How far is it from Dublin to Teevnacreeva - Family name Drury

Roger,

I am stunned and so very grateful to you for opening up some of our family history so quickly and bringing these people back to life for us!

Thank you, thank you!!

So it would appear that Peter Drury had two older children by a different wife. Wow.

And that my great grandmother did not die in childbirth, but from tuberculosis. Wow wow. And that her maiden name was Brennan?? Could that be a mis-recording on the parish's part? I hope so because we have a lot of family with the name Barrett, including a brand new baby who is called Barrett William Wellford. Might have to change it to Brennan! How could that get so mixed up? Glad they got the Drury right. I'm Ann Drury Wellford, named, obviously, for my grandmother.

Towards the end of her life my grandmother would talk about how she so desperately wished she'd known what her mother looked like. It was really sad. It's hard to know what she was told as a child about her mother's fate, or what got lost in translation through the years.

Do you mind if I contact you in the future about other leads on where to search for my ancestors and kinsmen? You have so kindly provided us with a pivot point in our family history. I simply can't tell you. Our father was from Virginia, where we all grew up. We know everything about our family roots in Virginia, which very much overshadowed my mother's ability to talk more openly about her uncertain knowledge about her own family's roots. Virginians are horrific snobs and can be quite boring about the subject.

I will pass all of this on to my brother, Jamie, (yep, James Barrett Wellford...may have to change it to James Brennan Wellford) and his son, Landon, who will be the Trinity scholar.

Thank you very much again, Roger.

Cheers,

Drury

Hi Roger,

Gasp, gasp, gasp!! This is so wonderful!! And now I know my Drury gggrandfather was named Bartholomew. And my ggrandmother was a minor and a spinster! This is so remarkable!! Thank you!

Please call me Drury. I have been called Drury my entire life. It is very common where I grew up to be called by a middle name, even though the name has a masculine ring to it.

Drury, or Drewry, is an old colonial name in Virginia, found very heavily in the southeast part of the state, particularly around Halifax County. Many men of the era were called Drury, for example Drury Bolling, who lived in Charles City County, late 17th c., which is recent for you but ancient for us. Drewry's Bluff, along the James River near Richmond, was the site of a famous Civil War Naval engagement, and I have often been asked if I am related to that family. I always say not on this side, but perhaps on the other. I would love to learn more about how many of these colonial Drurys came from Roscommon.

I have to confess to you that the information you have provided me has made me cry, tears of joy and of sadness, for knowing things my mother, Joan, never knew. It would have meant so much to her. Her mother, Margaret Drury, had a very difficult life. She contracted blood poisoning when she was about 26, mother of three already by that point, and was an invalid and house bound for the rest of her life. She had my mother, Joan, 7 years later, but was unable to take her around to do things the way other mothers did. I think how hard it must have been for grandma to be so alone in the world, away from home and trapped in a broken body at such an early age. Apparently she was a great beauty. I know my mother was, every bit the beauty that Ireland is so capable of producing. They both had tremendous intellect and humor, loved to debate, and grandma was an incredible cook and seamstress. It just makes me cry to know where it all comes from.

Do you all watch the Henry Louis Gates program "Finding Your Roots" over there? It's focused on US celebrities, and they really hit the jackpot if they are descended from slaves. Gates gives the Irish very short shrift, which makes me so angry...just about broke Harry Connick Jr. and Sting's hearts. :( I am more proud of my Irish ancestry than any other, and always have been. Even so, watching the people on the program learn about their ancestry makes me cry with them. As I said, I know all about the Virginia roots...can't get away from it...but my mother's roots are what matter most to me.

Thank you for setting me on this path to new discoveries.

Cheers,

Drury

Wonderful!

