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Looking for information on burials/cemeteries in Gowran area

Gowran (Kilkenny)

Hi all,

One branch of my family came from Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, and most of the family emmigrated to Sydney or Melbourne in the mid 1800s. On their immigration records most of them, and their spouses, cited one or more dead parents, presumably buried in the Gowran area, but I can't find any viable death registrations or even cemeteries in the Gowran area. The only cemetery listed on FindaGrave is St. Marys which only has six burials listed for the entire 1800s, which is unrealistic given the timeframe and events, none of which relate to my family.

So where would a good Roman Catholic family bury their dead in the Gowran area between 1800 and 1850, and what records, if any, still survive? According to the Grenham site there are NO burials available for the Gowran area.

For the record, I am specifically looking for the death/burial of my 3xG Grandfather Jeremiah (Jerry) Ryan (born about 1790, but not found yet), cited as dead in 1849 when his son John Ryan emmigrated to Sydney, and any other relatives from the marriage of Jeremiah Ryan and Mary Terrill/Tyrrell in Gowran 10th Feb 1817.

In the Griffiths Valuations which were taken in 1848 I have a Widow Mary Ryan listed as head of household in Main St Gowran, paying a nominal rent to a Denis Tyrrell, who happens to be Mary's brother, and both emmigrated to Australia soon after and are buried in Victoria.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Terry Chadban

Terry_Chadban

2 replies

Terry:

Civil registration of deaths started in 1864. Very few RC parishes maintained pre-1864 death information and it appears that no RC parish in Co. Kilkenny kept death data pre-1864.

RC families rarely erected headstones or markers for deceased family members in the 19th century.

Your family members were buried at one of the two cemeteries in Gowran.

This Wikipedia article provides background on the church in Gowran). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Collegiate_Church,_Gowran

I saw five baptismal records on the subscription site Roots Ireland for children of Jeremiah and Mary. : John 1818 Bridget 1823 William 1825 Ellen 1827 Catherine 1830.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Roger,

Thanks for the prompt reply! Since the family were adamant that they were 'Church of Rome' on all official documents, I would imagine that they would have been buried in St Marys rather than the Church of Ireland cemetery, so it looks like that is a dead end prior to civil registrations.

"I saw five baptismal records on the subscription site Roots Ireland for children of Jeremiah and Mary. : John 1818 Bridget 1823 William 1825 Ellen 1827 Catherine 1830."

Well spotted, the spelling of Mary's surname, combined with bad handwriting, threw off a lot of transcribers, and they came up with everything from 'Truett' to 'T*e*t' in one case! But if you check Ellen's baptism registration in the original NLI Parish Records, she was actually a twin, she had a brother David who was baptised at the same time. Apparently David was born first, because the Parish Record had Ellen's name in the record, then it was crossed out and David's name substituted above it, then Ellen's name was written below David's.

John and his wife, Bridget (Biddy) and her husband and Ellen all migrated to Australia between 1849 and 1851, along with mum Mary (Terrill) Ryan and her brother Dennis Terrill/Tyrrell and two of his children who all followed the kids in 1851 after Jeremiah Ryan and Dennis's wife Margaret (Hartley) Tyrrell seemingly passed away in the late 1840s. Ellen was my GG-Grandmother.

Cheers,

Terry Chadban

Terry_Chadban

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