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MEE family in Lenamarla

GalwayKilbegnet (Galway)

Seventeen Mee families appear in the Thrift abstracts of the 1841 census of Galway, three in the townland of Lenamarla (spelled there as Lenanmarla). The three heads of households were Malick (age 28), Pat (30), and Patt (40). The younger Pat (1811-1855?) was a maternal great-great-grandfather. His widow Bridget (Muldoon, b. 1813) is the only Mee in the 1856 Griffith's Valuation for the townland, listed twice, as tenant of tracts still owned by Fannon cousins.

Patrick and Bridget had three children by 1841: Honor (b. 1836), Ellenora "Nelly" (b. 1837), and John (1840-1903). They later had Mary (b. 1847) and Catherine (b. 1851) before Patrick's indeterminate death. Bridget later remarried, to a Patrick Coyne, and had another daughter named Margaret. Magaret married a James O'Malley of Corlacken. Three of the seven O'Malley children emigrated to Chicago.

John Mee (1840-1903) married Mary Ellen McDonagh (1853-1890). They had nine children, of whom five came out to Chicago, led by Bridget "Bessie" (1873-1950), who paid the passage for her sister Ellenora "Ellen" (1881-1963) and brother William (1888-1982) to come in 1910. Daughter Margaret Mee (1886-1975) married John Fannon (d. 1954); their son William "Willie" (1926-1996) succeeded them on the Lenamarla farms, run until recently by Willie's daughter-in-law Mary.

The story is told that the Mees who came to Chicago were cautioned to change the spelling of their name so that they would not be "mistaken for Chinamen." I think that the confusion could only have been in phone listings; my grandfather used Mea, but played along, claiming that the name was originally Mee Lung.

William Mea (1882-1982) married Eleanor Grace Sterling (1899-1954). My late mother, Mercedes (1927-2005), was the middle of their five children. Her older sisters Mary Frances "Fran" and Regina "Jean" survive her, each being recipients of my mail queries for stories and details. Regina married John O'Brien (1926-1976), a younger brother of my father; my parents met as members of Jean and John's wedding party.

With that for context, what I'm seeking is help with:

  • identifying relationships between Patrick (b. 1811) and any of the other Mees in the 1841 census in Lenamarla and  the townlands of Aghlateeve, Corlacken (spelled there as Corlachan), Creggs, Lenarevagh, Lisduff, Moat, and Sonnagh
  • identifying relationships among the Mee householders in Griffith's in the townlands of Lenamarla, Derryhippo, Lenarevagh, Millford, and Sonnagh
  • Patrick Fannon's forebears. The 1901 census mostly lists Fannin, the 1911 census generally uses Fannon

Ancestry subscribers can see the outline of what I know of the well-scattered Mee-Mea descendants in our O'Brien-Kuligowski family tree.

[revised 30 Jan 2013 to correct Willie Fannon's father's name (to John from Patrick) and to update the ownership and operation of the farms]

wpomke1953

5 replies

Hi

Thanks for your message.

I have forwarded your request to a volunteer who may be able to offer some advice.

 

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support

Ireland Reaching Out

IrelandXO member

This is what I got from my father but now I'm not sure of the counties having researched it.  Seems more Mees are in Mayo and Galway.

THE FAMILY OF JAMES THOMAS MEE OF IRELAND (1833-1915)

 

James Thomas Mee was born in Ireland on January 15, 1833 and lived in Tipperary and Limerick Counties prior to emigrating into the United States of America (with his parents, Uncle?; names ?).  He emigrated during the 1840’s Potato Famine in Ireland, at age 12 ?,  just before the Civil War.  He arrived in New York Harbor.  He worked on the Erie Canal in upper New York State with his Uncle who had gotten the job.   James Thomas Mee lived in Palmyrs, New York (Palmyra ?) where he was naturalized as a citizen in the Monroe County Court on October 26, 1860 at age twenty-seven (copy obtained).

 

On June 24, 1869, at the age of 36, James Thomas Mee married 22-year-old Margaret Shephard who had been born in Ireland on August 27, 1846 and who had migrated to New York City where she was employed as a maid in the R. H. Macy Household (the founder of Macy’s Department Store).  During their long marriage, they raised two daughters and five sons.  Of the children only the two daughters, Ann Eliza and Margaret Mee and one son, John Richard Mee, survived their early years.  Two of the sons, James Thomas Mee, Jr. and Richard L. Mee, died within twelve hours of each other on March 11, 1879, as a result of a diphtheria epidemic.  This happened when James was already stricken and quarantined in his room, and Richard went to take him his favorite toy top and touched his hand.  The third son, George ?, also died of a childhood illness.  The 1880 census lists the household composition.

 

James Thomas Mee died in 1915 at age 82 having lived a full life.  In later years, he was often seen at their house reading the Bible on a rocking chair on the front porch.   

IrelandXO member

Thanks for your father's account. One of my mother's notebooks has a lot of detail of Mee/Mea familes that lived in Waddington and Ogdensburg, New York, earlier than we knew of anyone leaving Ireland. I've always thought that her chase, simply because it was an early Mea name in a U.S. census, was a bit of stretch, and don't recall it connecting to any relatives. I'll have to go back through those pages with a more enquiring mind; a quick look at Ancestry offered an interesting coincidence to familiar first names (John, Thomas, and William for the men; Mary, Bridget, and Anna for the women). She and my father did make a nice road trip to the scenic Saint Lawrence valley in course of her researches.

wpomke1953

Thank You!

IrelandXO member

i have a memorial in my possesion of a catherine mee  from lenamarla it is very old and my uncle  new the mees

Frank McGovern

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