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Mary Garfoot (nee Stack)

WestmeathMullingar (Westmeath)

I've been unable to trace Mary Stack (father James Stack), husband from England, George Garfoot (married 1863 Church of Ireland, Fermoy in 1863) for the last 9 years.

Two of her children were born in Mullingar. George James Garfoot 1866 and Patrick Henry Garfoot 1869. By the time their fourth child, Frederick Charles Garfoot, was born in 1870 they had moved to Glendermot in Londonderry. By 1873 the family had moved to Malta (George was in the military.

Is there any record of them held in Mullingar that might give more information about who her parents are or where she was born please?

lesleyawyles@h…

5 replies

Hello Thursday, it is unlikely Mary Stack had any connection to Mullingar in my opinion, the name is mainly found in the south of Ireland, Cork; Clare and Limerick, you can see here that for Griffiths Valuation in between 1848 and 1864, not sure what year exactly for Westmeath but you can see the surname distribution here and there are no Stack family. It is a subscription site and you can do some free searches https://www.johngrenham.com/surnames/ I am assuming she moved around with the military. 

He was a widower when they married so she may have been a bit older, can you see what age she was at death or guage it someway, there are some Mary Stack on site under church records Cork,  father James, I imagine she was born locally in Fermoy and these are mainly Cork city and also RC, if she was Protestant when born the records may be destroyed as about 40% plus of Church of Ireland records were lost in the civil way in 1922. RC records for her parish may not exist either but they were improving aorund the 1830 mark,  See church records here including https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ type Cork as the place and select year range, free site but sign in. The civil marriage record is also there under civil and you can see they were in the hospital.

RC baptisms in Fermoy commence in 1828.

Good Luck

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Again I see 3 Mary Stack born in Cork  all RC but one in Glanworth which is near Fermoy, Mary Stack father James mother Joanna Connell, date of baptism,  26th August 1838, witneses Bridget Fitzgibbon and Patrick Mahoney and priest Stephen Murphy, townland address is Ballybegan, this is a search for Mary Stack between 1825 to 1845, there are two others but this is the most likely. You can find the twonland here  https://www.townlands.ie/ The townland is misttranscribed and is Ballylegan, better still it is near Glanworth and that is where the military barracks was and is located still so circumstances point to it.

Good Luck

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Pat. Many thanks for your research. Infact I've had James Stack born 1810, died in the workhouse in Mallow in 1870, and Joanna Connell with the 1838 date for Mary as a possible in my tree for many years. However, Chloe on the Fermoy site pointed out that Mary's marriage was Church of Ireland.  As this James Stack and his wife appear in the Catholic registers as does his daughter Mary, they are less likely to be a match than I originally thought. Interestingly Mary's first child was born in Mallow, which made me think her parents may have lived there.

I am a DNA match to someone with James Stack. He also has the 1810 date (we could both be wrong of course or he may have taken it from my Ancestry tree as a number of other people have done!). BUT he also has a James Stack son of James Stack who is also a DNA match, so I'm guessing James the younger was probably Mary's brother. His yob for this James is 1835 (which fits), but the place of birth was Dublin - so I think this another unreliable date and place of birth. I was hoping this would be a new resource to follow, but cannot find a suitable James son of James and Joanna. Unfortunately the guy who is the match hasn't responded to either of my messages.

After leaving Ireland Mary moved to Malta where my great grandmother, Lydia, was born. She then moved to England and settled in Nottingham where her husband (and I) was born. In the 1881 and the 1891 England censuses she gives her DOB as 1841 Fermoy, Ireland (but I know that in those days many people didn't actually know for sure where they were born). In the 1901 census she gives her year of birth as 1845 and on her death certificate it's given as1846. (I think 1846 is most unlikely, she would have been 17 when she married a man aged 38 - he was a widower).

You're absolutely correct  to assume she moved around with the military. Your info about the distribution of the name Stack certainly narrows my search down. Thank you.

Lee

lesleyawyles@h…

Hi Lee, I would not rule out a Catholic marrying a Protestant, not unknown but unusual that the marriage was not Catholic, while researching my own ancestrors there was a marriage pre Catholic emancipation in 1829 with a long note to the entry that it was a 2nd marriage for the couple in a military Protestant church as he was to be posted overseas and she was securing his pension rights which were denied if you did not marry in the Established Church, think this was gone at this point but they may have been concerned, what religion were the children reared.

There are no Stacks in Griffiths Valuation but if the parents lived in the barracks they would not be renting or hold land, have you looked at the military records to see if there are any Stacks there. 

Also there are a number of private Facebook pages doing either Gedmatch groups or matchmaker tool using Gedmatch, I am on a few and while they are interesting and well moderated people tend to join too many if they are not sure where they are from, however some are more localised and there are at lest two national ones, most people though are lost but your match is close enough to possibly get a better match, if you are not on Gedmatch read the terms and conditions etc and I think all disputes are settled under Israli law. 

I see two Connell families in Griffths in 1851, both in the town of Fermoy, a Thomas and a Michael, parish Glanworth, again just shows the family name there but it is not an uncommon name.

Good Luck

Pat

 

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

I'm so grateful to you Pat. I feel as if I might move my search forward at last after all these years. Mary's children were not brought up as Catholics, but she entered into an entirely new way of living so I'm not daunted by that.

I looked on the Ireland geneology site as you suggested and found two possible James Stack couples with daughters called Mary, one baptised in 1843 and the other in 1846 - dates that are more compatible. However, their parishes Skibberdeen (Creagh and Sullon) and Cork and Ross (SS Peter and Paul) respectively. There's a James Stack that acted as a sponsor to a number of marriages at SS Peter and Paul. Both couples also registered a second child, but neither of them are called James.  I could not find any reference to James Stack and Joanna Connell on the IG site. I may take out a day's subscription to Roots Ireland (where I discovered them all those years ago!) to search for other children the couple may have had.

I'll look into the FB groups - I haven't heard of Gedmatch before. I've contacted several of the Garfoot descendants in Nottingham, but have drawn a blank (as I said previously I've concluded that George Garfoot - Mary's husband - was illegitimate. He names his father on both his marriage certificates as Boyfield Garfoot (as you can imagine I thought I'd struck gold when I saw the name), but there's no Boyfield Garfoot born, married or died in any of the Nottingham parish records - no birth record for George either - and no record of a Boyfield Garfoot nationally either. I asked around if any of the Garfoot descendants knew of a Garfoot with the nickname Boyfield, but drew a blank. Interesting that George flags his father as deceased on both his marriage certificates and gives different occupations!

 

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you,

Lee :-)

lesleyawyles@h…

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