Costigan of Borrisnoe and Maher of Clonakenny

Hello Christine

Thank you for your post and for joining Bournea reaching out. Sorry for the delay in answering your post.  Borrisnoe is in the parish of Bournea/Bourney at the foot of the Devil?s Bit Mountain and the nearest village is Clonakenny. Both townsland are full of Costigan and Maher names related and not related. The problem is finding which your relations are.

Baptismal/Birth Records of Tipperary (North)

Surname:                                  Costigan

First name:                                John

Father?s First name:                   John

Mother?s surname:                     Maher

Mother?s First name:                  Margaret

Year:                                        1863:

Parish/District:                         Couraguneen (Bourney) RC

I have copied the Birth & Marriage records from rootsireland.ie. Here is proof that the record exists and you can purchase it on http://tipperarynorth.rootsireland.ie  it?s a pay for view site. I can only find one son John baptized in these records. I don?t know if he had any siblings. I also found a marriage record for them (see below). If you purchase the certs you will find out more info.  

Marriage Records of Tipperary (North)

Surname:                                  Costigan

First name:                                John

Spouse?s surname:                    Maher

Spouse?s First name:                 Margaret

Year:                                        1858

Parish/District:                         Couraguneen (Bourney) RC

We in Bournea Reaching Out have a meeting once a month and we are holding our March meeting tomorrow night Tue the 4^th. Part of our group includes Jim Kennedy and Michael and Eileen Costigan from Clonakenny. We will discuss your post and see if we can distinguish your relatives. You are most welcome to come and visit at anytime to the Bournea area

Tim Lee

Bournea Reaching Out

Hi,

I am a cousin of Christine Timoney and have joined this site at Christine's suggestion.

We obviously have Irish ancestors in common and are therefore interested in anything can can be fond out about John Costigan, baptised 14 May 1863, and hits wife Margaret Maher.

My husband and I will be visiting Ireland in September and have a few days (8-10 Sep 2014) to follow up family history and visit various sites such as the Devil's Bit. It would be wonderful to actually meet some long lost Costigan and/or Maher relations and discover some local history first hand.

We will be collaborating and sharing any discoveries with Christine Timoney.

We have a lot to do before we head off from Sydney Australia to Europe in mid August.

Regards,

Julie and Neil Grill

+61 2 46281333 or +61 418610072

email: jgrill@grillconnect.com

Just want to offer a quick word of support for Julie and Neil Grill and the message above. One small correction / clarification ... Julie, your great-grandfather (and my grandfather) John Costigan who was baptised in 1863 was the SON, not the husband, of Margaret nee Maher of Clonakenny. Margaret Maher married another John Costigan, and they were the parents of John baptised in 1863.

To the Bournea Reaching Out group, I'm sorry but I prepared a comprehensive thank you message and added an attachment, intended to reach you before your Tuesday night meeting but it seems to have disappeared into cyberspace. I'll respond again very soon, but please accept my sincere and very excited THANKS for your response to date.

Christine Timoney

Hi Julie and Neil  & Hi Christine

Thank you for joining Bournea Reaching Out Julie, Great to hear you are coming to our parish and surrounding areas for a visit this year.

We had our Bournea Reaching Out meeting on the 4^th of March and discussed your post on the Costigan & Maher families in Borrisnoe and Clonakenny. The problem we had on the night was to make a distinction between the families, as there are a lot of Costigan and Maher families in this area. Even allowing for the fact that we have broke it down to each townsland we are still having problems.

We have identified the family in rootsireland.ie but trying to identify the families now is the problem. Maybe you can help a bit more; did you ever hear of a nickname in either of the families? Was there any place name or anything at all that you might not think would be significant but could relate to our parish? They might have named a house after a name that came from here etc?  

We have a family tree that we think might be yours but not sure.

Sorry we haven?t sorted it out for you yet but with time I think we can.

