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Holland family, Urlingford, 1840s

KilkennyUrlingford (Kilkenny)

I am interested in any information that may be available about a Holland family who were apparently living at Urlingford in 1848.

In particular, I am interested in a Richard Holland, who was probably born around 18101825.

My interest in Richard Holland comes from DNA matches that I have with his descendants, via his daughter Julia Holland (later Shelley). Julia was reportedly born on 14 June 1848 at Urlingford; she emigrated to the USA (probably in 1860s), and married a man named John Shelley (who was also reportedly born in Ireland).

My great-great grandmother was Mary Holland (later Lee), who was probably born in about 1825. Unfortunately we have no information about Mary's date or place of birth, parents or any sisters or brothers that she may have had. (https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/ancestor-databas ).

The DNA matches mentioned above are consistent with Mary and Richard being either first cousins, or brother and sister.

Thank you for your time.

Grant.

Grant Lee

3 replies

Do you know what religious denomination your Holland family were ?

The baptism registers for the Catholic parish of Urlingford go back to May 1805, and a search shows a number of Holland baptisms from about 1806 onward, but no sign that I could see of a Richard. I also checked the adjacent parishes, i.e. Galmoy, Moyne & Templetouhy *,Gortnahoe *,  Freshford, Tullaroan and Johnstown … (* these two are in County Tipperary), where I located a few possible matches, although outside the timeframe you mentioned :

Richd (Richard) Holland baptised Freshford RC parish in 1809, parents Edmd (Edmond) and Cath (Catherine)
Richard Holland baptised Freshford RC parish  in 1835, parents John and Cathe (Catherine)
Dick Holand baptised Gortnahoe RC parish 1830, parents (Micl) Michael and Judy Dorgan (Dargan)
Dick Holand baptised Gortnahoe RC parish 1833, to the same parents, likely the first Dick died when he was young and they reused the name..

No sign of a good match for your Richard... maybe he was born a little before the start of the baptism records in the parish in 1805...did he also move to the US ?, if so have you found any details on his parent's names, e.g. from a death cert ?

I also checked for Julia’s baptism c1848, and the closest match in Urlingford RC parish was a Judy Holland baptised 16th June 1847 with parents Richard Holland & Catherine Manton.

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi, Shane and thanks for all of that interesting information.

There are indications that my Hol(l)and relatives were Catholics. For example, my great-grandfather, the son of Mary Lee (nèe Holland), was given a Catholic funeral.

My key sources regarding Julia Shelley (nèe Holland) and her father, Richard, have been their actual, direct descendants in the US. From what I can gather, they don't know much more about the family in Ireland, including the name of Julia's mother. It appears that Julia's middle initial was "M.", but I haven't been able to ascertain what it stood for. She died in 1937, in Joliet, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). Her children (with John Shelley) were named Mary, Theresa, Anna, William, Agnes, Joseph and Helen.

I have seen family trees (at Ancestry.com etc) that include the Judy Holland you mention, born in 1847 and a daughter of Richard and Catherine. It's plausible that Julia and Judy were the same person. Some trees claim that Catherine's maiden name was "Maloney", which I assume is a misreading of Manton or vice versa.

One possibility that occurred to me recently, with regard to the grim historical context of 1847/1848, was that the family may have been residents of the workhouse in Urlingford. The workhouse took in families from an area that included parts of Laois. This would tie in with a suggestion, from other "DNA relatives" that their Holland ancestors lived in the parishes of Rathdowney and/or Durrow.

Grant Lee

PS I haven't seen any suggestion that Richard Holland emigrated to the USA, although it's obviously possible.

It's also possible that Richard Holland moved to England. That is, my great-great-grandmother, Mary Lee (nèe Holland), probably married Edward Lee (senior) in England. The evidence is that their son, Edward James Lee, stated, on his marriage certificate, that he had been born in "England", in either 1854 or 1855. This certificate is also our only solid source regarding his parents. Since I also have substantial DNA matches with people named Lee in England as early as the 1770s, my current hypothesis is that Edward Lee senior was an Englishman, whom Mary Holland married after moving to England.

Grant Lee

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