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The Markses of Birr, King's County

I had a letter published in the "Tullamore Tribune" and the "Midland Tribune" just over a week ago and TomCleary replied: he lived all his life in Birr until he sold up and moved to Dublin in 2015. His great-great-grandfather James Marks was a prosperous butcher in Market Square, Birr: born around 1820 and died in 1900 aged 80 at Birr. Tom has done a lot of research but even he does not know who James's father was. Nor does Tom know how he is related to the prolific Marks butchers in Birr, mentioned in the surviving fragment of the 1821 Census. ... James Marks of Roscrea has also contacted me and his father Patrick Marks and grandfather James Marks lived in Birr but he does not know exactly how he is related to the Markses in the 1821 Census. ... This Census says Timothy Marks, butcher, lived in Old Post Office Lane: thanks to Tom, I now know that this lane was off Graveyard St (now High St). Possibly Timothy Marks's daughter Elizabeth was my great-grandmother (Eliza Cameron nee Marks) who was assisted to migrate to New South Wales in 1835 and possibly Timothy's son John was a soldier in India, the great-grandfather of Danny Holman, who contacted me via CuriousFox in 2016. Possibly Timothy's other son James, born around 1810, was the one and same as Tom's ancestor, James Marks, b ca. 1820 (possibly this James belonged to 2 other Marks butchering families mentioned in the Census). After all, Tom tells me that his great-grandmother Annie Cleary nee Marks, daughter of James Marks of Market Square, died on the 1 Jan 1935 aged 81 but in the General Cemetery her gravestone says she died on the 11 Jan and, worse, much worse, her death record says she was 68 at death!! That's a shortfall of 13 years. ... If anyone can shed any light on all of this, I am sure Tom in Dublin, James in Roscrea, Danny in not-sure-whereand I myself in Angaston (South Australia) would much appreciate that. With warm regards to everyone, from Noel in cold, wet and wintry Angaston, not far from Antarctica. 8 July 2017.

ncameron@vtown…

3 replies

Dear Noel:

Many thanks for your post to Ireland Reaching Out together with the information about the Marks family!

We have several volunteers in Birr who may be able to assist you with your query.  I will copy them with this post to see what else they can add to it.  YOu might give them a couple of weeks to reply due to the holiday season here.

In addition, you might consider creating a profile for James Marks on the XO Chronicles database.  That is a great way to add to family research as profiles are searched and read by many members who are also looking for further information for their own research.

Thank you for your interest in Ireland Reaching Out and please keep us posted as to your progress.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jane.

jhalloranryan@…

I would be most interested to know if there is any connection between the MARKS' of Birr and those that came from Waterford?

Thanks

marksaj2@bigpond.com

Hello Noel,

My aunt and I have been struggling for years to trace our Marks' ancestors who were from Waterford.  We are now beginning to suspect that our Marks' and various other families from Waterford, Wexford, Meath and even up to Derry.  Do you know anyone who is a Marks descendant that had done a DNA test?  If yes, I'd love to hear from them as we've been struggling to even find clear DNA matches.

 

Andrea

marksaj2@bigpond.com

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