Tim Lee Bournea Reaching Out  

Thank you, Tim. And please, I'm sure I speak on behalf of Julie and Neil and the rest of our clan in Australia when I say that we understand there are a great many Costigan and Maher families in the area so please don't apologise that our queries don't have instant answers. We must expect this to take some time to unravel. We are very grateful to have contact with local people and appreciate anything at all you can do to help us. Would it help if I shared with you what we know or believe at the moment of John (the son John in the messages above) Costigan's siblings? For example, that his sister Margaret, baptised 22/03/1873 at Borrisnoe emigrated to USA and became Sister Mary Lidwina of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX. Would you like me to send the rest of what we have of John's and Margaret's siblings - mainly baptisms? Is this the best forum to send that information, or should I email instead? Many, many thanks and kind regards. Chris Timoney, Western Australia

Sorry, but in my clarification above, I compounded the problem by making a different error of my own! I sought to clarify that John Costigan baptised 1863 (my grandfather) was not married to Margaret Maher - she was in fact his mother. 

But I was wrong when I said that he was Julie's great-grandfather. Julie is not of this John Costigan's line, but of his sister Mary Anne, who was Julie's great-grandmother. Mary Anne was baptised 01/03/1862 in Borrisnoe. Mary Anne and John (1863) and their siblings were the children of John Costigan and Margaret Maher (married 15/02/1858 Cournaganeen), who are therefore the ancestors Julie and I have in common.

Small part of the jigsaw but I hated to leave that error on the record to muddy the already difficult waters. Thanks again for your help.

Chris Timoney, Western Australia

Whoa ... feels like a roller-coaster ride! I have it from more distant family (descendants of James** below) in Australia (although I've not verified it myself yet with documentation) that the parents of our John Costigan who married Margaret Maher were:

John Costigan born 1795, and Ellen Nowlan

I'm told they were married in Ireland in 1814.

Their children:

• Johanna born 25/01/1815 - married 31/05/1838 William O'Neil (b 1814 Killea, where I'm told there are still lots of Costigans!) - arrived Australia 1840. Both died in Australia, William 15/02/1888, Johanna 24/03/1906
• James** born 20/06/1821 - arrive/d Australia 1840. Married in Australia. Died in Australia 15/06/1895
• John  birth date unknown - married Margaret Maher of Clonakenny. These are teh parents of Julie's great-grandmother Mary Anne (baptised 1862) and my grandfather John Costigan (baptised 1863)

I hope this helps unlock a few doors.

Not sure if it's helpful to give you the details of the other children of John Costigan and Margaret Maher as most of them emigrated to Australia, one to USA, so they would not have descendants in your district now. However:

• One son Daniel Costigan baptised 31/05/1860 in Clonakenny may have stayed on in Ireland and may still have descendants there ...?
• Also James Costigan born 06/02/1865 & baptised Borrisnoe 11/02/1865 may have stayed in Ireland ... possible local descendants?
• And Catherine baptised Bourney 25/06/1870 ... I don't know if Catherine survived childhood to go on to have descendants, nor do I know if she emigrated or stayed in Ireland.

Tim, please tell me to stop if I'm overloading your system or your goodwill!!

Kind regards,

Chris Timoney, Western Australia

Hello, I know this is an old post but I found a Sister Mary Lidwana aka Margaret Costigan's death record in San Antonio, Texas from May 21, 1962. On the death record it shows her parents as Margaret Maher and John costigan. She was born on March 25, 1872. Maybe you already had this information but thought I'd share anyway.

Regards, 

Cynthia Costigan

Thank you, Cynthia. Yes, that record for Sister Lidwina’s death definitely places her in this family that I was seeking in my post here. Since that original post in 2014, I have visited the Bournea parish from Australia three times and made many wonderful new friends in the Bournea Reaching Out community and among my own second and third cousins, both Costigan and Maher. 

I note, of course, that your surname is Costigan. Do you mind if I ask if you are connected to Costigan roots in Garretts Mill, or Borrisnoe or other Costigan families in that general area, or maybe even the Templetuohy Costigans? 

Thank you for making contact to share what you have found on my family roots in Bournea. If you have any interest in the family of Sister Lidwina, I’m happy to share with you comprehensive information about her eight siblings and their descendants, including two nieces who later joined her at the same convent in San Antonio. 

Kind regards, Chris Timoney

Hi

I'm very late to the party but I've just started my family tree and I am a descendant of Margaret Maher(my 2nd Great Grandaunt).I'm not sure if I have the correct details of her life but I would love to hear from her descendants!

