Thomas Fitzsimmons, County Meath, born 1824

Hi, It's unusual in the time period when he was born that Thomas would be born in Meath but his parents in Mayo. The two places are not close together, and it was unusual for people to travel far from home.

If the only place "Meath" or "Mayo" is recorded is on a death cert, perhaps question it. The person providing the death info may have been ill-informed, grieving, confused; the person writing it down may have erred.

Same goes for the headstone dates: the stonemason carved what someone told him to carve, and that someone may have not had the correct info. Or the stonemason may have erred. In my own family, there's a headstone that says a woman called Ellen died in 1861. Yet passenger ship records shows she died at sea in 1863.

Hi Roger,

Thanks for your reply and commentary. Yes, my understanding is that many of the Catholic churches in County Mayo were burned (either by accident or by the British) and with them the records went up in flames as well. Kind of surprised there are no baptismal records shown in that timeframe ... on my Mom's side, I have baptismal records from Tralee (County Kerry) going back as far as 1806 .. and that is from the West of Ireland ... where records are not near as complete as more eastern counties (like Meath). And if Patricia is correct, it could be a wild goose chase. Thanks again.

Best regards,

Mike

Hi Patricia,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I certainly considered the possibility that "Meath" could be an error on the death certificate. I've considered that a still strong Irish brogue could have played a part. That said, Mayo is two syllables, and Meath one.

However, a relatively high number of Fitzsimmons did settle in County Meath after the Norman invasion, and stayed there. Secondly, I always got the impression that my earliest Irish Fitzsimmons ancestors from County Mayo were likely dirt-poor farmers. I say that because they came to America during the potato famine (early 1850's) and the majority of County Mayo is not ideal farmland by any stretch of the imagination (which is why Mayo suffered so greatly during the famine). That said, I have recently changed my view that the family arrived in America dirt-poor. I say that for a couple reasons:

1) They did not end up in the Irish slums of New York City and Boston, but settled in the wilds of western Pennsylvania, which would have been a quite long and costly journey in those days.

2) The original Fitzsimmons farms (3) in the Sartwell Irish Settlement in aggregate totaled ~300 acres and they also had some horses.

So, I am now thinking they came to America with some money/resources. Since County Meath was certainly much "richer" in comparison to Mayo, I was thinking it may have been possible that Michael Fitzismmons may have had relations in County Meath and moved there from Mayo. Slim chance, perhaps, but not impossible if he had some funds.

So, while I was very surprised to see County Meath on Thomas' death certificate, all of the above led me to believe that it may have been possible and that it would be careless of me not to investigate further. That is especially the case considering records in County Mayo are non-existent (at least so far for my line of Fitzsimmons).

Understand your concern about headstone dates. That said, I have found the headstone dates at the Irish Settlement's Sartwell Cemetery (here in the U.S.) to be accurate without fail. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the dates on cemetery headstones, at least here at Sartwell, are among the most accurate records of all I have found in my genealogy search. I feel 100% confident in the 1824 birth date for Thomas because it also matches hand-made family trees thru two generations before me. For our family, these family trees have helped me tremendously to sort out the various family branches and to zoom in on my direct lineage - and the dates have always matched any birth/death or other records that have been available here in the states. In Ireland, I have no records to compare with any of the dates on any of the people. It is as if none of the Fitzsimmons' even existed in Ireland lol ... but I know, for a fact, from letters and documents, that Ireland is exactly where they came from.

Thanks very much for your reply and observation (I had the same reaction when I first saw Meath).

Best regards,

Mike