Back to Message Board

Casey Family

Hello,

I'm trying to find the townland where my Casey family are from; I have found a few clues and I think it might be one particular townland but need help re accent.

On a gravestone it states that Mary Flanagan (nee Casey) was a native of RARKAINE parish, Roonan, county Clare, Ireland.

Immigration records of the family entering Australia (as Foleys!!!) in August 1851, state the place they were from/born was RAWCANE, Clare. All except Daniel's wife, Catherine who was born in RANAHAN, Clare. (She was Catherine Kennedy, daughter of John Kennedy and Mary Hayes)

The immigration record tallies up for all members of the Australian Caseys except for James who wouldn't yet be 2 years old, but his death certificate does state he came out later in circa 1876. I believe another daughter, Bridget, had stayed in Ireland (married?) and looked after James until he joined the rest of the family.

So my question is in a Ruan parish accent would Rarkaine, Rawcane be Rathcahaun? I say this because I realise how a word is spelt isnt always how it is pronounced - I know a girl named Caoimhe which is pronounced Qweever , I would never have guessed this true pronunciation.

Thanks for your interest,

Sherryl

Shezzam

7 replies

Sherryl:

Welcome to ireland Reaching Out!

I think your instincts are correct-Rathcahaun townland in Ruan civil parish. However, I will alert our Co. Clare expert and she will be able to confirm.

Please consider adding your ancestor stories to our XO Chronicles site https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/ancestor-dat…

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Sherryl:

Many thanks for your post to the Ireland Reaching Out message board and welcome to the site!

I would agree with your comments about Rawcane possibly being Rathcahaun and also the name Ranahan being Ranaghan townland in Ruan.  It sounds like their pronunciations were taking phonetically. 

If you are not already aware, Ruan parish has a number of helpful resources listed on the Clare Library website at:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/ruan_parish.htm

If you need any further assistance, please let me know.

The best of luck to you with your research!

Kind regards

 

Jane.

jhalloranryan@…

Thank you Roger and Jane for your kind welcome and encouragement. I will certainly check out the Ruan parish resources.

Now I just have to find the Bridget who stayed behind in Ireland, and why they emigrated under the name of Foley, etc., etc.

Cheers,

Sherryl

Shezzam

What a coincidence to come across this post for Mary Flanagan, wife of John Flanagen who died on 18 January 1895 at Scone, New South Wales, Australia and is buried in St Philip's Catholic Cemetery at Scone, NSW.

I visited the cemetery last week and took photos of the Flanagan Family Grave. I had noticed on their headstone they had been born in County Clare (my ancestors birth place) and I always photograph any graves with County Clare on them.

I googled John's place of birth 'Dicet'. It should read 'Dysert' and was spelt phonetically by the grave mason. Simarly, Mary's place of birth must have been a phonetic spelling as well.

There are three separate headstones in the grave.

1. Catherine Mary, died 5 November 1897.

2. John and Mary, died 8 December 1892 and 19 January 1895.

3. Margaret Frances, died 7 December 1901.

I have uploaded the main grave photo. If anyone wants the indidvidual headstone photos, please let me know.

Richard

 

 

howlongwarrior…

Hi Richard:

Many thanks for your post and for your sharing the photo of the family grave which I'm sure that Sherryl will really appreciate!  

 

Please feel free to add any of the other familly headstones onto the XOChronicles under the Ancestor Profiles if you have the time. 

The link is here:  https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy

All the best,

 

Jane

jhalloranryan@…

Jane is right, thank you Richard for the photo. I haven't been able to make it out to Scone as yet so this is very welcome, especially seeing the proximity of the gravestones to each other.

Again, thank you

Sherryl

Shezzam

Roger and Jane, I appreciate your warm welcome and motivation. I'll undoubtedly look into the Ruan parish's resources.

Regards 

happy wheels

realizecookies

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.