FERGUSON John

Hi Kerri,

You can view what records might be available for Kilrush parish here: 

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Clare&parish=St.Senans&churchid=808

You can also try contacting the Clare County Library as they have excellent sources. http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/genealog.htm

all the best.

Genealogy support

I am on a similar quest for John Ferguson, who married (I hope) Margretta Bingham. they had a daughter Margretta Bingham Ferguson (b. 1849) who in turn married Augustin Fitzgerald Studdert at Rathkeale in 1868.

If this is the same John Ferguson that you are looking for then I have found in 'Kilrush County Clare, Notes from 1760-1960' by Senan Scanlon, available on line from Clare County Library:

1849 13th December (CJ). 

Birth: At Kilrush, Mrs John Ferguson, of a daughter.

1851 22nd September (CJ). 

Births: At Kilrush, the wife of Captain John Ferguson, of the ship Primrose, of a daughter.

And I have found a number of Binghams, mostly in shipping, including Captain Charles Bingham who died in 1865 aged 64, the Captain of the steamer Garryowen which took passengers between Limerick and Kilrush.

Family recollections passed down to my wife tell the story that John Ferguson and Margretta Bingham eloped...

Not a lot of help I'm afraid, but perhaps gives a direction of research.

R

Thanks for that information.  I will go down that track and see what I can find.  When one of the Ferguson branch I am looking into migrated to Australia, they settled outside of Sydney in a relatively small town.  I now have information from an old newspaper that there was also a family namd Bingham living there about that time also.  A bit of a co-incidence in such a small place.  I shall keep looking and get back to you if I come up with anything.  Does the name Margret Purcell come up in your research at all?  She was named as a visitor with my Ferguson branch back in Ireland on the night of the 1901 census.  I have not been able to find out who she was.  Have you come across any Purcells?