Hello All,
Hoping someone out there may be able to help me. My grandmother was Rose Friary, born in Longford in 1928 to Bernard and Ellen (nee Lynch). Bernard (b. 1897) and Ellen, married in 1923 and had children: Joseph, Ellen (Nell), Rose Ann, Kathleen, James, John, Philomena, Benedict and Mary. I have been researching the Friary line and while I've found some aspects easy, I'm not sure that all my findings are correct. I was told by extended family that Bernard didn't have much family in Granard, despite being born there and other than my grandmother mentioning her aunt 'Bridie', nothing else was known.
Through research (census' & different research sites), I found the following information: living in Mullanlaghta, Bernard's father was John (died: 1939), mother Rose (nee McKeon- died: 1903) and sisters, Annie (b. 1888), Ellen/Ellie (b. 1890), Margaret/Maggie (b. 1891), Rose (b. 1895), Bridget/Bridie (b. 1899). I also believe there was an older sibling- Mary (b. 1887), but can't confirm this. I've found records for her, but not a baptismal record and she was in service by 1901, so is not with them on the census.
Bernard's mother Rose died in 1903- I believe in childbirth or shortly after, with James (b. 28/02/1903). James' death is registered in 1904.
John Friary married again in 1905 to Mary Kane- widow of William Kane- and her and her daughter, Mary-Kate Kane (b. 1899) are living with the family in the 1911 census.
My research becomes a bit sticky at John's background. Due to discrepencies between his ages in the census' and the fact that there were 3 John Friary's born in Granard within a 10 year time period, I am unsure as to who his parents were.
I have researched 2 possibilities- Bernard (b.1833) and Anne Friary (b. 1833) from Cavan (nee Maguaran/Smith) and Patrick and (Mary) Ellen Friary (nee Kiernan) from Granard. At first, I thoroughly believed it was the previous, as if it were Bernard and Anne, their history would fit in to an old family story- that the Friary name was born out of a spelling mistake/misinterpretation in the Colmicille Parish register. Bernard's name was originally Prior and he and Anne were originally from Cavan. They had children: Kate/Kathleen (b. 1846), Michael (b. 1847), Patrick (b. 1856), Margaret (b. 1859), Bartley (b. 1865/d. 1865), John (b. 1866), Anne (b. 1869) and Eliza (b. 1874/d. 1874). Bernard's wife Anne died in 1874, I assume as a result of Eliza's birth. I found records to show that Kate, Michael and Patrick went to the U.S.
Yet, I have also found records that point to him possibly being the offspring of Patrick and Ellen Friary- children, Rose (b. 1864), Mary (b.1865), Michael (b. 1867), Andrew (b. 1870), John (b. 1869), Joseph (b. 1871). It seems that all of Patrick and Ellen's children, except John, emigrated to the U.S.
If anyone has any info on the above family lines, I would much appreciate it.
