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Any comments? Looking for family of Joshua Hamilton (c.1789-c.1864)

RoscommonKilkeevin (Roscommon)

I am descended from John Hamilton (1819-1859) and Elizabeth (Eliza) Catherin Mahon (1823-1916) who migrated to Australia in 1842 from somewhere near Castlerea, Roscommon (where they had married in 1839). They were Roman Catholics; John was a carpenter and could both read and write; Eliza could read only.

I know very little about the Hamilton family in Ireland, except that John's father was Joshua and his mother was Rosa (nee ?Loughran b. 1892). (Note: Some Ancestry trees have Rosa as Rosa Golding but no source is given.) There is a record of a Joshua Hamilton and a Rosa Loughran marrying in 1808 in Templemichael, Longford. Rosa appears to have died around 1842 but I can find no records of her death at all. The only records of a Joshua Hamilton after 1842 involved a succession of loans taken out from "a charitable fund" in the years spanning 1843-1846. Joshua's location in that connection was given as Conslanor, Strokestown, Roscommon.

John Hamilton had two younger sisters: Brigid (b. 1825) and Maria (b. 1830). Brigid accompanied John, Eliza and their infant daughter, Mary, to Australia. Maria stayed in Ireland where, in 1848, she married James Perren. (I have no other information on Maria.) I know of no other siblings.

A DNA test has recently revealed a Hamilton fourth cousin here in Australia whose grandmother, Bridget Glancy, (born in Aughrim, Roscommon) migrated here in the late nineteenth century. Brigid's mother, Mary Hamilton, would have been born around 1835. Clearly, we are related through Mary Hamilton (who might well have been a cousin of my John Hamilton) but all my searches for a connection have been in vain.

I've been looking at a brick wall with Joshua Hamilton for some years. Any comments of any sort on the above would be extremely welcome. As would any information about Eliza Mahon (who in her old age boasted loudly about her Mahon connections - despite her own obviously rather humble origins!). According to her marriage certificate, her parents were Michael and Catherine (nee ?Spring - possibly).

In the meantime, I'd like to say how nice it is to have discovered this site and be able to "talk" to people from a part of Ireland that I've really started to identify with. I visited Ireland back in the 1967 while studying in the UK, but I really had very little idea then of my Irish forebears other than my paternal grandmother's McCloskie family from Killylea, County Down. Until quite recently, (and I'm an old woman now) I did not know anything about my Catholic Hamiltons. I suppose John Hamilton and Eliza Mahon were too far back for anyone in the family to remember anything. My grandfather, Claude Hamilton, was baptised an Anglican, his father John Hamilton (Jnr) having married a Protestant girl in Australia. Claude subsequently married Australian-born, Anne Jane McCloskie (of the Killylea, County Down Frew/McCloskies). And here I am - trying to sort out the story.

Thank you for reading to the end of this rather long epistle! Any comments?

IrelandXO member

4 replies

Trish:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I do have a few comments but I wanted to let you know that I live in the USA.

First, on Roots Ireland I found a transcription of an 1840 baptismal record for a Mary Hamilton in the Castlerea RC church. Is this the Mary Hamilton in your message born around 1835? See below.

Second, I believe the townland for Joshua Hamilton is Cloonslanor rather than Corslanor. Cloonslanor is located in Cloonfinlough civil parish and would be three kilometers southwest of Strokestown. I checked the 1855 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Cloonfinlough civil parish and there was a Thomas Hamilton listed in Cloonslanor. Possibly a son or brother to Joshua? See link below.

I located a civil death index record for Joshua in 1864 (as you indicated). Civil death record images are available starting in 1878 but the death records going back to 1864 should be online in the next year (we hope!). The informant slisted Joshua's age as 84.

Finally, the last two links are from the 1901 and 1911 censuses for Cloonslanor. The 1901 record shows a Margaret Hamilton, widow, with three unmarried adult children. The 1911 record only shows Patrick Hamilton. Margaret had died in 1902 (seventh record on page). https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

Let me know if you have any questions.

