Ireland XO
Back to Message Board

Mitchell of Cloonfower/Cloonfour and Shanley of Derrymoylan

RoscommonTermonbarry (Roscommon)

Recently found the Feb 1874 marriage record of my great grandparents: James Mitchell, widower, age 30, son of John Mitchell, Landholder, residence Cloonfour and Mary Shanley, spinster, age 26, daughter of Peter Shanley, Farmer, residence Derrymoylan. They were married at the RC chapel at Whitehall, Termonbarry. It appears James previously married Jane Cox in 1870; she died in 1871.

There are DNA matches to Dooners from this area, probably through the marriage of a Catherine Mitchell to Patrick Dooner.

James & Mary settled in Philadelphia, PA USA around 1881-1882. They had 3 children: my grandfather James born 1885, Ellen, and Catherine.

Mary's brother (I think), Michael Shanley, went first to Spennymoor, Durham, England before emigrating with his family to Philadelphia in 1881-1882. I don't know if James & Mary also lived in England, the the 2 couples lived near one another in Philadelphia. Thomas Shanley may also be a brother.

The family story is that James Mitchell had to leave Ireland "under cover of night to escape the Brits". I have no idea if that's just a fanciful rendering.

Lorimitch

8 replies

Lorimitch:

Unfortunately the RC records for the area Kilbarry/Scramogue/Whiehall parish do not begin until 1865 so we can't locate baptismal records for James and Mary or older marriage records.

The 1855 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Termonbarry parish shows many Mitchells and Shanlys   https://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/roscommon/termonbarry.htm I don't see a Peter Shanley

Below are links to the Shanly and Mitchell records in the 1824 Tithe listings.

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?…

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?…

There are also three Mitchell and six Shanley households in Termonbarry civil parish in the 1901 census.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Roger! Nice to see you are still enjoying your retirement..

The links to the 1824 Tithe Applotment Books are great, thanks. In addition to my Mitchell and Shanley ancestors, my Dooner family is there as well. Sorting them all will be difficult, but I like a challenge.

Stay well.

Lori Mitchell

Lorimitch

Hi Lori!

I did not pickup on your user name. Been retired nine 1/2 years now. How many for you?

I spend quite a bit of time on the IRO message boards trying to help out.

All the best!

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Roger,
I'll be retired 8 years come December. I've been splitting my time between NJ and Iowa for the last 4 years. I was concentrating on the German ancestry on my maternal side and helping a few friends with their research; just picking up the Irish again. The Mitchell/Shanley line is my most difficult line and we thought they were from Tyrone, so finding the marriage record in Roscommon was a huge breakthrough.

Thanks again for your help.

Lori

Lorimitch
Hi there— I am probably one of the DNA matches you mentioned, since my great-grandparents (the parents of my paternal grandfather, Patrick Dooner), were Catherine Mitchell and Patrick Dooner. Do you have any information on how Catherine may be related to the Mitchells in your family? I have learned that she was born in 1859, had a brother Peter born in 1864, and a brother John born in 1874. They were born in Cloonaufill, and their parents were John Mitchell (1835-1890) and Mary Egan (1835-?) Please let me know of any information you may have. Thanks so much, and hope to hear from you soon. All the best, Janice Dooner Lynch
janice.dooner…

Hey there! My great-great-great granddad was John Mitchell from Cloonaufill. His wife was Mary but I'm uncertain about her maiden name. My great-great granddad was Peter Mitchell. My grandparents family all still live in the area. Peter and his wofe Honoria both died when their children were very young and they ended up being raised by Honoria's side of the family. Due to that my family don't know much about Peters side of the family. Would love to talk to people that are directly related to any of his siblings. 

karen.mitchell83r

Good Morning,

I'm hoping that someone may be able to help me.

My name is Siobhan Betts and I live in Sydney, Australia. I am the granddaughter of Patrick Sheeran, and great-granddaughter of Martin Sheeran from Cloonfower in Roosky. Martin Sheeran owned land at Cloonfower which on his death (August 31, 1944) went to James Mitchell. I recently visited Roosky (not for the first time) and saw the field where my grandfather and great grandfather's house still sits.

I would like to make contact with James Mitchell's descendant Joseph Mitchell, whom I believe now owns the field where the house sits.

I would be very appreciative if known, if I could be provided with a mailing address or email address for Joseph Mitchell. Alternatively, if preferred, I'm happy to provide my own contact details.

For reference, I've included a photo of the house at Cloonfower.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Siobhan

SiobhanBetts

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.