Adding in the Fitz(-)harrises

For about a year or so I've been mulling about adding in the occurrences of Fitzharris (not many Fitz-Harris with the hyphen out there) into the Fitz(-)henry one name study.

The surnames Fitzhenry and Fitzharris were used interchangeably in Wexford, sometimes by the same people during their lifetime, although it seems that once a Fitz left Ireland, they stuck with either Fitzhenry or Fitzharris in their adopted country.

Adding the Fitzharrises to the database will hopefully allow me to fill in some of the missing links between families and rediscover people who seem to have just disappeared from the face of the earth. I'll slowly be adding in the Fitzharris references to the Blog and the website over the next few months.

Mrs Betty Walker has done a lot on research into the Fitzharris name and history in Wexford, and her website can be found at http://www.revolutionwow.co.uk/fitzharris/

Unfortunately Mrs Walker hasn't put a contact email on her website, so if she (or one of her friends!) is reading this, I'd be delighted to hear from her.

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Fitz-Henry the wolf

In the on-line gaming community, there is a game known as Minecraft. You can read more about it here, but in short it is a game where you dig mines and avoid being killed in a variety of interesting ways by a variety of enemies.

I was intrigued to see the following post on the Minecraft forum posted by a player styled as BZ Anathema:

I want to hear your epic fail stories. Here's mine: I had just made a diamond pick and had 10 obsidian, so I decided to go make a Nether portal. Unfortunately, instead of lighting the portal, I lit the wood floor of my house, and the entire thing (3 stories!) burnt to the ground. I had to rebuild in a day, and in the process both of my wolves died.
R.I.P. Jasper Connigans Fitz-Henry IX and Frederick Winkleheim Collins.

If BZ Anathema is out there, we would really love to know why his wolf was named Jasper Connigans Fitz-Henry IX.

There is also a more serious side to this (well, slightly more serious). In early nineteenth century literature, the name Fitz-Henry was often given to middling nobility - not kings and dukes, but Marquesses and Lords. It had an air of slightly dissolute nobility and the characters reflected this. (see here for my reviews of two such novels)

At least two stage performers took the name. The singer Emily Soldene performed under her own name and also as Miss Fitzhenry.
Augusta Matilda Perrott, the actress and daughter of a baronet also adopted the name Miss Fitzhenry for her stage performances before her untimely death in 1818.
The painter Hugh Lane restyled himself as Fitz-Henry Lane.
If you've seen any more instances of the use of Fitz-Henry or Fitzhenry in more modern literature or as an alias, please let us know.

And yes, we think Jasper Connigans Fitz-Henry IX is a great name for a wolf.

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Marty Fitzhenry - a man, his trains and his cat

We like Marty Fitzhenry even though he is probably completely oblivious to us here at the Blog.

Marty is a retired policeman living in Dedham Mass., with a passion for model trains and creating scaled working layouts. Just how much of a passion can be seen from this article here.

He also has a fab cat named Ralph, featured in this video amongst one of Marty's famous layouts. This whole article is in fact a vehicle for showcasing Ralph.
And it's taught me what a catenery is. That's this Blog all over - entertaining and educational.

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Another obituary - Henry Michael Fitz-Henry in New Zealand

Myles Fitz-Henry (1824-1877) the ironmonger in Clapham, South London, had three sons with his wife Frances Colbourn. Both Myles and Frances were born in Westmeath, Ireland. (The back story to Myles and Frances is here)
Two of the children died in infancy, but the eldest, Henry Michael Fitz-Henry born 1859, was last seen by me as the informant on his father's death certificate in 1877.

My mate Phil Hand (who's one name study is the name Hickling) found this for me from the London Standard, 3 May 1880:

FitzHENRY - Feb 17, at Wanganui, New Zealand, from the effects of a gun-shot wound, accidentally received, Henry Michael, only surviving and dearly loved child of the late Myles FitzHenry, of 410 Clapham Rise, in the 20th year of his age. RIP. Friends will kindly accept this intimation. Foreign papers please copy.

I had hoped that I would one day find a descendant of Henry Michael who could tell me why a picture of Myles Fitz-Henry was in the photo collection of the Fitz-Henry family in Chile to this day. However, this is now not to be!

And if you are a Hickling who wants to know more about your ancestors, send Phil an email via our blog address and we will pass it on to him.

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Database registration - an update

Thanks to everyone who has already re-subscribed.

I realise that I didn't make myself very clear about where to find the subscription page, and for that I apologise.
If you follow this link:
http://www.fitzhenrydna.com/tng/index.php

and then click on "Register for a User account" at the bottom of the left hand column, you will be taken to a form to fill in. I get a notification and then authorise your account.

