Burke & Carroll of Eskerrow, Menlough, Co. Galway
I am looking for information on my great grandparents, at least one of whom probably came from the Mt. Bellew area. Her name was Catherine Kate) Burke (her tombstone dates in the U.S. are 1822 -1906.) She and her husband, John Carroll, first appear in U.S. records in the federal census of 1860 in Buffalo, NY. They moved to a farm outside of the city where they lived for the rest of their lives. In later records they give their year of immigration as 1856.
Thus far, no official U.S. records have surfaced regarding the details their immigration or place of origin. However, there were a series of four to six letters written to Kate (Catherine) ranging - as I recall - from the late 1870s to early 1880s. They were written to her by a brother, Michael Burke, who put his address at the top of each letter as "Eskerrow, Menlough." The letters were handded down in a family descended from a Patrick Burke (born in Ireland in 1832. He lived in the city of Buffalo, with his family his entire life.) The assumption is that Patrick Burke was a brother (or cousin) of Kate's, and that she passed the letters on to him as family news.
Copies of these letters were given to the parish priest in Moylough in 1967, who was interested in starting a small collection of historical materials for the local school students. The original letters and any copies in the U.S. have all disappeared, so if the copies given to the parish priest in Moylough still exist, they are the only copies.
Kate was married to a John Carroll (tombstone dates 1829-1908.) According to family tradition he came from the same area of Ireland as his wife, but there is not proof that this is accurate.
I know that there are Burkes still living in the area of Mt. Bellew, but whether they are related to the above Kate, Patrick and Michael I do not know.
I would be very interested if anyone in the area has any more information on the families of either of these two great grandparents. I twice visited Annie Carroll and her brother Michael in the area, and was given a princely welcome. However, no family connexion was ever established, and Annie was a great talker with an incredibly keen mind, but she was far more interested in talking about the burgeoning space exploration than family history!!! She was an incredibly sharp thinker, and I still have a lively impression of her. Her brother Michael was quite a bit older, and a much quieter sort. He was a big man, and quietly proud - particularly of a prize-winning ram, whose photo he showed me. There were some Burkes present on these two occasions, but Annie held center stage and I never did get to talk to them.
Having become serious about family genealogy much later in life, I have always been sorry that I did not take greater advantage of these visits.
John (Jack) Carroll