 1994 book (re-issued 2009?) by Paul Murphy called "Cuchulain's Leap : A History of Cross & Carrigaholt Parishes".
On Pages 84-85 etc There is a chapter on the "Little Ark of Kilbaha" era in the early 1850s.  That has many famous research informations on the internet.

George Healy & Catholic Fr Michael Meehan are recorded as fighting & name-calling, amidst dozens of other court cases.

George Healy was one of two teachers at a "Souper" or proselytizing Protestant School set up near to the gatehouse to Marcus Keane's (now ruins) mansion, folly & swimming-pool on the hill & cliff on the south west side of Kilbaha Bay [quite close to the 'Cuchulain's Leap' or 'LoopHead' Lighthouse.

He was also a Bible-reader at the Protestant Chapel there, and later (c.1890?) was the Kilbaha postmaster.    The chapel has now completely disappeared, I believe(?), and if the Protestant Christening, Marriage & Death Register Books still exist, then I'm sure that George Healy & Eliza Pyne and all their children will be recorded in it.

Karen Moloney seems to have found her great-grandmother Serah/Sarah Healy and 6 of her youngest siblings by the Civil Records which started in 1864. 

There are certain to be quite a few more born between the parents' marriage in "Kilmurry" in January 1856 & the Civil Record start in 1864. 

Those records will be in the books of the 'private(?)' Protestant chapel of Marcus Keane's Kilbaha estate.

I have transcribed the whole Catholic, Greater Carrigaholt-Cross-Querrin Parishes Baptism & Marriage Registers for 1852 to March 17th 1878, and there is no reference to George & Eliza Healy or their children in there. 
However, there were many other Catholic Healy families in that area.     

The placename 'Kilmurry' that Karen says her great-great-grandparents were married at is, presumably not the Kilmurry-Ibrickane a few miles north of Kilkee.

Because in the 1850s there were many other Pyne & Healy families living in the Kilmurry area which is east of Kilrush.  It would pay to confirm that, though, and to widen the search to include non-Catholic graveyards & churches.   

I'd recommend three websites : www.LoopHeadClare.com/Guestbook-page.html ,  and www.Carrigaholt.net/Guestbook-page.html (Karen has already posted there) ,  and www.ClareLibrary.ie  for a huge amount of information, including the Cemetery Gravestone Transcriptions, especially for Kilballyowen, Kilbaha, Moveen, Cross and Moyarta.   You'll find the Healy famiies well represented there (as well as my Catholic Ginnanes!).   
Although the Protestants may well have been buried separately?  Try Kilcredane, although that was last used in the 1700s?  Kilkee?  Kilrush? 

By the way --- aren't those Christian names VERY Anglican / Protestant(?) : George, Sarah, Charles, Susan, Anne, Elizabeth ? 

After transcribing 100s of pages of 1852-1878 Catholic names from West Clare, there are practically NO other appearances of those names. 
     
I realise that this post has already grown large --- please contact me for further photos & literature, etc references on this area --- email me at : (*)

If anyone wants a look-up for any other information from Carrigaholt from that era, --- try me, please?    MMG in Hamilton, NZ   

(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.

New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page:  http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php

[pedroandme]

Thank you so very much for taking to time to reply. I should by now know not to make any assumptions when researching ancestry and I have done just that by deciding the Healy family were Catholic. That mistake was made because my Great Grandmother Serah Healy married in Fremantle in Austraila in a Catholic church so I assumed she must be Catholic. Not the case it would seem. I'm sure we have the right family here since on her marriage certificate Serah notes her father as being a postmaster and on her death certificate he was noted as a teacher. I would love to find out how and when Serah left Ireland to come to Australia. Any ideas how I do that. I would also like to contact you Murray for more information but your email gets blocked on this site. I will see if I have posted enough yet to use the PM facility. Very many thanks for your help. Karen   

[kaypilk]

Hi Karen,  Don't know if you are still active on this forum, but I may have a little bit to add to your search for Healy family.
I have a diary written by my great-uncle Fred Pilkington in 1904 while living at Kiltrellig. His entry for Tuesday 13 September 1904 records: "The poor Healies cleared out of Kilbaha this morning,  They go to settle in Liverpool.  A brake from Kilkee took the family away."
The 1901 census for Kilbaha lists Eliza Healy 61 widow, farmer/housekeeper, daughter Lizzie 27 unmarried, seamstress, & grandchildren George Willis age 10 & Winifred Willis age 5.  The family are recorded as Church of Ireland.
Winifred & George Willis appear in the 1911 census in Liverpool, living with their parents (also Winifred & George) and numerous other siblings.
Hopefully this will be of some assistance, if you see it.

[Patrick O'Brien]

Kaypilk,
Any information in the diary on the date of death for Mary Crotty nee Keniry. Wife of John Crotty from Fodry or Fodera. Mary appears in the 1901 census but is missing from the 1911 census.
Mary was born in Cloghaunsavaun Sept 1 1863.
Todate I have failed in my search for a death certificate at the BMD office in Ennis, Co Clare.
Thanks,
Paddy