In the meantime, you can still look at the database using a guest account (instructions also on the home page) but you will just see names and dates and not any of the associated notes.

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The database is back up again!

After my general ineptness caused the most spectacular crash of the Fitz(-)henry database last week, we seem to be up and running again.

Because I lost the subscriber details in the crash, I've emailed as many people as I know definitely had subscriber accounts as they will now need to re-register.
If I didn't send you an email, my apologies - and I hope you will re-register.
For those who hadn't been a subscriber before, why not see what the database has to offer?

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Dr. Robert Heath Cooper who married Frances Susan Fitz-Henry Arklow 1880

Slightly off-topic, but we have been contacted by Glenys Ryall in New Zealand. She found the mention of Dr Robert Heath Cooper and his marriage to Frances Susan Fitz-Henry in 1880 in this blog posting.

She also had a Dr Robert Heath Cooper in her family - in fact she was looking at photos of him and his wife - from the 1870's. Dr Cooper married Anne Frith in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh on 26th December 1862. His father was also William Cooper (just like our Dr Cooper).

And there was also a photo of their daughter Lilly Mina Cooper aged 14 in June 1876, which puts her year of birth as 1861 or 1862 ....

So while I was pottering around trying to find a bit more about Anne Frith and Lilly Mina, I also found another Robert Heath Cooper marriage with a William Heath as his father! (Click here for the link to this marriage register on the irishgenealogy.ie website)

The marriage was in St Thomas (Established church of England and Ireland), Dublin on 11 October 1860 by Licence.
Groom Robert Heath Cooper, of full age, bachelor, a Druggist, of Enniscorthy, father William Cooper apothecary
Bride Jemima Wright, of full age, spinster, 18 Lower Garden Street, father Benjamin Wright, cabinet maker
Witnesses Joseph J Smythe and Edward J Brook.

So was Robert Heath Cooper married twice before he married our Frances Susan Fitz-Henry? It seems likely.
And given that Lilly Mina was said to be aged 14 in June 1876, was she the daughter of Jemima Wright rather than Anne Frith? I haven't found a birth registration for Lilly Mina yet (or a death for Jemima Wright).
Lilly Mina married in 1886 (aged 24 to, as yet, an unknown man), so it is likely that she was part of the Cooper-Fitz-Henry household while she was still unmarried.

If anyone recognises these people, would they please drop us an email which we will forward to Glenys. Glenys is descended from the family of Francis Ball which intermarried with the Friths.

I've managed to spectacularly crash the Website this evening during an upgrade, but I'll put the photos on it as soon as it's up and running again.

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It's today - the 2011 Census England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

It's census day here in the UK.
I've just filled mine in on-line, but completed and saved my paper copy to go with my Fitz(-)henry research papers.

If the Government keep the paper records, the genealogists of the future will see that it was a hefty document, but for family history research purposes, it's probably less useful than the corresponding census in 1911. However, it will probably all be digitalised and then the paper copies pulped, so even the original handwriting and signatures will be lost.

What will genealogists be able to find out about me in a hundred years time?
They will be able to tell that I'm English, but nothing more geographically specific than that about where I was born.
Nothing about any children that I may have had, unless they are living with me at home (so back to the level of information from the 1901 census and before).
However, you can specifically link each member of the household with every other member of the household and not just the head, so you can see if children are step children, and who the resident aunt is the auntie of.

It asks a lot about the house I live in and a bit about what my health is like.
There's a voluntary question about whether I'm a Jedi Knight (only kidding - it's the one about religious affiliation that the more frivolous on-line community try to hijack)
It asks who I work for, what I do in that job, for how many hours a week and how I travel to my place of work.

And that's about it.

If you do your family history (and you probably do if you are reading this blog) then make a copy of all the information on your census and keep it for those who will come after you. Annotate it with the personal facts that make your family history interesting. And keep it safe, because otherwise it will be another 100 years before anyone will be able to get hold of that information again.

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The death of Tasmania Fitzhenry's husband

We're back. Thanks to all those who wrote in asking me where I'd got to.
All is well.

Here's a cheerful post to get us going again.
A couple of years ago, I wrote about Tasmania Palfrey from Newport, South Wales, who married John Joseph Fitzhenry in Monmouth in 1882 (said to be the son of William Fitzhenry, master mariner). Unfortunately I hadn't found where John Joseph ended up, and in 1884 Tasmania married Christopher Hendley declaring herself a widow.

John Joseph's death didn't show up in the ordinary death indexes at the GRO, but I did find him in the Board of Trade series held at the National Archives (BT/ 157/7/57). His death was reported under the Merchant Shipping Act 1854.

