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Family of John Hughes

Meath

Hello,

This post is regarding the family of my 3rd great grandfather, John Hughes. He was born March 1830 in Co. Meath. Parents are Michael Hughes and Anne Goodhall/Gudall. I did finda Catholic Baptism record for an Anne Hughes, born 16 Nov 1843 to Michael Hughes and Anne Gudall at Stamullen.

John married Ann Welch, parents are Patrick Welch and Honora Welch. I don't know if they married in Ireland or in Liverpool, where they lived in the 1850's before emigrating to the U.S. They had 3 children while living in Liverpool. They came to the U.S. in 1864.

This information came from John's U.S.Naturalization documents, and death records for both John and Ann.

I've looked at the Griffith's papers and could not find anything on Michael Hughes. But I would sure like to know if there's any information available regarding John and his parents. Also to see if John was married in Co. Meath.

Thank you for your time and availabliity.

Best Regards,

Tim Jones

satman2012

9 replies

Unfortunately the baptism register for Stamullen Catholic Parish only go back to the beginning of 1831, so just miss out on John's baptism if he was born in 1830, marriage records for the parish are available back to 1830. . I checked for any other possible siblings to John and Anne in the Stammullen baptism registers and found the following :

Peter bapt. 30th June 1836
Catherine bapt. 8th November 1838
James bapt. 23rd March 1841
[Ann bapt. 16th November 1843]
Michael 7th April 1846

Michael may have died before Griffith's was carried out in Co. Meath (1854), or maybe the family lived in some sort of shared accomodation and not included in the valuation.

Griffith's Valuation used Civil Parishes, and the Catholic Parishes often included areas in a few different civil parishes - in the case of Stamullin RC it covered Stamullin, Ballygarth, Julianstown and Moorechurch civil parishes. A search of these four civil parishes on Griffith's for anyone with the surname Hughes shows two matches, both in Julianstown civil parish, a Peter Hughes in Ministown townland, and a possible match for your John at Julianstown West townland. The property listed for John is a small house with no land leased from a William Moore. Mr. More is also the lessor for several other nearby small houses, so probably a labourer's cottages.

I checked for a possible marriage of John Hughes and Ann Walsh/Welsh in Catholic records in Ireland but found no promising matches. Do you know the surname for Ann's mother Honora ?

The surname Walsh/Welsh is very common in the south Ireland, particularly counties Kilkenny, Cork & Waterford..also present in large numbers in Co. Mayo and some other counties.

 

 

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Shanew147,

Thank you so much for looking into this for me, and for sharing with me what you found. I'm excited to find out about additional siblings for John.

Since marriage records didn't start until 1830, then it looks like any possible marriage info for Michael and Anne Gudall wouldn't be available. 

Regarding Griffith's Valuation, thanks for clarifying how Catholic Parishes differed from Civil Parishes.

The listings for Peter and John are interesting. In 1854 John would have been 24 years old, and Peter would have been 18. Looks like Julianstown is close enough in proximity so they might have been the men listed. I don't know how common the Hughes name is in this geographical area, and whether or not there could have been other John or Peter Hughes' there at that time.

The term labourer's cottages seems so bleak. 

John was living in Liverpool by 1856-57 as their son James Hughes was born there. 

Regarding the marriage between John and Ann Welch, I don't know how much of a difference the spelling makes, and whether Welch is the same as Welsh or Walsh. What little I have from written family records is that John and Ann were from Co. Meith or Mayo. It was never really well defined. I was lucky enough to find John's U.S. Naturalization Records which stated he was from Meith. So it's possible Ann was from Mayo. Unfortunately none of the U.S. records I've found for Ann states her maiden name.  

Although I've been receiving updates from Ireland Reaching Out for several years, this is the first time I've reached out. Really glad you're here! I have at least 5 other sets of 3rd great grandparents to look into, all of whom came from different areas of Ireland. It's been really challenging because nearly all U.S. records merely state them as being from Ireland. No specifics.

I don't have any photos of John, although I have a photo of his written signature. I do have a photo of Ann. 

Thank you again!

Best Regards,

Tim  

 

 

satman2012

Peter would have been a little young to hold property at age 18, likely he was living with his mother or other older family, but first-names often ran in families so it's prossible the this Peter mentioned on Griffith's could be related in some way, maybe brother or cousin to Michael, especially as he is in the same area, around the rght timeframe.

Many surnames have variation in spelling and pronunciation - in this case Walsh/Welsh covers both angles. In part of the south, e.g. Waterford the surname is spelt Walsh, but sounded as "Welsh"...

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Hello,

I don't know if there could be a connection here but some of your information has similarities to my search.  My great grandfather Peter was born around 1834-35 in Ireland.  He emigrated to Canada sometime from 1834-1861 and may have been in the Richmond, Quebec area for a time. Peter married Catherine Watson in Canada sometime around 1861.  They had sons John, Thomas, William, Peter, and Donald (my grandfather), and a daughter Eliza and lived in Lancaster-Bainsville area of Glengarry county, Ontario, Canada where Peter passed away in 1913, Catherine passed in 1920.  Peters' Death Cert indicated his father's name was Michael Hughes.

I've had one fairly good DNA hit on FamilyTree at a level of 2 using 111 markers. That relates a possible 85% chance of an 8th generation shared common ancestor and a 99% chance of a 12th generation shared common ancestor. His name is Robert John Hughes and all his relatives reside in Canada. He's been searching for a Bernard and a Michael as grandfathers born in Ireland.

Thank you.

ddhughes3

This is interesting, your great-grandfather Peter Hughes (b 1834-35) who's father is Michael Hughes. I did testing on FTDNA and there are some Hughes matches that I have. I also have a tree on their site. My kit is N105692.

 

satman2012

Hi, interesting in the above posts, will try and keep this brief.
My gtgtgt grandfather was Arthur Hughes born circa 1810. Nothing more on him apart from him being roman Catholic. He never married the mother of his son (my gtgt grandfather).

I have an inkling he is the Arthur married to Martha willis, married and settled in Liverpool. His father was Patrick and according to trees on ancesry Arthur had a brother Michael.
I am dna matched on ftdna with a descendant of Peter Hughes and Catherine Watson. With Michael being Peters father

Could this Michael, the brother of my Arthur, be Peters father???
I'm not sure whether one can post email address on this site or I would.
Would love to hear from anyone that can help with this.
Regards
Elaine

elainegray2010…

Hello, a question regarding the Parish at Stamullen.

As it was built in 1830, where did RC parishoners go for services before 1830? Were there traveling priests who came to Stamullen for services? I did some research on this question but couldn't find anything out about the topic.

Thank you.

Tim

satman2012

There may have been a previous chapel of some sort on the same site, in many cases mass and sacraments took place in other buildings, e.g. barns etc, temporary thatched structures or even outside - see mass rocks.  Very few proper Catholic church buildings date from before the 1830s, as all the old church property was taken over by the Church of England or handed over to gentry as part of the reformation/dissolution of the monasteries.

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Shane. I appreciate your explaination.

Tim

satman2012

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