Roger McDonnell

Name:Mary HamiltonDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:06-Dec-1840Address:Not RecordedParish/District:CASTLEREAGender:FemaleCountyCo. Roscommon
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:John HamiltonMother:Elizabeth MahonOccupation:
Sponsor 1 /
Informant 1:Patrick McLaughun Sponsor 2 /
Informant 2:Brigid Feeny 

 

http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/roscommon/cloonfinlough.htm

Group Registration IDN/RSR District/Reg AreaStrokestownDeceased Age at Death84Returns Year1864Returns Quarter2Returns Volume No8Returns Page No260

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Roscommon/Strokestown/…

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Roscommon/Strokestown/…

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Roger

Thanks you very much for taking so much trouble on my behalf - and so speedily. It's very generous of you and I'm most grateful. It has helped me to focus on the problem(s) at hand and go through all my documents again. You seem to have covered much the same paper trail as I have to date, which is welcome confirmation of sorts at least.

Re Joshua Hamilton, I have the death record you mention, and I'm interested to hear that records (images?) of deaths going back to 1864 should be available fairly soon. There might be some useful additional information there. I've more or less assumed that Joshua died in the Strokestown Workhouse but I have no evidence of that.

Re Thomas Hamilton, the name also crops up as a guarantor for one of Joshua Hamilton's loans in the 1840s. He could well be a brother or even a cousin. Without the names of Joshua's parents, it's very hard to identify siblings, (and with so much duplication of preferred names, too) but I could try a speculative search, I suppose. Thomas does not appear as a name anywhere among my Hamiltons (unlike Joshua, Michael, Patrick, Joseph, and John) but that's not absolutely conclusive, I guess.

Re the Mary Hamilton in the 1840 baptismal certificate: sadly, she is not the "other" Mary Hamilton, the one who married James Glancy. She is the baby, Mary, who arrived in Australia with her parents, John and Eliza Hamilton in 1842, and appears to have died in infancy, probably in Maitland, New South Wales.

Mary Hamilton/Glancy has proved very elusive. I've done Roscommon/ Leitrim plus all-of-Ireland searches using a number of sites (FindMyPast, Family Search, Ancestry, MyHeritage) but can't establish when she was born or when she died, or even when she was married. (I did find a record on Family Search for a Mary Glancy who was married in 1866 in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim - but the groom's name is not given, nor is the bride's maiden name...)  I've been able to locate birth records for her two daughters (Mary Catherine b. 1868 in Aughrim, Roscommon, and Brigid Agnes b.1873) who emigrated to Australia around 1889. Working from Mary Catherine's birth date - and assuming - perhaps incorrectly! - that she was the first born, I've reasoned that Mary Hamilton could've been born any time between (at the outside) about 1833 and 1854 - but that's as far as I can get. I located a Mary Anne Glancy of Corry, Aughrim East, Roscommon in the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, born about 1850, which fits - but the husband is John (John James perhaps???). I think I should now repeat my searches on IrishGenealogy and see what that throws up.

I hope all of the above makes some sense. I won't try your patience any further. Once again, many thanks. I'll be able to write to my Australian cousin, (descendant of Brigid Agnes Glancy) and say I'm hard at work, even though with little to show for it so far. (I'm hoping some more DNA matches might throw a bit more light on things....you never know.)

Trish

 

 

 

IrelandXO member

Trish:

There is a volunteer run site called Gedmatch www.gedmatch.com ; where you can load your raw DNA data from whatever company you tested with and see your matches from people who tested with another DNA company and also loaded their data to Gedmatch. It expands your matching pool and people on Gedmatch are more likely to respond to your e-mails. From my own experience, DNA testing takes patience and eventually you get a match which helps to break down a brick wall. All the best with your research!

 

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi there,

I am researching the background of my Great Grandmother, Irene Annie Clarence (nee 'Hamilton'),  who was born in Walcha, NSW, Australia, in 1890. 

She was the daughter of Michael Joshua Hamilton, whose parents were said John Hamilton and Elizabeth Catherine Mahon from Roscommon, Ireland.

I'd love to hear if either of you have found out any more information on their background.

Many thanks,

Sarah

 

sarahsmilesper…

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