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Townland and County Conundrum

Kilkenny

Hello. My name is Donald Burroughs and I have been searching my family history since 2009. I recently found about Shane Wilson's Townland Index and Database. My family tree was not started by me, but I have been carefully researching and verifying my paternal side which traces back to Ireland. I have even connected with families who have the same surname, but none are into genealogy like myself. They do however live in the same area from which I believe my 4th GGF and family came from to what was then Upper Canada around 1824. I have never been able to pinpoint the exact location with the area that previous research suggests they came from. I say 'suggest' because there seems to be conflicting indicators based on location / place names / bureaucratic (?) categories. The original information supplied to me was that they came from ' Ballysallagh, Mothel, County Kilkenny',  I could not put together a precise location over the years about their where they came from as most sources contradicted what was originally [ supposedly ] researched.  Original searches had 'Ballysallagh' appearing in two counties of Ireland and now it turns out that this townland name according to Wilson's data appears in no less than seven counties and ten civil parishes!  To make it less clear the Civil Parish known as Mothel [was?] or Mothell does not have a townland called Ballysallagh. However the Civil Parish of Kilderry, County Kilkenny does have a townland known as Ballysallagh that connected to the once existent Barony of Gowran. The current Burroughs surname distribution according to https://www.barrygriffin.com/surname-maps/irish/BURROUGHS/ . I know that my Burroughs ancestors were not of Gaelic origin although they did marry within the Irish diaspora and my Gaelic ancestry actually likely comes more from paternal grandmother, but my paternal grandfather's ancestors identified as Irish when they emigrated to Canada. I do know their original religion was COI and they eventually changed over to Wesleyan Methodist. Appreciate any help that might once and for all confirm the location of their townland [ farm as they were farmers ]. A research note that may help is that my 4th GGF John Burroughs did buy a tenant farm plot from someone with the last name Bradley. Thank you in advance.  

donald.burroug…

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As you have seen there are number repeats and duplicates of place names - it's almost rare to find a unique townland or civil parish name, added to that there can be spelling variations also...

I believe the your Ballysallagh note you have refers to Ballysallagh townland (618 acres) in Kilderry civil parish, this civil parish is close to Mothel Civil parish and was part of the Church of Ireland parish union headed by Mothel along with Kilmademoge.

Entry for Ballysallagh, Kilderry on the Placename Database : Ballysallagh

Details of the Church of Ireland Parish Union of Mothel, Co. Kilkenny

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

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