Hugh Wilson Ireland-Australia

Robin,

I am one of IRO’s volunteers for Northern Ireland. Unfortunately I will be out of the country in August and so not able to meet your daughter. Hopefully Bob may be able to assist though.

I did look at the records for Drumkeeran around the time your ancestors were there.  The tithe applotment records show just 2 Robert Wilson farms in the parish in 1832. Both were in the townland of Muckross or Muckros. One was held by Robert Wilson senior and the other by Robert junior. So very possibly father & son.

The tithes only listed people with land. So if your Robert was a farmer, then this could be where he lived. If however he was a labourer or some other profession without land, then he wouldn’t be listed in the tithes.

By the time of Griffiths Valuation in 1862, there was just one Wilson farm in the townland. It was plot 11, a 3 acre farm (so very small, even by Irish standards). The tenant was Catherine Wilson. Usually where a woman is shown as tenant of a farm she’s a widow. Her name remains as tenant till 1871 when she is replaced by Frances Wilson. He in turn was replaced by Isabella Gillinane (or similar) in 1896, and then by Gordon Armstrong. There are no Wilsons in the townland in the 1901 census.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Drumrush/Muc…

The farm today is on the Muckros Rd, a mile or so west of Kesh. You can see where it is by using the maps on the Griffiths Valuation site.

The burial records for Ardess list a Catherine Wilson of Muckross being buried 12.5.1847 (no age recorded).  I also see a death for a Catherine Wilson on 5th June 1873 aged 82, who might be the person who appears in Griffiths. You can view the original certificate on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.

The local Church of Ireland records start in 1801, so should contain Hugh's baptism, which may confirm whether Muckross was his townland. There's a copy in PRONI in Belfast where they can be viewed free. The local chruch appears to hold the originals but if you ask to see them expect to pay, as the Church of Ireland normally charges for access.

 

 

Robin,

I don’t know if there’s a headstone in St Mary’s churchyard. The burial information comes from church burial records, not from a gravestone transcription. Only wealthier people could afford a gravestone in the mid 1850s, so the majority of the population were buried without one.  But you never know.  Unless anyone happens to have transcribed the gravestones there (they may be on some of the pay to view sites), you may need to get someone to search the graveyard for you.

I can’t say whether the Wilson families in Derrynieve and Drummoney may be related to your family, other than to mention that it’s a very common surname in Fermanagh. In the 1901 census there were 569 people of that name in the county.  Derrynieve and Drummoney are both in Drumkeeran parish, so they might be related or it could just be that they all share a common surname. (Wilson is a Border Reiver surname, and very common in Fermanagh. It was heavily settled by Scots from the Borders in the 1600s. Hundreds of Wilsons moved to Ireland at that time. Not all would be related to each other).

You say you couldn’t find the 2 entries in the census. Here they are:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Drumkeeran/Derrynieve/1353911/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Drumkeeran/Drummoney/1353933

The 1901 census you found for Knocknamoul lists a Robert Pollock who was a single man. He was a farmer and lived with his aunt (Mrs. Wilson is all they put on the census) and 2 servants – Cassie Maguire and Tomie (Tommy) Neely. Presumably Robert’s mother had a sister who married a Mr Wilson.

The church records you have referred to (MIC1/37) are those for Drumeekran Church of Ireland. As I mentioned in my post on 14th July, they have been copied and are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast, under that reference number.  They are not on-line there, and you (or your daughter) need to go in person to look them up. Or you could get a researcher to do it for you.

The 1792 and 1806 baptisms you have mentioned were in Dublin, some 120 miles from Fermanagh. I very much doubt they are connected to your family. I suspect someone has been searching on-line databases and making matches based solely on names (which are all very common ones), and not taking into account geography. Not all church records have survived and of those that do exist, not all are on-line. In this particular case, Drumkeeran has no records before 1801 so if your ancestor was born there around 1792, there’s probably no record of their baptism to find.

I think you shoudl start by searching for Hugh’s baptism in Drumkeeran church records. If you can find it an d pinpoint the townland that the family lived in, then you have a chance of working forward from that definite information. Otherwise it’s guesswork, and with it being such a common surname in the area, you need to be very sure of finding the right family. 

St Mary’s church is still functioning. Here’s the Rector and Curates’ contact details:

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/find-a-church/parish/10930/magheraculmoney-st-mary-kesh

If your daughter is staying in Drumkeeran she can certainly contact the church and ask to see the parish records. However as I mentioned in an earlier message the Church of Ireland normally charges a fee for that facility (whereas the same records are available free in PRONI in Belfast). The fee used to be around £12 (sterling) an hour but it may have changed. If she wishes to see the original church records, she’ll need to phone and make an appointment. No e-mail is given on the contact details so the church may not have an e-mail address, or at least not a public one. (Not all Ministers use e-mail).

Drumkeeran:

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/find-a-church/parish/10770/drumkeeran-tubrid

The church is near Kesh.