John Fitzhenry, male, aged 21
Death at sea reported May 1883
Vessel "Lizzie" official no. 13996, vessel missing since 30 September 1882
Boatswain (crew) - supposed drowned
Nationality - Waterford
Last abode 34 Raglan Street, Newport.

So this nicely places John Joseph's birth in Ireland in 1861 - unfortunately before the Irish birth registrations start. But there were not many Fitzhenrys around Waterford according to the Irish GRO indexes and none by the time of the 1901 census.
The search continues.

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The graveyard at Clonbur - Part 2

Next to the pair of gravestones which I described in the last post, was this stone. It was carved from granite and was covered in lichen.

In loving memory of MARY FITZHENRY
who died April 9th 1939
and her children BRIDGET
died March 14th 1910
MARGARET died May 28th 1915
ANNIE died June 1st 1915
Her husband JOHN
died May 8th 1948
Aged 82 years

RIP
Erected by her children
Mary, Patrick and Thomas

Surprisingly, this wasn't a family that I could directly attach to the Clonbur/Cornamona Fitzhenrys from the neighbouring gravestones, but it does relate to a family which we have seen before on the Blog.

To recap, Nancy Nolan wrote to us regarding her Fitzhenry forebears who also lived in Cornamona, County Galway. Patrick Fitzhenry married Mary Kyne (or Coyne) sometime before 1856 and had at least four sons (at the time we last wrote about them, I had only found three). Nancy is descended from Catherine, the daughter of the oldest son Myles (baptised 1856), who died as a young man.

The next son John (baptised 1865) married Mary Morrin or Marrin, and this is the couple whose family is on the gravestone. Mary was born around 1873 and the couple married in 1894. They had at least eight children:

• Patrick (born 1895) emigrated to New Jersey in 1923 to stay with his uncle Patrick, and then moved to Cuyahoga, Ohio. He married Sarah Coyne in 1924. They had at least one son, Joseph Fitzhenry (1924-1947) who appears to have been killed in an industrial explosion. Patrick was one of John and Mary's children who paid for the gravestone.

• Bridget 1896 - 14 March 1910

• Mary 1899 to after 1941, the year she gained her US naturalisation. She also lived in Ohio and was also one of the children who paid for the gravestone.

• Michael born 1901 and lived at least until after 1911 as he is listed in the family group for the 1911 census.

• Kathleen born 1904 and again listed in the 1911 census.

• Thomas born 1906 and listed in the 1911 census. Potentially may also have emigrated to the USA as he is the third of the children who paid for this memorial, and the other two were living in Ohio at the time.

• Margaret 1908 - 28th May 1915.

• Annie November 1910 - 1st June 1915.

The deaths of the last two children are within a week of each other and suggests an infective cause.

Patrick Fitzhenry and Mary Kyne had at least two other sons.
Patrick (baptised 1869) and emigrated to the US in about 1903 (according to the 1920 US census). This is the uncle Patrick that Patrick, the son of John Fitzhenry and Mary Marrin came to stay with initially in New Jersey.

William baptised September 1873 in Clonbur. I know nothing more about him.

Mary Kyne / Coyne lived until 1914 and appeared in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses of Ireland, as a widow living with her son John and his family.
Her husband Patrick appeared in neither census, and I have found a likely death registration for him in the first quarter of 1893 in the Registration District of Oughterard which covered this area of County Galway. It gives his age as 74 and his birth year as 1819.

Do any of these names ring any bells with anyone? Can anyone out there provide the link to one of the other Fitzhenry families in this area of Galway?

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Welcome to our newest Fitzhenry baby...

Seen in the on-line version of the "Salisbury Journal" (Wiltshire, England), the birth of Samuel Martin, son of Gemma Fitz-Henry on New Year's day at the Salisbury District Hospital. Samuel was the first baby of the new year at the maternity unit.
To read more about this story, follow this link.

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The Graveyard at Clonbur - part 1

The old graveyard at Clonbur contains the ruins of the Rosshill Abbey church, and the area surrounding this is a protected woodland and nature reserve. It is a truly beautiful site.

There are at least five Fitzhenry graves in this cemetery and all belong to the extended family of the Fitzhenry family of Clonbur/Cornamona.

The oldest three FItzhenry gravestones are favourably situated on the south side of the church ruins by the old church door.

