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Reilly, Sexton, O'Dowd, Smyth in County Cavan

Cavan

I plan to visit County Cavan in June, hoping to find more information about my Ancestors.

Philip Dowd (b.1778?) oo Bridget (b.1781?) Possibly O'Dowd with daughter Susan (b.15 May 1815? 1818?, Killikonnin Townland, Lavey Parich)

Susan married John Sexton/Saxton (b. 1815?) about 1840; emigrated from Liverpool about 1850 with children Eliza (b.30 Nov 1841), Susan (b.1842?), Patrick Joseph "PJ" (b.13 Oct. 1843) and Mary U. (b. 1843?). Settled in Cincinnati, where John died in about 1855. Susan later moved the family to Chicago.

"Sexton, Susan (nee O'Dowd), wife of John Sexton, died at her Michigan Avenue residence on Sunday morning. Mrs. Sexton was the daughter of Philip O'Dowd, a respectable farmer of Cavan Ireland and first saw the light of day on May 15, 1818. her husband was also a Cavan farmer. Ten children blessed the union, five of whom are living namely, Messers. P.J. and J.M.L. Sexton, Mrs. Charles F. Keeler and Mrs. Reilly of Chicago and Mrs. Arrow (sic) of Cincinnati, Ohio. The family came to America about the year 1850 and settled first in Cincinnati where several of the children were born. Mr. Sexton, Sr. died before the birth of the youngest child. In 1872, after years of hard but successful struggle, the family moved to Chicago. Mrs. Sexton sustained a great shock in the death of one of her sons, Mr. Thomas Sexton, a few years ago. Gifted with a fine constitution, she preserved her faculties to the last, and could sew and embroider without glasses up to the time of her seizure. The funeral occurred on Tuesday morning from the residence to St. John's Church, then to Calvary Cemetery." CHICAGO CITIZEN, 19 November 1887, as presented in CHICAGO IRISH FAMILIES, 1875-1925, posted on www.ancestry.com web site."

Also looking for Thomas Reilly (That spelling has been quite consistent) (b. 1838), Son of Thomas and Mary of County Cavan. Came to Cincinnati, before 1859, because he married Eliza Sexton (above) then. He died 1878. Eliza died in 1903.

"Reilly, Eliza Sexton, sister of the late P. J. Sexton, died at her resid., 2956 Indiana ave. last Saturday. Two sons and two daughters survive. Rev. Hugh P. Smyth of Evanston, a cousin of the deceased conducted the solemn prayers for the dead. The funeral occured from St. James Church to Calvary. -Nov. 7, 1903
Source: Chicago Citizen, 1883-1909, Obituaries and Marriage Notices"

Rev. Hugh P. Smyth (b. 21 Sept. 1855 Drummanduff, Lavey to Thomas Smyth and Ann Fitzgerald) seems to be related to Eliza Sexton Reilly, according to the obit above.

I would greatly appreciate any leads on these families, and any suggesions of good places in County Cavan to research, and/or get a sense of life in County Cavan in the mid 1800s. We are planning to visit the County Cavan Museum in Ballyjamesduff, and the Cavan Heritage and Genealogy Centre in Cavan.

Thanks for any input.

Judy Schneider

judyschneider6…

2 replies

Dear Judy:

 

Thank you for your post to the Ireland Reaching Out message board.  I have forwarded your query to one of our Cavan volunteers who will reply to you very shortly.

In the meantime, you might note that the parish registers for Lavey are online through the National Library of Ireland and the link is here:  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0848

Please let me know if you need any further information.

Kind regards,

 

Jane

jhalloranryan@…

Dear Judy,

I will see can I give you some direction.  Regarding the Dowd family, you are lucky enough to have a partial census for that area for 1821.  This is the link http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1821/Cavan/Lavy/Killiconnin…  You can peruse the remainder of this partial census and you will find Smiths and Sexton also listed, as people did not travel too far, they most likely married their neighbours.  As they were born pre civil registration in 1864, you would normally get church records on Roots Ireland, however in this case they only have Baptisms for  Larah from 1876 – 1905, Marriages from 1879 – 1920 and for Lavey Baptism from 1867 – 1899 and marriages from 1867 – 1899, but it may be worth a short term subscription as sometimes I have found non local marriages recorded on their baptismal records.  These parishes are close to one another so I think you should search both at least.  Do contact Cavan genealogy before you come as they have access to books and other information, they do charge a fee.  If you can gather as much information before you come, it will give you time to enjoy the area and make the best of it.  You may also like to contact the local paper The Anglo Celt and write to the editor at  linda@ anglocelt.ie  There is no guarantee that they will publish your request but you have nothing to lose and hopefully someone that may be related would contact you.  They love old photos, so if you have any, do include them and give them the different ways to contact you..

 I hope this is of some use to you.

Regards Carmel 

 

 

Bailieborough CavanIrelandXO Volunteer

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