Thank you for taking the time to help me pursue this branch of my extended family.
I first discovered a passing reference to the Hurst family is a local publication entitled
Roscrea People. The link to the online .pdf magazine is below:
http://www.roscreathroughtheages.org/files/roscrea-people-2010.pdfThe story of the Birchgrove Estate begins page 83 (.pdf page 85). On page 87 (.pdf page 89) there is a passing account of both Thomas Hurst and "Devlin." The lady who recounted the details for the story got a few of the details wrong (William was Thomas Hurst's father - Thomas married Devlin's daughter Mary who was a few years older than he was).
Thomas Hurst was a carpenter by trade. The family was originally located around the Fancroft Mill area (north of Roscrea, Co. Tipperary). Thomas's father, William Hurst, was hired by the owners of the Birchgrove Estate to convert the old Roscrea Distillery into a Flax Scutching Mill. My third great grandfather, Peter Devlin, was a flax dress brought down from Northern Ireland (probably from around Belfast) to get the flax scutching operation up and running in the 1850s. Peter Devlin's daughter, Mary Devlin, married William Hurst's son, Thomas in the Roscrea RC Church on 27 May 1882. At the time the Hurst family is listed as living in Benmore (just across the road from Birchgrove.
The Hurst family (Thomas, Mary, and three children) immigrated to Elizabeth, New Jersey starting in 1887. The family settled in Elizabeth and Linden, New Jersey.
Prior to 1902 Thomas Hurst returned to Roscrea from New Jersey. On his return voyage he returned with his 18 year old niece Mary Madden. I can only assume that Mary's mother was Thomas's sister. The link to the ship's record is listed below:
http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=nypl&h=4005693605&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t53563523_p26113594951_kpidz0q3d26113594951z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpidAt this point that is all I can find about the Hurst family around the Tipperary area.