The oldest granite stone reads

Pray for the soul of
THOMAS FITZHENRY
who died 5th March 1846
aged 70 years
also his wife
MARGARET FITZHENRY ALIAS JOYCE
who died 14th september 1870
aged 80 years

This stone is now an upright, but at one time it was a flat grave covering stone.
Behind the stone is a collection of grave "feet" on which the stone used to stand.
These are Mrs Josie Coyne's great-grandparents - Thomas Fitzhenry 1776-1846 and Margaret Joyce 1790-1870

The stone facing this at the opposite end of the same plot reads

In loving memory of
JOHN FITZHENRY
Drimsnave
Died 26th April 1956
His wife MARY
Died 26th Oct 1985
R.I.P.

Mary was born Mary Conroy. Drimsnave is close to Conamona. These are Mrs. Coyne's parents.

Mrs. Coyne says that her mother had a horror of the flat stone lying over her when she was buried, and asked that the flat grave stone wasn't put over the grave again once she had been buried there.
Hence the stone was erected as an upright at the other end of the plot.

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The Road Trip goes to Galway - Part 1

A very happy new year to all the Blog followers.
For the next few posts, I'll be telling you about what happened when I went to Clonbur in County Galway, and the wonderful Fitzhenry family I met there.

It all started when I told one of our "behind the scenes" contributors, Therese Connolly of Saratoga Springs, NY, that I was due to be visiting Ireland. She said "Give my mum a call, and visit her".

Therese's mum is Mrs. Josie Coyne, nee Fitzhenry, whose family have lived in the Clonbur area of County Galway for at least 150 years. She couldn't have been more welcoming and when I arrived at Clonbur, she sent her long suffering husband (so he told me!) Tommy to come and pick me up on that first night.
I was treated to a right royal Irish tea with more cake than you could shake a stick at (and Tommy on continuous tea-making duties!), meeting lots of the immediate family who still lived in the area, and also some who had come home for Christmas.
It was brilliant, and I didn't get home until midnight!
So in no special order and with special memories of that night, I'd like to thank:
Josie (nee Fitzhenry) Coyne and Tommy Coyne
Breda Mullins (nee Fitzhenry) and her daughter Marie Walker, visiting from London
Mary and Dermot Mellotte (and their dog!)
Maureen Fitzhenry and her daughters Bridget, Kathleen, Josie and Marion.
I had taken some printouts of various Galway-related Fitzhenry trees, and was shown where they overlapped and joined up (and where I was missing bits!). I learned lots of stories about the family and their stories of living in this part of Galway.

The next day, after a trip to the Old Clonbur graveyard (more about this in next post) I was treated to morning coffee at Ashford Castle by Breda (very posh - here's the link) while her husband John Joe and daughter Marie made a fine lunch. I took a trip westwards along the road from Cong to Clonbur to Cornamona and then onto Maam. My first view of the snow capped hills to the west - a real wow moment, and a foretaste of the weather that waas to come. Then it was back to Mrs Coyne's place for the evening meal.

By Saturday, the snow had well and truly set in. What should have been a quick trip to the town of Claremorris, about 20 miles away in County Mayo, took several hours on ice-treacherous roads. Probably nothing compared with the sort of conditions that our American and Canadian readers are used to, but interesting all the same in a Fiat 500 with no snow chains!

On Saturday evening I was invited to accompany Josie and Tommy to a concert in the village of Cornamona, put on by the local schoolchildren to mark the retirement of their headmaster. It was a brilliant evening - the whole village had turned out for the occasion - the small school hall was certainly packed out. The children from nursery class up to secondary school put on a concert of traditional Irish music, dancing and signing. The whole concert was performed in Gaelic, as were the speeches afterwards. Josie told me that there is an incentive to get the children to learn and speak Gaelic to keep the language alive in this part of Ireland. She could understand it and translated for me as the concert went on.

On Sunday, I had to leave to be return to Rosslare for the Monday early morning ferry back home.
However, I'd managed to cram a whole lot into one week both in Graiguenamanagh and Clonbur.
So to everyone I met on that week, and spared the time to have a chat or direct me where to find more information, who opened up their homes to me and were kind enough to look over my research notes, who showed me something of normal life in their part of Ireland...
a BIG THANK YOU!
and I hope to see more of you next year!

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Edward Fitzhenry - Monamolin to South Africa ... and backagain.

To continue from the last post:
Edward Fitzhenry was one of six siblings from Monamolin, Templeudigan. His eldest brother James was a Roman Catholic priest who went to do missionary work in South Africa and as far as I can see, never came back to Ireland and died in Grahamstown in 1919.
Patrick, Margaret, Michael and Walter stayed on the family farm at Monamolin.

Edward also emigrated to South Africa and was there by 1881 when his kinsman John O'Gorman wrote to him about the political situation in Ireland.

He was still there in 1893 and unmarried, when his cousin-in-law Edward Prendergast wrote to him.

