Hi Jodie,
Maybe I can help. I'm the great great grandson of Margaret's youngest sister Bridget. Here's what I know of Morgan O'Loughlin and his line. I'm visiting Ireland in 3 weeks' time and will get up to Ballyvaughan to check things out. If you have any info or contacts you wish to share with me, please go ahead!!
Morgan O’Loughlin, a farmer, was born in the Ballyvaghan registration district (Irish: Baile Uí Bheacháin, meaning "Ó Beachán's townland"), north-west Clare, in 1801, and died in the same place early in 1884. Ballyvaghan is noted for its ancient archaeological remains, and its unique geology and flora.
The names of Peter (1807 - 1887 Ballyvaghan), Bryan (1810 - 1900 Ballyvaghan), Patrick (1805 - 1870 Ballyvaghan), and Bridget (1806 - 1901 Ballyvaghan) O’Loughlin – very possibly the brothers and sisters of Morgan – also appear as occupants of Cragreah, in Griffith’s Valuation of 1855. All these siblings held land in several other townlands and parishes, but Greyrock, Cragreah seems to have been where they lived.
It is interesting to note that the surname O’Loughlin ‘is an anglicised form of the Gaelic Ó Lachtnáin ("descendant of Lachtnán"), and the Gaelic personal name Lachtnán is derived from lachtna meaning “grey”’ (Wikipedia). Could this indicate an intimate bond between the land around Greyrock and its families? It seems to be generally accepted that the surname O’Loughlin arose in this region of Clare, where the family had established a seat ‘from very ancient times’.
http://www.houseofnames.com/o-loughlin-family-crestAnne Fitzpatrick was also born in the Ballyvaghan registration district, Clare, in 1802, and died in the same place in 1888.
Morgan and Anne married sometime before 1830. Their children included:
Generation 1:
Patrick, born Clare 1830, married Bridget O’Loughlin, Pegleg Gully, Bendigo 1856 (was Bridget Patrick’s cousin? She was the daughter of a Peter O’Loughlin and Bridget Hurley of Clare). Died Eaglehawk, Bendigo 1923, aged 93. The children of the marriage were Mary, Morgan, John, Daniel, Patrick, Peter, Bridget, and James.
Margaret, born Greyrock Clare 1833, married James Kenny, Sandhurst 1856, died Sandhurst 1863, aged 29. The children of the marriage were Michael, Patrick, James (dec’d), Annie, and James.
Mary, born Ballyvaghan Clare 1834, married Thomas Cullinan, Ballyvaghan Clare 1854, died Kyabram 1920, aged 85. The children of the marriage were Michael, Margaret, Mary, Annie, John, Catherine, Thomas, Ellen, Elizabeth, Hanora, and Stephen.
Bridget, born Clare circa 1835, died 8th April 1917, in Sydney, of ‘Morbus Cordis’, aged 82. She migrated as a paying passenger to Victoria with her brother and sisters in 1856, at the age of 21. Bridget married James Slattery at Sandhurst in 1857, and with him had my great-grandmother Catherine.
Cheers,
Barry
