French migration to Ireland 1750 - 1800

[Gerryk]

Long and widespread family tradition holds that there was a  Lemarck, Lamarc or some variation, that traveled to Waterford, Ireland in the 18th century and stayed there.
He later changed the name to Marks. Worked on the landed estate of the Marquis of Waterford, possibly at Curraghmore.

We can get back to a William Marks, born 1755. He is supposed to have come over with a Galwey from Ormonde Castle in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary.
Any advice on where we might start to look in France, or what resources there are?
Thanks.
Gerry

[quisontils]

Hello, Gerry,
You can try to search in France with Geneanet.com

[iluleah]

Most of the records in France are online, on the various provincial Archives, so France is fairly easy to research remotely

[aghadowey]

I think you'd need a location in France to start searching for records there?

[jorose]

Yep, and while a lot of info is online, some of the departmental archives don't even have websites, so it can be quite patchy.  In any case it is important to firmly establish dates and places before attempting to move back to Europe - at the moment from what I understand we don't even know that William Marks, born 1755 was b. France.

The most important question is the religion of the family - e.g. were they potentially Huguenot.

I do find Carrick-on-Suir mentioned as a place where Huguenots/Walloons settled, so perhaps have a look at http://www.huguenotsinireland.com/ for information on researching Huguenot families.

Huguenots who arrived as refugees mostly did in the late 1600s early 1700s, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 (sometimes a little later if they stayed for a time in other parts of Europe first).  However, there were earlier attempts to encourage immigration of protestants from France to Ireland.  The Duke of Ormonde apparently was involved in some such schemes in the 1660s among them which was the establishment of wool workers at Carrick-on-Suir (http://malseed.com/malseeds/origins/huguenot_info/huguenot_information.htm).

In this situation, chances are you need to go back at least a couple of generations from 1755 to find the immigrant ancestor.

[Gerryk]

Thanks to all for those responses. I have been briefly down the Huguenot line before, but failed to find any trace of a le/la Marck or its variations. I know that William Marks' son Anthony in the 1821 census of Carrick on Suir and all his family were Catholics. So I think that William was as well. There is little trace of the Huguenot connection with Carrick left now.

We have independent corroboration of the rumour of French descendants from a contemporaneous source called Kenny's Diary. Written mostly after 1870, it is a potted history of goings-on in Carrick at that time. In it, in asn entry dated October 15th 1877, he says about one of the Marks descendants, "The strength and influence of the country element in our local institutions was well shewn at the recent election of Dispensary Doctor. There were two candidates: Dr. Wall son of Peter Wall farmer Ballyquin, and Doctor Whitty whose family has  been connected with the town for a long time, his ancestor, one Marks, having come here as a servant of some sort with Galway of the Castle, somewhere about 1766. But, strange to say Doctor Whitty was entirely unknown to those who had the election in their hands. And the farmers voted to a man for Wall, whom they styled "a neighbour's child". The salary is £100 per annum."

The Castle was Ormonde Castle, so I think that this is the route to follow. The Suir is tidal as far as Carrick, and there was quite an amount of trade between Waterford and Bordeaux at that time.

Anthony was a Baker in 1821. I have no idea what trade William was engaged in.

I have been to geneanet (with poor French) to explore the links with Bordeaux. As some of you pointed out, the information online is potted (but very good).

However, I'm intrigued by Kenny's choice of the date 1766. I don't know what the approximate accuracy (!) signifies, but it is curious. Our William would have been 11 years old then.

Thanks for all the tips.
Gerry