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Patrick Keirans/Sara Short ; Roslea

FermanaghClones (Fermanagh)

Good Day

My husband and I are visiting Fermanagh from Canada in June 2019. The birth records from St. Tierney's Roslea show a Mary (Ann) Keirans, the daughter of Patrick Keirans and Sara Short born on 12 Jan 1869. She was my husband's great grandmother and the sister of John born 10 Dec 1866 and Patrick born the 26 Feb 1871.

The birth records show the family as living in the Maghery townland. According to family lore the family moved to Glasgow in the 1880s and still in her midteens Mary crossed the ocean alone and settled first in Rhode Island and ultimately in Canada.

We still have a letter from a family member in Roslea sent in the 1920s and describing those difficult times.

Any information about family members past or present would be appreciated.

Regards,

Maureen Ryan Brode

ryanbrm

12 replies

Maureen,

Maghery, the townland where your ancestors lived is actually in Co. Monaghan. Roslea parish is partly in Co. Fermanagh and partly in Co. Monaghan, and your family lived in Monaghan.

Griffiths Valuation for 1860 shows Patrick Kearns on plot 10 which was just under 9 acres.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameS…

The Valuation revision records in the Valuation Office in Dublin should tell you when he gave the farm up. (The records are not on-line so you need to contact them to ask for a look up).

The property today is on the R187 a couple of miles along the road from Roslea towards Monaghan town. (You can see where it is using the maps on the Griffiths Valuation site). The family were certainly gone from Maghery by 1901. Here’s the census for the townland then:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Monaghan/Clones/Maghery/

I had a quick look for the family in the 1891 & 1901 Scottish censuses but did not spot them. Apart from Mary, did the family remain in Scotland, or did they return to Ireland at some point? Do you know where and when any of them died (approximately)?

I presume you spotted Patrick & Sara’s marriage on 8th Feb 1866 in Roslea chapel. Witnesses were John Kieran & William Short.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for your very detailed reply. Mary's mother is supposed to have died before Mary made the ocean crossing. My late mother-in-law knew Mary very well but had no more information about the rest of the family other than what I incorporated in my post. We will try to do a driveby of the property when we are there and we will follow up with the Valuation revision records. 

 

Regards,

Maureen

 

ryanbrm

Maureen,

I had a look for Sara’s death up to 1900 in Ireland and Scotland but did not find it in either. Sorry. There are several Sara(h) Short deaths of women of the right age in Scotland but none had the married name of Kearns/Keirans/Cairns etc.

You could try searching the 1891, 1901 & 1911 censuses in Scotland to see if you can pick up the rest of the family there. Likewise for their deaths. The records are on the Scotlandspeople site. You’ll need to try various spellings of the surname as it doesn’t appear to have been consistent in Ireland and may well have undergone further changes in Scotland.  (That was common with folk who weren’t very literate and weren’t bothered about how their name was spelled. Officialdom gave it their best guess and Kierans could easily transform into Cairns, for example).

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

If you have the name and townland of the person who wrote the letter from Roslea in the 1920s I could see if I could identify them for you.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Elwyn

I just transcribed the letter which was written from Newbliss in Aug 1922. The writer describes himself as "your cousin James" and does not give a surname. His deceased wife was Brigid and his adult son Willie-named after William Short perhaps. I have enjoyed following the links you sent and in fact the family became Kearns in Canada.

Thanks again for your help. We are looking forward to our visit.

ryanbrm

I had a look at the James in Newbliss in the 1901 & 1911 censuses (looking for one with a wife named Bridget and a son Willie) but could not see one. There was a Kerins family there in 1901 but the wife wasn’t Bridget, and he was a police constable stationed there at that time, so they originated elsewhere in Ireland, and were gone by 1911. Without a surname, I don’t think I can take that search any further.

Good luck with your visit. Let us know how you get on. 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

 

 

 

Thank you Elwyn. As I understand from the letter written in Aug 1922, James and Willie were in Newbliss and his daughters and sisters were in Roslea. He expressed a concern for his personal safety in Roslea and had not seen his home for some time.  He also mentioned a farm in Drummacritten where he had been able to put in a crop.

There is a flavour of the times as the cousins compare crop prices.   Maureen

 

 

 

 

 

ryanbrm

Drumacrittin is a small townland in Fermanagh near Roslea. In the 1911 census there were just 3 farms there. So that gives you some names to paly with (assuming the owners in the 1920s were the same families):

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Fermanagh/Rosslea/Drum…

I looked at the Valuation Revision records (on the PRONI website) for Drumcrittin covering 1913 – 1929. The tenants then were named Meehan, Quigley, Biggin & Leonard. No Kieran, so possibly he had borrowed a few fields for a year, rather than taken over a tenancy.

https://apps.proni.gov.uk/Val12B/Search.aspx

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you Elwyn for all your help. We returned from a wonderful trip to Ireland this past weekend. We met with a very accommodating gentleman from the Roslea Historical Society, toured St. Tierney's church and graveyard and made it out to the ancestral plot of land. In his view Shortt might have been an anglicized version of Biggin.

Our morning in Roslea was a highlight of our three-week trip and your contribution was invaluable.

 

Maureen

ryanbrm

Glad to have been of help.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Hiya just reading your message. I have a Patrick kierans in the family and links with Glasgow and they had a son and daughter. They were a witness to to a wedding in Glasgow 1935 but I loose track after this

Megan Kierans

Hiya just reading your message. I have a Patrick kierans in the family and links with Glasgow and they had a son and daughter. They were a witness to to a wedding in Glasgow 1935 but I loose track after this

Megan Kierans

Sorry, we know nothing about what happened to the family other than Mary Kearns.

ryanbrm

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