Looking for Kirwan townland in County Wexford circa 1853

[mrk]

I am trying to find the townland where my 2X great grandfather, Martin Kirwan (born about 1821 in County Wexford,Ireland; died 1885 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada) came from. Martin Kirwan married Mary Cloak 18 August 1848 in the Catholic Parish of Wexford, Diocese of Ferns in County Wexford. I have also found baptism registrations for his first three children -- Francis, born 1848, Francis born 1850, and Patrick (my great grandfather) born 1853 -- all born in the Parish of Wexford. With no other as yet positively identified records, I have taken to looking up witnesses and godparents from the marriage and baptism registrations in Griffith's Valuation in an attempt to narrow down my search for Martin's townland. One of these witnesses was John Hogan, Mary's half brother, who I suspect lived in the townland of Townparks in Black Cow Lane. It was with great interest then that I saw a previous post about Black Cow Lane on this forum and the name Kirwan shown underneath. I am hoping that this might shed further light on Martin's townland and confirm that I have the correct John Hogan. Thanks for any help that you might provide!

[Sinann]

Welcome to RootsChat
Is this the thread you are referring to
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=434234.msg3727562#msg3727562
Shorts has Kirwan in his surname list.

It would be best to add a reply to that thread, than Shorts will get a notification email and hopefully return to RootsChat.

[hallmark]

I can't find a Kirwan townland in County Wexford


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https://www.pressreader.com › ireland › wexford-people

Wexford People: 2016-08-09
"Aug 9, 2016 - On discovering the hostel plan, householders in Thomas Street, Marian Row, and Black Cow Lane immediately set about mobilising opposition ......"

[mrk]

I am not looking for a townland named Kirwan but rather the townland, somewhere around Wexford Town, where Martin Kirwan came from.

[hallmark]

Apologies, I was going by the Subject of this thread..

[Wexflyer]

My comment would be that the townland is mainly, but not entirely irrelevant. Townlands are critical in rural areas. But in urban towns, such as Wexford, they are almost irrelevant. Every farmer and laborer knew his townland, but I doubt one in a hundred urban dwellers knew theirs. In a town, of course, streets are the key thing. Townlands really only come into play in that sometimes a street can lie in more than one townland, so one has to look for that possibility when checking records

[mrk]

Thanks for your reply.

The issue for me is that I do not know if Martin Kirwan lived in Wexford Town itself or outside of the town. Martin was a market gardener in Canada. According to information provided by a son in the mid 1890s, "Martin and Mary (Hogan) Kerwin [were] natives of Wexford, Ireland... . Martin Kerwin, Sr., followed the occupations of miller and gardener all his life." This would seem to indicate that Martin did not live in Wexford Town.

In any event, what I am trying to discover is where Martin was born and where he lived prior to immigrating to Canada sometime between 1854-1856.

[oldohiohome]

Cloak/Cloake is much rarer, I would look for that first.

Do you know any of Martin Kirwin Kirwan or Mary Cloak's siblings or parents who might be the tenant on the farm at the time of Griffith's Valuation? 1853 for Wexford, according to John Grenham's Tracing Your Irish Ancestors?

According to his site, the spelling Cloak and Kirwan only occur together in Wexford in Killinick and Edermine Parishes. For Cloake and Kirwan, only in Monart Parish. I didn't do variations of Kirwan. Should have.

In Wexford on Griffiths' there are only 13 Cloak[e] listings. Given names of the Cloak[e] tenants in Wexford:

Laurence, Pierce, John (4), Marianne, Richard, Mary (3), Robert

Do you know the rest of the names of the children of Martin Kirwan and Mary Cloak? Do any match those tenants? John and Mary don't count. Robert and Richard count a little.

You'd still need a bit more information to tie them in, even if they match.

How about a biographical county history of where Martin settled? Did they have them in Canada? The ones in the US sometimes mentioned parents and townlands of the "prominent" men in the book. Or an obituary?

Edit: surname spelling

[oldohiohome]

"Kirwan" is the only spelling of that surname on Griffith's in Wexford.