Castletownroche cluster in NYC

[Alison55]

In researching my Quinlan and Gorman ancestors from Castletownroche, I have found quite a cluster of others from the same parish in the First Ward in Manhattan. 
The First Ward is the very tip of lower Manhattan, adjoining Battery Park.

These people came over in the 1840s and 1850s.  My great-great grandparents must have literally walked from the dock to their new home on lower Pearl Street--and never moved more than a few blocks away until death.

Many of these people intermarried in Castletownroche and continued to do so in NY.  Most of the names are common Irish names--Barry and Hennessy, for instance--but Battersberry is very uncommon.  It appears in different spellings, like all Irish names.

I'm trying to put together a list of this First Ward cluster of Castletownroche people, with additions from adjoining parishes in northeast Cork.  If anyone can add to it, that would be great.

[loudam]

Hi Alison

The surname Battersbury is a name that I'm interested in, it's a name i've been told is somewhere in my mothers family but as of yet I haven't found a connection, of course it could be one of the many variations of the spelling too!

I did notice though in searching for Dorgans from Rathcooney that there were a lot of people from Rathcooney area too in the same part of Massachusetes

[Alison55]

Hi Loudam, You are right. I do see the spelling Battersbury, Batterberry or -bury and Battersby, among others. They didn't make it easy for us, did they? Often the same person used different spellings in different years.

I've yet to find an Irish name spelled just one way. Maybe that's true of all nationalities of the time.  And the Irish certainly did tend to settle in clusters--it must have been a comfort to see familiar faces, not to mention to help each other out--job preference etc.

But NYC is and was such an enormous place that I was surprised to see such a continuity of Irish parish relations over the decades.  The First Ward, in particular, became more and more commercial and less residential as time went by. But they stuck together.  Their NY parish was St. Peter's, the first RC church in NYC.

[loudam]

I've seen the same with my own surname, my grandad added the O to it in 1946 when he got married and the family story was that there was no O but he added it, his father didn't have the O when he got married but his wife did when she died in 1938, so I think it was hit and miss.. I also think it had to do with the literacy levels in the country, browsing emmigration records it's very obvious how poorly educated people were, the spellings of names and addresses were so bad for a lot of people...


I'd imagine it was a comfort thing, but I think they also just followed one another over one by one....

[Alison55]

I see one of your names is Riordan. This same group has a Riordan family which also spells it Reardon.

[loudam]

Yeah Riordan/O Riordan is my own name, as far as I can tell so far the riordans didn't travel, but I haven't been able to get past the marriage cert in 1917 either... We've got Dorgans who travelled, 2 went between 1901 and 1904 then another went over in 1921.....

[skibbgirl]

Alison, I would be very interested to know what records you are looking at for your Castletownroche emigrants, presumably US census records?

[Alison55]

Actually, it is many records.  It is late here so, in brief:

Death records, census records, city directories--absolutely critical, newspaper articles, the all-important obituaries when lucky enough to find them, naturalization records--who was the witness and what was his information.  In this case, Civil War pension records led to a cousin of my great-grandfather that led me to County Cork.  We did not even have that info.

I searched long and hard for my gg grandparents. His name was Patrick Quinlan and there were a number of them in NYC at the time but mine was older so I finally found his ship record, my gg grandmother, then the children. They traveled separately 1849-1851.  With all their names and approximate ages--few ever told the truth--I tackled the Irish Family History Foundation and eventually found them all. 

The wonderful pastor at the time, Father James Fitzpatrick, kept excellent records, including witnesses.  That gave me a lot of additional names.  I also got all the records for the cousin in NY and his family--more witness names. I searched all these people in NY--quite a lengthy process. No more room to write--sorry.

[skibbgirl]

Actually, it is many records.  It is late here so, in brief:

Death records, census records, city directories--absolutely critical, newspaper articles, the all-important obituaries when lucky enough to find them, naturalization records--who was the witness and what was his information.  In this case, Civil War pension records led to a cousin of my great-grandfather that led me to County Cork.  We did not even have that info.

I searched long and hard for my gg grandparents. His name was Patrick Quinlan and there were a number of them in NYC at the time but mine was older so I finally found his ship record, my gg grandmother, then the children. They traveled separately 1849-1851.  With all their names and approximate ages--few ever told the truth--I tackled the Irish Family History Foundation and eventually found them all. 

The wonderful pastor at the time, Father James Fitzpatrick, kept excellent records, including witnesses.  That gave me a lot of additional names.  I also got all the records for the cousin in NY and his family--more witness names. I searched all these people in NY--quite a lengthy process. No more room to write--sorry.

This is absolute incredible and a great case study on how diligence and perseverance pay off!  Great work on finding your ancestors!