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Hegarty/ Hegarty

RoscommonBoyle (Roscommon)

Hello,,My gr gr grandmother, Catherine Hegarty/Haggerty came to Australia with her sister Ann in 1849 as part of the Earl Grey Irish Famine scheme. They were 17& 19 respectively on the shipping list (the Digby)& it said they were from Boyle, Roscommon & their parents, Andrew & Sarah were dead. They probably came from the Boyle workhouse, which may not mean they were born in Boyle, I suppose, although it said Boyle on Catherine's death certificate. We have searched & searched for Catherine's birth, as we would dearly love to visit Ireland and it would be nice to find her home area. Any help or ideas would be much appreciated. Terry.

IrelandXO member

4 replies

Terry:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I checked Roots Ireland and did not find a Catherine or Bridget Hegarty baptismal record with parents Andrew and Sara anywhere in Ireland. 

The Boyle Union which sponsored the workhouse actually encompassed about six parishes in northern Roscommon and maybe ten parishes in eastern Sligo so the Hegartys could have been from anyone of those parishes.

You may want to consider autosomal DNA testing. Possibly you will match someone who has more information on the Hegartys in Ireland.

Let me know if you have questions.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Roger,  we will look at some of those Parish records. There seems to be a lot of Hegartys around Rockfordbridge.  We need to understand the 'feeder' districts for the Boyle workhouse better. Are you able to list those feeder districts for us?  I take it none of the workhouse records for Boyle have survived? By the way it is Catherine & Ann - no Bridget.

I did the Ancestry DNA testing & no leads there. I actually find very few people reply to queries. However, what it did confirm is what we had begun to suspect that my Sjostedt surname was from my grandfather's Swedish step father, a closely guarded family secret. My DNA was actually 45% Irish and no Scandanavian. Further  exhaustive investigations turned up the name of George Ford on grandpa's baptism. George was Catherine Hegarty & pardoned Irish convict John Ford's son. So suddenly an unknown ancestry is discovered. Just as well we found out before we planned a trip to Sweden.  

It is fascinating how family history research using old fashioned letter writing & visits and then the wonders of the Internet has uncovered old secrets and enabled people to discover their true roots and follow the paths of their intrepid ancestors.  Certainly Catherine & John built a remarkable new life after challenging beginnings.

Discovering this site through one of the Irish famine FB pages was a great thrill.

Many thanks, Terry & Carol.

IrelandXO member

Terry and Carol:

I would presume that the Boyle workhouse records from the late 1840s do not exist but that is a guess. Below is a link to a site which has more info on the Boyle workhouse including the feeder districts. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Boyle/

You may also want to contact the Boyle library branch for more assistance.

 http://www.roscommoncoco.ie/en/Services/Library/Locations/

Regarding DNA, I have tested with Ancestry and Family Tree DNA. I find Family Tree more helpful. There is a also a volunteer site called Gedmatch www.gedmatch.com  You can load your raw DNA from Ancestry to this site and see if you match people who tested with another company e.g. Family Tree (and also loaded their data to Gedmatch).

Roger 

 

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Roger.  We will study the feeder districts.  I contacted the library some time ago and they confirmed the Boyle Workhouse records are long gone.  We uploaded to Gedmatch, but no joy yet.

Thanks your for your advice.  Terry and Carol

IrelandXO member

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