Just to let you know, as you go further in your search (to help you tell Barretts of the same name apart)...

the Barrett name in North Co. Roscommon centred around two main clusters:

Croghan (Killummod & Killukin) ... which you can ignore; and

Loughlynn (Tibohine & Fairymount) ... which includes Teveenacreeva. Here you have a number of key Barrett townlands:

>  TIBOHINE (far north east of Loughlynn)  Teevnacreeva

>  FAIRYMOUNT (east Loughlynn) Grallagh, Leitrim & Eden

>  LOUGHLYNN West> Cuiltyboe, Driney, Kilrooan, Corracoggil & Creevy

These were all conjested townlands in the early 19th Century ... and full of cottiers (aka cottagers). And so, your Barrett ancestors  are likely to be of a cottier class.  In the 1824 Tithe Applotment Records (Tibohine), you won't find a Barrett listed anywhere in the Loughlynn / Tibohine area… however, they were there. It's just that their holdings were too small to fall liable to tax. Or one family member (of a different surname) was named for the rundale arrangement the extended family had there.

You will find a Peter, Michael and James Drury listed in Teevnacreeva in 1825 here, this should take you back a generation eariler than the Griffith's Valuation of 1857. That is not to say there was not a Barrett family on that land too. You will need to comb through the Catholic Parish Records to confirm that.

I have gathered some records on the Barretts of Loughlynn & Tibohine, so if you need a cross-check on any couple you may be looking at, let me know.

Best of luck with your search!

 

Rua

 

 

 

 

Roger - Thank you so much for that reply and info about the Drurys. Maryland is certainly somewhat closer!

Rua - Thank you so much for the info and links on the Barretts. I will be starting a tree on Family Tree Maker this week. It is so wonderful to know so much about my Irish ancestors is now accessible online!! I will be interested to see what other names pop up.

It's really quite marvelous that the Ireland Reaching Out site has been created to track the Irish diaspora.

One question: do either you or Roger know how Tibohine is pronounced? I see in the1825 records show a spelling of "Tybohen," which makes me think it is something like TYE-bo-en. Any ideas?

A fantastic resource for figuring out the pronunciation (and meaning) of an Irish placename is: logainm.ie.

Click here for Tibohine. All you have to do is click on the PLAY button to hear a recording of the pronunciation. [Tih-bow-HEEN]

It's also really helpful to click on the "Archival Records" link. That will take you through to a list of all the variations of how a place was spelled back in the 19th century (before placename spellings were standardised). This is good to know when you are searching newspaper archives and older records as the modern spelling may yield no results on a search, so you need to try all variations. In some cases, a placename may have had an alternative name, so it is vital to check this also.

In the case of Tibohine, it was also known as "Artagh".

You should also note it was spelled: Taughboyne; Tybohan; Tibohen; Tivohine; Teboyhin and Tig Baoithin. (Soundex won't cover all of these!)

It also helps to look at the Irish (Gaelic) version of the placename, as that is what the English record-makers were actually referencing (and making a mess of in their attempts to Anglicize it).  Tibohine is an Anglicization of Tigh Bhaoithín [Tig BwaHEEN] = The House of Saint Boyne.

 

I'd highly recommend you check out findmypast (where you can also build a tree).

You will find a wealth of helpful information in there, especially in the Petty Court records. 19th century Roscommon farmers would take each other to court for trepass of a neighbours cow on their land. 'Drunk and disorderly on a public road' was another common one. In any case, sometimes the sons (labourers) and father (yeoman) were listed, and this can give you a greater range to who the clansmen were.

Rua - This is such wonderful, wonderful information. Thank you!! I think I will have to print these posts out and start a notebook, particularly with your references to the variations on the spellings of Tibohine, not to mention the fumbled Anglicization of Tigh Bhaoithin. It's beautiful to look at. And also, the clarification for the terminology of Yeoman and Laborer is really quite useful and marvelously distinctive! I'm glad they had nothing better to do than take each other to court back when, although I'm not surprised.  At least they didnt set everything on fire like they do in our remote Eastern Shore of Virginia here. Boredom can create some crazy behavior. Thank you again!!

LOL ... fire might have been a thing here too if it weren't for all the rain!

Thank you for asking, Roger.

I haven't had a chance to talk to my brother but I'm assuming he and his son did not make the trip. They probably didn't have time.

Doesn't mean it won't be done sometime, however.

Cheers.

My husband and I are leaving the states on 10/30 arriving 10/31 and plan on driving through this area, hoping to find Driney specifically, for some research time.  Your notes here are indispensible!  Thanks you for all that you do!

Nikki Wenzel

 

@Nicole

 

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat!

 

(May the road rise to meet you in Driney!)