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Catherine Farmer, daughter of James Farmer. Born around 1834.

Catherine left Ireland for Australia by the Caroline Chisholm Childrens scheme.  A government notice in the Melbourne Agrus Newspaper dated 25 January 1848 states "notice is given for parents who may reside at a distance from Melbourne and who may have reason to expect their children to arrive are to make steps to collect them on arrival." 

Catherine was listed as one of these children, however she was not met by her family but was put into the custody of John O'Connell and as far as my family oral history goes she never saw her family again.  Her papers state she came from Cleenish and was a housemaid.

What I cannot understand is why a family would leave a child of less then fourteen years old behind in Ireland when they were going to the other side of the world.

I would like to find out more about Catherine.  Was she born in Cleenish or was it employment that took her there?  Did she has siblings?  What happened to her parents?  When she was born? Are there living relatives still in Ireland?

I have plenty of information once she arrived in Australia but know so little of her from Ireland.  Her story is incomplete and I fear I will never know.  Do you have any ideas on how I should proceed.

 

dorothy@nature…

3 replies

Dear Dolly:

I have looked up the surname Farmer for you under John Grenham's website which gives the occurrence of the name by county and it can be used to try to narrow down the search for ancestors if you aren't sure where they came from.

 

Here is the link:  https://www.johngrenham.com/findasurname.php?surname=Farmer

You will note that it is a more common name in the northern counties such as Fermanagh, Tyrone but that it does occur in other parts of Ireland (Cork and Kerry).  

I was interested in the post as there was a Farmer family living in Clooney, County Clare.  They are listed as having 2 daughter born in the 1830s:  Margaret baptised 4 November 1839 and Ann baptised on October 1835.  Their parents were:  Michael Farmer and Mary McMahon.  There isn't any Catherine listed.  

If you can find any other information about Catherine such as a parent's name, please let me know and we will do our best to see if we can help you.

Good luck and stay safe.

All the best,

 

Jane

jhalloranryan@…

Thank you Jane for you quick reply.  I am sorry I forgot to mention Catherine came from Cleenish Fermanagh which was listed on her arrival papers for the ship Sir Edward Parry.  Her death certificate states that her father was James Farmer and of course we know that death details are only as good as the person filling in the form and maybe incorrect.  Also there was a witness at her marriage for a Jane Farmer, but we do not know if she was a relative or not, otherwise I have no other clues about family.

I have done my DNA with Ancestry in the hopes of finding a living relative In Ireland but have had no success, other than cousins I have already made contact with from her children in Australia.

I haven't been able to find out who her family was, what townland she came from, who she worked for or who she lived with when her family left her, or how she got from Fermanagh to where she boarded the Sir Edward Parry.  As you can see I have lots of unanswered questions that seem will never be answered.

I have checked the 1823-1838 Tithe Applotment Index for Cleenish and found a number of Farmers but don't know how to use this information to further my search on these people.  What I can say is that Catherine named her sons; Felix, Patrick, and Thomas  but I suppose they are common names and don't really help.

Farmer, Felix.  Cleenish.  Drummaren.  1834

Farmer, Patrick.  Cleenish.  Mullaghmaddy.  1834

Farmer, Thos, Cleenish.  Mullaghmaddy.  1834

Farmer, Hugh.  Cleenish.  Oldtown.  1834

Farmer, Patrick.  Cleenish.  Oldtown.  1834

Farmer, Terence.  Cleenish.  Oldtown.  1834

Farmer, Widow.  Cleenish.  Oldtown.  1834

Farmer, Gib.  Cleenish.  Sessnagh.  1834

Farmer, Patt.  Cleenish.  Sessnagh.  1834. 

Farmer, Felix.  Cleenish.  Shammullagh.  1834

I know I am looking for a lot of questions that are probably difficult to answer.  But any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Dorothy

 

dorothy@nature…

Hello Dolly & Jane, I had noticed your query as a friend married a Catherine Farmer many years ago, in a much different part of Ireland, there is only one Catherine Record for a baptism in County Cork, about 200 miles away. I looked over the baptisms in Fermanagh and the nearest ones are in Kilgawley, and a few in the Annagh or Anna area of Cavan, the counties adjoin, the name Felix is unusual enough compared to the other ones. It would assist to know what religion she was, as we only have church records in the main, mind you at the age she was adopted she may have just went along with it.

There is a Flax Growers list of 1796, just a register of people growing flax, there is a Hugh Farmer in Creenish, see https://www.failteromhat.com/flax1796all.php also Fermanagh is now in Northern Ireland since 1922 so some records may be in https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni ;

However at the remove you are in a good place even to know the parish, there are a number of well moderated private Facebook pages for each county doing genealogy, some are just record driven while others do Gedmatch DNA matching using the Gedmatch site, if you are not on Gedmatch read their therms and conditions as some people are not happy with the police having acceess for serious crime, mainly murder but make your own mind up. I am not on a Fermanagh site but some some groups are using smaller areas for comparison but in some cases the numbers using the site are too low to help and everyone is more or less stuck as you are, some of them post photos of the area too so you may see something.

You may find this site in looking at civil parishes and townlands etc, sometimes church parishes do not correspond to civil ones or even have the same name. https://www.townlands.ie/ ;

Good Luck

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

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