Thanks 

Alison Anderson 

Hello, Alison, and welcome to Bournea. No problem about being 'late to the party' - we're still a very active group who meet monthly, and we are delighted to hear from you. A few questions to get the conversation moving:

Do you know that your Margaret Maher and mine are the same person? I'd be interested to see what information you already have that would help here. I am in Australia, descended from one of her emigrant children. Four went to Australia, one to USA (a nun, with no descendants there), while two sons and two daughters remained in Ireland.

Would you please share what you already know - dates, locations, baptism, marriage, death, whatever you have - about your relative Margaret and / or her siblings (I say siblings because you indicate you are descended from one of them, if she is your second-great-grand-aunt)?

And final question for the moment, have you taken a DNA test? If yes, we have a parish-wide DNA GEDmatch project to help in connecting relatives and descendants world-wide of people from the parish of Bournea.

Thanks again for contacting Bournea Reaching Out and let's keep the conversation going via our email address bourneareachingout@gmail.com. Kind regards from Chris Timoney

Hi Chris,

Fingers crossed I have the same Margaret Maher(its bloody confusing with the amount of Mahers/Meagher!) She was born on the 14th May in Shanakill, her parents were Michael Maher 1796-1868 and Mary Kennedy 1805-1892. My descendants are from her brother Martin 1841-1913. If I have it right she had 11 siblings I think. Then it gets a bit confusing I'm not sure if the family went to Canada, but my 2nd Great Grandad returned to Ireland and married Mary Hertnan and then my great grandmother moved to England and that's were my family stayed. I have had my DNA done with the Ancestry website but have no clue how to share this.

Hopefully I have the right Margaret Maher!

Ali

Thanks for prompt response, Alison. You have come to the right place with this query. The Bournea parish lies at the heart of the territory of the old Gaelic clan O'Meachair, and as you so rightly pointed out the Maher / Meagher surname is everywhere here! There are so many modern-day Maher families that locally some of the different branches of Mahers have nicknames to help sort them. That Maher family you mentioned in Shanakill are known as Maher 'Red'. Bournea Reaching Out has a long-term ambition to untangle the threads of the many nineteenth century Maher / Meagher families in this and neighbouring parishes.

You mentioned a bit of confusion around Martin going to Canada and returning to Ireland, and then you have his marriage in Ireland followed by his daughter's migration to England, so the first step would be to review that line with our volunteers to ensure that we have the correct Martin Maher. If you are descended from Martin Maher 'Red' of Shanakill b1841, then your Margaret and mine are not the same person, but you probably ARE distantly related to one of our highly skilled genealogy volunteers who is descended from Martin's brother John. This volunteer incidentally is also my third cousin on a different family line, not our Mahers. I can check with her whether you are a DNA match to her on Ancestry - unless you use an alias on Ancestry that we would not recognise. However, I have already checked her first cousin's Ancestry matches fairly thoroughly and you don't appear to be on that list, at least not under a name I would recognise as you.

If you're up for the challenge, we have the capacity to help with some detailed picking through your Maher line, using traditional genealogy, DNA matching and that most valuable of resources, local knowledge. We meet on the first Tuesday of every month except January, in a 'hybrid' meeting with half the group face-to-face in the local community hall and the rest of us on Zoom from our homes in Ireland, USA and Australia. Our December monthly meeting was yesterday, so our next formal meeting will be Tuesday 3rd February, and you would be welcome to join that or a later meeting from wherever you are in the world (England?). With the Christmas season almost on us, I suggest you strike while the iron is hot and email now what sources you have on Martin, his parents, siblings and descendants to bourneareachingout@gmail.com so that some among our volunteers (probably including myself) can start investigating. Also, if you have access to your Ancestry account where you DNA results are held, transferring your raw DNA data from Ancestry to our project is easy and our DNA project manager will happily send you the written instructions, or one of us will guide you through the steps if you prefer.

When you email, it would help if you mention that you and I have already been corresponding on the Ireland Reaching Out message board. In the meantime, I will see if I can get the webmaster to transfer this whole thread to the Bournea parish message board, which is where I originally posted my opening message before it was relocated when the old website was closed and this site launched years ago.

Some of us will be excited to explore your Maher line, and we look forward to hearing from you by email.

Kind regards again from Chris Timoney, Bournea Reaching Out volunteer.