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Turley/Torley - County Down

Looking for relatives:

My ancestor, John Turley, came to America about 1867 from Newry. Documents corroborate a date of birth as15 Apr, 1848. His parents were Michael Turley (often Torley) and Catherine Murphy, andhe had siblings, Thomas (moved to Maine), Patrick (moved to England?), Michael Henry Neill (moved around alot, ended up back in Ireland married to Bridget O'Hagan, I believe), Bridget (moved to Providence, RI, servant/spinster), James (remained in Ireland), & Mary (no info, yet). Most hometown info just indicate Newry, County Down; however, John'sniece, Teresa Turley, daughter of James Turley, indicates parish of Carnacally for her family.

He arrived in Albany, NY, first and made his "first intention" for citizenship there. I don't know if he had a relative there, but it would make sense, since he was just 19. He moved to Attleboro (later North Attleboro), Massachusetts, and became a jeweler, grocery store merchant, and was heavily involved in the Catholic Church. He married Bridget McGowan in 1877 and had 4 children, 2 of whom survived to adulthood. I am descended from his son, John Joseph Turley, first generation Turley born in America. John Turley died in 1907.

I've attached most of the important documents that I have on John Turley for your review. Ultimately, I'd love to find any info on any generations preceding Michael Turley/Torley, and I'd also love to find any living relatives to connect with.

Many thanks and much appreciation,

Jane

janewier@gmail.com

5 replies

Jane:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

We have a parish liaison for Newry Co. Down. I will alert her that you have posted a message.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Jane,

I am sure our Newry expert will be able to add a bit more but I have a couple of observations.

Firstly, there’s a clue about the family’s general financial circumstances from the 1848 baptism. The priest normally charged what he knew a family could afford. If you look at the payments, you will see that the average baptism then cost 2/6. Two shillings & sixpence.  One or two were charged double that (5 shillings) and I see one person who paid 10/- (10 shillings, which is 50 pence today). Very wealthy indeed. Whereas the Turley baptism cost either nothing, or 9 pence. (I can’t really make it out, though I think it was probably nothing). But either way they were clearly very poor. The significance of that, apart from a general understanding of their circumstances, is that they will have been living in very low value accommodation which probably was below officialdom’s radar in terms of taxes etc. So they may not show up in any land records.

Secondly, you mention that Teresa gave her parish as Carnacally. That is very helpful. Carnacally is not a parish. It’s a townland. It’s 100 acres of agricultural land in Co. Armagh. In 1901 there were 4 houses there with a total of 27 people. See: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Armagh/Latberget/Carnacally/

Carnacally is about 3 miles west of Newry. Today it’s on the Shaughan Rd at the intersection with Mullin Rd, near the village of Belleek. It’s easy enough to find today. However precisely where the family lived within the 100 acres may not be so easy to determine.  There’s no Turley household there in Griffiths Valuation for 1864. They may have moved on, or been lodging with someone else or in a property of too low a value to make it into Griffiths. They probably had a small agricultural labourer/weaver’s cottage on one of the 4 farms there. That cottage is probably long gone. But I have attached a photo of a row of typical Ulster weaver's cottages to give you an idea of what they looked like. The one in the photo now has a tin roof but in the 1800s it would have been thatched. No running water, outside dry toilet and very poor WIFI signal.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you so much for your quick reply!  I am quite sure the family would have been extremely poor - that was one reason for the journey to America...to try for a new beginning.  Thank you for pointing out the baptismal fee!  I didn't even know what those columns meant.

The Teresa Turley I mentioned was actually Mary Teresa Turley; although, my father always called her Teresa.  I'm linking her "Find a Grave" entry:  https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=140106280&ref=ac….  It has her parents and a sister's name.  It may provide yet another clue.

Fondly,

Jane

janewier@gmail.com

Hi Jane,
There were 3 Torley family beanches living in Carnacally that aren't related by the 1900's. My branch is from Felix Torley. If you look on Griffiths Valuation you will see there were numerous Torley names. It looks like one big farm has been divided possibly between family or families members.

If you want you can find me on ancestry.co.uk

Gerard McCartney

gerard.mccartn…

Hi Jane,
There were 3 Torley family beanches living in Carnacally that aren't related by the 1900's. My branch is from Felix Torley. If you look on Griffiths Valuation you will see there were numerous Torley names. It looks like one big farm has been divided possibly between family or families members.

If you want you can find me on ancestry.co.uk

Gerard McCartney

gerard.mccartn…

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