Gavin Family Mountbellew

Dear Irishballadeer

Welcome to Irland Reaching Out!

There is a baptism record on rootsireland.ie for a Patrick Gavin in 1826. However it would be difficult to tell if this is your Patrick as we don?t know his mother?s pre-marriage name. Also as this is a subscription site I am limited in what I can see. It might be a good idea to have a look as there is only one record for a Patrick Gavin with a father Patrick in Co. Galway between 1820 and 1830. It could be that Patrick was born in a parish and at a time that predates parish records. RC parish records for Moylough/Mountbellew don't begin until 1848.

There are 8 baptisms records for a Bridget Conry on that site between 1822 and 1832 in Co. Galway. You might be able to learn a little more by using familysearch.org but at this stage given the sparse info as to parents? names it could be a guessing game. There are 10 Gavin entries on the Griffith?s Valuation (1847-1864), some of whom may be a link to you Patrick?s family (assuming all of the Gavin family didn?t emigrate).

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNam…

There are a few Gavin family members listed on the 1901 and 1911 Census

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=Gavin&exact=&firstname=&county19011911=Galway&county1821=&county1831=&county1841=&county1851=&townland=&ded=&age=&sex=&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&search=Search&sort=dedSort&pageSize=100&houseNumber=&familiesNumber=&malesNumber=&femalesNumber=&maleServNumber=&femaleServNumber=&estChurchNumber=&romanCatNumber=&presbNumberDiv=&protNumber=&parish=&barony=&yearsMarried=&causeOfDeath=&yearOfDeath=&familyId=&ageInMonths=&pager.offset=200

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1911&surname=Gavin&exact=&firstname=&county19011911=Galway&county1821=&county1831=&county1841=&county1851=&townland=&ded=&age=&sex=&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&search=Search&sort=dedSort&pageSize=100&houseNumber=&familiesNumber=&malesNumber=&femalesNumber=&maleServNumber=&femaleServNumber=&estChurchNumber=&romanCatNumber=&presbNumberDiv=&protNumber=&parish=&barony=&yearsMarried=&causeOfDeath=&yearOfDeath=&familyId=&ageInMonths=&pager.offset=200

There are over 100 baptism records for children born to a father first name Patrick. If we could narrow things down we could try to follow Patrick?s potential siblings? names and find it easier to locate the extended family in the Census. Have you managed to find their UK marriage record?

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

Thank you Clare for the information. Unfortunately, I am way out in uncharted waters as far as existing family knowledge. It took several years of investigation and a bit of Irish luck for me to get back to Patrick and Bridget's generation as apparently the ancestors didn't past on much of the family history. I'll obtain the baptism records for the Patrick you mentioned and see if I can confirm any relation. I may have to do some recon at St. Mary's and Aghyart Cemeteries to see if any Gavins were allowed in. (Oh darn another trip to the auld sod) Also the Mountbellew workhouse or Poor Law Union records may give me the name of a possible sibling. Only scratched the surface reading the online info.

Hopefully, a Gavin from the area might be able to add to our family's history someday.

Hi again

There are a few Gavin entries here:

http://historicgraves.com/graveyard/aghyart/ga-agrt

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support 

Patrick left Galway for Halifax Yorkshire. Not Lancashire as in original post.

I have asked a volunteer in a neighbouring parish to have a look, I hope he will be in touch soon

Best wishes
Clare
Genealogy Support

Hi 

I have a Michael Gavin b c1838? married to Bridget Dooley, Mt Bellew, Galway c1864, children Thomas, Martin, Bridget and Elizabeth 'Annie'.  It appears that Michael died abt 1874 and Bridget remarried to a Thomas Haverty.  Interestingly, Bridget's family immigrated to Clay Lane, Derbyshire between 1851 ad 1861.  It appears the Dooley family along with many others from the same area were chasing work in the coal mines.  I don't know if this Michael Gavin fits into your family tree, but it may help some time in the future when you have more pieces of your jig saw.

Kind regards

Kerryn

Kerryn:

Thanks for the information on Michael Gavin. I cannot make a connection at this time, but I appreciate your effort.

Rob

I apologise for taking so long to update my post. In March 2015 I visited Mountbellew with my daughter. The closed grocery store next to our B&B had the sign "Gavins" above the door. I figured we were on the right track. We visited St Mary's RC Church and ajoining cemetary. Several Gavins are buried there but none I could relate directly to our lineage. We met one of the local morticians at the Bridge Bar (Pub) and asked him if he knew any Gavins. He asked if we would be around the Pub at 9:30pm, which we agreed we could. He said some of the Gavins should be at the pub by then. Sure enough we met a young man home for Easter with the surname Gavin. We explained what we were looking for and he asked if we had been to the Ballinlass Memorial yet. We confirmed Aghyart Cemetary and the memoral were on the agenda after Easter Mass at St Marys. He indicated we would find it interesting and he would check with their family member who knew the most of their family tree and meet us back at the pub the next night. We shared a pint and a shot of Redbreast. The next day we attended Easter Mass at St. Marys. After Mass I spoke with the Priest and he invited me back to his home to view Church records. As stated above the records start in the mid-late 1840s which is too late for our Patrick but I took photos of the pages in case for future use. We then spent most of the day at Aghyart Cem. and the Ballinlass Memorial. Imagine the surprise to see 12 Gavin Families inscribed on the Memorial to one of the worst evictions in Irish History even though their rents were offered to make cow pasture. Several Patrick Gavins are inscribed in stone. I'd like to think this is why my 2X Great Grandfather left Ireland and looked for work in England. From what I have read, it was common for men from the area to go to England to work and then come back to Galway to supplement their farm income. This may be a bit corney, but a herd of cattle came to see us while at the memorial almost to say welcome home. Being from Kansas farm country, we of course had to pet them and scratch their ears.

True to his word, we met back at the Bridge Bar the next evening. His lineage could be traced back to 1826 also, but no direct connection could be ade. We traded information and kept in contact by email. I offered to pay for Y-DNA testing if he would agree and he would keep all control to the test data, he agreed an in January 2016 I had to call him with the bad news that we were related to the same grandfather approx. 8 generations back. This confirmed my many years of detective work to find the ancestral homeand of our Gavin lineage. 

I hope to get back soon. My daughter is getting married so cash will be alittle short for a trip back this year, but hopefully soon, we would love to share a pint with more of the Gavins still in the area.

I know this is a old post but if the person is still around please let me know if you have a Dna test done on Ancestry and if so please give me your user name.