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James Cardiff

Wexford

I am coing to Ireland in 4 weeks time from Australia and am looking for any records of my great great grandmothers family.

I know that her father James Cardiff was a miller in County Wexford born sometime in 1820's and worked at Devereuxs distillery in Wexford town

He moved to New Ross on the border of county Kilkenny working as a foremanat Devereaux's Corn store in Rosbercon

He met ans marrie Mary Hartley about 1844. Duagther Ann was born in New Ross circa 1845

James & Mary lived in New Ross untill the late 1840's then he aquired the Corn Mill at Graiguenakill, in the parish of Glenmore in County Kilkenny.

While in Kenmore James and Mary had more children Catherine(my great grandmother) 1850, Margaret (1851), Ellen (1853)

Bridget(1855/died in infancy). Bridget (1857) Alice (1859) Nicholas (1861) all baptised in Glenmore

Catherine emmigrated to Australia in 1869 sailed from Ireland to Plymouth and came on the "Hougoumont" to Australia leaving on 29th January 1869 arriving in Melbourne on 19th May 1869.

Catherine worked as a domestic until 1873 when she met and mariried John Callanan/Calnan(A marine stoker from County Cork) on 25th January 1873

My grandfather Michael John Callanan was born in North melbourne on 27th April 1874

Around the time of his birth Catherines sister and family Ann , Husband James Kelly and children arrived in Melbourne.

John was killed by a bolting horse 13 months after Michaels birth. Catherine was pregnant with her second child Mary Anne born on 8th December 1875 and died on 13 march 1876.

I have a good history of Catherine and her life here in Australia and am planning to go to Glenmore in Kilkenny while in Ireland in September. I have just found this site and am delighted that I have. Any further information of the faily in County Kilkenny would be wonderful

magmlee@gmail.com

6 replies

I located Anne's baptism in the Catholic Parish of Rosbercon (aka Tullaher and Rosbercon) which based in Co. Kilkenny and adjacent to New Ross, the baptism is dated 30th September 1843 parents James Cardiff and Mary Hartley, and the sponsors/godparents are a Martin Cavanagh and Elizabeth Kelly. Place of residence is recorded a Rosbercon, which is also the name of the civil parish, a townland and a town.

The Catholic marriage registers for Rosbercon go back to 1835, and I dont see any sign of a likely marriage for James and Mary, so it seems likely they also married in the same area.

Have you already located baptisms for the other children ?
I can see six further possible baptisms for sibings to Anne, most in Glenmore, and one in New Ross parish, which I can post if required.

p.s. Graiguenakill townland is located a short distance to the north east of the town of Glenmore and is in Kilmakevoge civil parish, which along with Kilcoan civil parish was the basis for Glenmore Catholic parish. The baptism and marriage registers for this parish go back to 1831. There's still a Catholic Church on the same site in Glenmore (Google Street View) with an adjacent graveyard.

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

It looks like James and Mary later moved to New Ross, as there's a very likely record of his death at  Maiden Lane, New Ross in 1893, his occupation is given as Miller and his reported age as 67 which would put his year of birth sometime around 1826. There's also a probable death at the same address for his wife age 70 in 1900, although the informant, who does not seem to be related, describes her as 'widow of a labourer'.

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Shane,

Thank you so much for your reply. I am thrilled that the church in Glenmore is still standing and we will be able to stop there on our journey.

Jamnes operated the mill in Graiguenakill until about 1874 when his son in law Patrick Forristal( husband of daughter Margaret)took over the running of it. It was operating or stayed in the Forristal Family until the death of Nicholas Forristal in 1979. I wonder if any of the Forristal family are still in the area. Is it possible for you to check that Shane?

James and Mary did return to New Ross to run the Public House on the Quay!( ? still there)

So thank you again for the death records as they would fit in with what we know.

It would also be great to get the baptismal records of the other 7 children born to James and Mary.

Catherine's(my great grandmother's sister Anne married a James Kelly (another local lad) and they also migrated to Australia circa 1874 at the time of my grandfathers birth.

I hope I am not asking too much of you with these new leads but I am so excited to have found this site so close to our trip!!

Kind regards

Margaret

magmlee@gmail.com

There are a number of Public houses listed on the Quays in New Ross in directories (e.g. Slater's 1881 & 1894), plus a number of combined grocers/spirit dealers, but I dont see any mention of your Cardiffs among these. Based on the death cert it looks like your James was still working as a miller in some capacity - maybe for one of the nearby mills in the town of New Ross...

