Fitzgerald and Fruin from Galbally & Aherlow

 

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your message.

A useful website when it comes to Catholic records in Ireland is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For Galbally and  follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=East%20Limerick&parish=Galbally&churchid=264

As you can see the records begin in 1810. Unfortunately this is too early for John?s birth record however you may be able to find Mary?s if she was born in the parish. This would give you her parents? names.  

Most Catholic records are still held locally so it may be an idea to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. As you can see from the above webpage there are copies available at  the National Library of Ireland ( http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx ) and the Family History Centres in Tipperary and Limerick. It may be an idea to try contacting these local family history centres, however a fee may apply.

Here are their contact details:

Limerick Genealogy,

Lissanalta House,

Dooradoyle Road,

Dooradoyle,

Co. Limerick.

Phone: +353 (0) 61 496542 Email: research@limerickgenealogy.com

Tipperary Family History Research,

The Excel Heritage Centre

Mitchell Street

Tipperary town,

Phone: (062) 80555 Website: http://www.tfhr.org/

You could also try looking for a record of the family before they left in the Tithe Applotment Books. These are land records that were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland. You can search them here:

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

Some other websites that you may find helpful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/limerick/index.html

Irish Genealogy Toolkit: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/index.html

I hope this is helpful. 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

Thank you for responding -- yes, I'd found that site early on, when I'd originally figured out that Mary Fruin's name was Fruin.  It was the site that ultimately pointed me toward Galbally as a possible place to find the marriage record.  Unfortunately, the author of that site is no longer responding to emails.  Either they've abandoned the site, or something has happened.

Regardless, I could never make the connection between my Mary Fruin and the family members that he mentioned.

Hi Thomas,

Your post was referred to me by a friend so I’ve joined up to respond.

Firstly you’ve done very well to get back that far, but to get back further will be extremely difficult! Do not get stuck on the spelling of the name – in that era it was spelled in many ways  e.g. Fruin/Fruen/Frewen/Frewin/Friun and many more variations.

Although Galbally often was the church where many of the Frewens married, there were several Frewen families living at different locations in and around the Glen of Aherlow area (Rossbog, Duntryleague, Galbally, Emly, etc) at that date and others were living nearer to Tipperary town/Limerick Junction. The “Glenview House” mentioned above was a Frewen home, and is associated with Robert J. Frewen in the mid to late 1800’s; it was not necessarily the home of your ancestor.

Supposedly the first of the Frewens moved into the Glen in the early/mid 1700’s as a result of being expelled from the family for marrying a Catholic girl. It has been suggested that he was a Robert Frewen, born 1720.The original ‘Irish’ Frewen was (almost certainly) Thomas Frewen of Northiam, East Sussex in England who settled in Castleconnell, Co. Limerick in the 1650’s and various descendants were Church of Ireland Rectors there. By the 1800’s many of the Limerick families were Catholic and no longer were important landowners. Some of those emigrated to the USA as did some of the Tipperary Frewens. One of them moved via Canada to Waterbury and had a hotel there. Others went on to Decatur.

There is a considerable amount of misinformation out there on the family, be careful!

Regards

Bob Frewen