Recent details of people living in the area would not be available online due to privacy restrictions, but if you ask around the area when you visit you might find some connections, or someone who remembers some of the family. The Forristal surname was concentrated mainly in Co. Kilkenny with slightly smaller numbers in neighbouring Co. Wexford, plus a few scattered in Counties Mayo, Dublin, Waterford etc.  It might be worth checking the online residential phone directory for any sign of of Forristals in the Glenmore area - bear in mind that many people nowadays do not have landlines or are X-Directory so do not appear in any phone directory. There's actually atownland located near Glenmore called 'Forestalstown'.

I dont see any sign of the Mill at Graiguenakill townland, it looks like recent road improvements may have been located very close to the site. I presume you've already seen the 1850 entry on Griffith's Primary Valuation for Kilmakevoge, which shows your James leasing 'House, Offices, Corn mill' and just over 11 acres of land from Walter Gahan ?  James also sub-lets part of the property consisting of a house and garden to a Thomas Fenlon.

These are the baptisms I found, all the links are to the (free) NLI Catholic Register Images, my translations & comments in [] :

Laurentium [Laurence] Cardiff 19th March 1846, New Ross RC Parish
  Parents : Jacobi [James] Cardiff & Maria [Mary] Hartley
    Sponsors [godparents] : Thomas Dollard & Elizabetha Murray

Mary Cardiff 10th May 1848, Rosbercon (Tullaher and Rosbercon) RC Parish
  Parents James Cardiff & Mary Hartley, residence Rosbercon
   sponsors : James Grant & Bridgit Keegan

Catherine Cardiff 11th May 1850, Glenmore RC parish       [on the page to the right]
  Parents James Cardiff & Mary Hartley, residence Graiguenakill  
   sponsors : Tom Forristal & Catherine Cullin

Margaret Cardiff 31st December 1851, Glenmore RC Parish    [near the top of the left page]
 Parents James Cardiff & Mary Hartily, residence Graiguenakill  
   sponsors : Maureen Hynes & Mary Hynes

Bridgit (1) Cardiff 17th June 1855, Glenmore RC Parish       [top of the left page]
  Parents James Cardiff & Mary Hartly, residence Graiguenakill  
   sponsors : John Hoyes & Cath[erine] Grant

Bridgit (2) Cardiff 15th March 1857, Glenmore RC Parish    [2nd from the top of the left page]
  Parents James Cardiff & Mary Hartley, residence Graiguenakill  
   sponsors : Pat(rick) Ennet[?] & Mary Henebery

Alice Cardiff 1st May 1859, Glenmore RC Parish      [left page - just past half way down]
  Parents James Cardiff & Mary Hartley, residence Graiguenakill  
   sponsors : James Dunphy & Anty[?] Murphy

The first Bridgit probably died young, so they reused the name - it could be a family name..  unfortunately Glenmore Parish doesn't have any death/burial records in their registers, and civil registration didn't start until 1864.

 

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Maggie, You and I are related! Margaret Cardiff was my great grandmother. I am absolutely delighted to know about Catherine Cardiff. There are many other descendants of Patrick Forristal and Margaret Cardiff still living in the general area. Not many in Glenmore but in the nearby parish of Rosbercon.In fact my brother Jim Forristal, farms the land which was attached to the mill. I also know that a sister, Alice Cardiff , married John Power of Carrigcloney, Glenmore in the late 1890s and were living there un the 1901 Census.They had 2 children at that stage Mary and James. My name is Mary Devereux nee Forristal.

Mary Devereux

Hello Mary. WOW!! I would love to talk to you some more about the family and fill in more details of our common histories.

My husband and I went to the Glenmore Parish Church in September 2018 after Shane from earlier posts gave me a lot of information. There I met a lady also searching for the Forristal Family. She was from America. I wish I could recall her name.

Somebody was at the church and told us that the OLD ruin of the original church was up a hill opposite so we went searching and found it. There were many Forristal graves at that site I found. I found one for Margaret and Laurence Forristal who died 1867 I think as I look at the photograph, anther Richard Forristal maybe 1902. If you want to contact me directly my email address is magmlee@gmail.com

magmlee@gmail.com

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