We know a little more of him from the biography of his son Walter (1904-1961) - his wife was Mary J Coughlan, a South African born woman, and they came back to Monamolin at some time after 1911 as they do not appear on the 1911 census. Edward and Mary did not feature on the St Mullins gravestones.

So fortunately I came across Edward and Mary in the passenger list of the SS Garth Castle when they were making that trip back from Cape Town, South Africa in April 1912. This gave more details about the rest of the family:
Mr E Fitzhenry (farmer) aged 41
Mrs M Fitzhenry (wife) aged 37
Master James Fitzhenry aged 15
Master Edward Fitzhenry aged 12
Miss Margaret Fitzhenry aged 10
Master Walter Fitzhenry aged 8
Master Patrick Fitzhenry aged 5
Miss Francis Fitzhenry aged 1

The family travelled 3rd class and embarked at Southampton

While undoubtably this is the correct Edward and Mary, the age given for this Edward is too young - he would have been born in 1871, and he was already an established farm worker in South Africa in 1881. The rest of his siblings were born between 1846 and 1857.

The Irish GRO indexes give an Edward Fitzhenry who died in the last quarter of 1923 in Weford, born 1858. I think this is our man, with the age on the ship's manifest a mistake.

So what made this family return home to Ireland when so many Irish mationals were going the other way? Did they come back to inherit the family farm? How did the South African born Mary Coughlan and the older Fitzhenry children cope with this new land when they had been used to year round sunshine?
If there are any descendants of this family who would like to tell their story, please get in touch.

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The Prendergast - Fitzhenry letters (3)

The third of these letters is probably the most interesting as far as establishing family relationships goes. This is the letter from Kate Prendergast's husband Edward to her cousin Edward Fitzhenry in South Africa. Again this is a long letter, written in December 1893.

Edward Prendergast (E.P.)started his letter with fulsome apologies for not having replied to Edward Fitzhenry's (E.F.H.) letter sent in July until now - however he does blame Kate for losing it in the meantime!

EFH was not married at this time, and EP is urging him to do so and stay in farming in South Africa, rather than selling up and coming home to Ireland to farm there. Livestock prices in Ireland were very low and the summer had been bad for crops.

EFH's father (Michael Fitzhenry 1811-1904) had

"come into a good windfall by E Ryan's death, some £300. The other claimants were a shade outside of next of kin or it would not be worth much but they got nothing, your father all."

There was a collection of Ryans on one of the Fitzhenry gravestones at St Mullins. The E Ryan mentioned was probably "Edward Ryan died 1891 aged 92 years". As yet I don't know what relation Michael Fitzhenry and Edward Ryan were to each other.

Kate's brother Patrick O'Gorman, was working as a surgeon in England "at the largest gasworks in the world."
EP continues:

Your people are going on first class. I tell Wat it is with mud he makes Monomolin road and that if the springs of my car get smashed as I go that way to Ballybawn I would pull him up for it.
Old Ned Ryan used to say “Pat and Martin are decent honest fellows but mind yourself of Wat. Wat is an arrant rogue”

This refers to the three Fitzhenry brothers still remaining on the home farm at Monamolin - Patrick, Martin and Walter. All three are commemorated on the newer gravestone at St Mullins along with their sister Margaret. All four of them were still unmarried in the 1911 census when they were still all living and farming together. As a prophecy, Edward Prendergast writes:

I wonder some of your brothers about get married or at least get your sister married. I suppose as Mick McQuaid says “they are not a marrying family”.

Eventually it would only be the recipient of this letter, Edward Fitzhenry, who would be married out of the six siblings.

In the next post, I'll continue with what happened to Edward Fitzhenry in South Africa.

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The Prendergast - Fitzhenry letters (2)

Sorry for the delays between posts - but I'm aiming to have items for tonight, tomorrow and Christmas day. Then we'll back between Christmas and the New Year with "The Road Trip goes to Galway" series.

The next letter in the Prendergast collection was written by Father James Fitzhenry, a Roman Catholic priest originally from Monamolin who in March 1893 was residing in Grahamstown, Cape Colony, in the service of the Bishop of Cape Town. The letter was written to his cousin Mrs Kate Prendergast of "Graigue"; they were cousins through their O'Gorman connection. . It's a rather long letter (12 pages) and most of it is a description of the missionary work that James is doing.

James had been out in South Africa for several years working as a Catholic missionary. Although his brother Edward was also out in South Africa, they hadn't seen each other for five years. Edward worked on the farms in the interior of the country - it was 50 miles on horseback to the nearest of the new railway stations.

James bemoans the fact that South Africa is a very Protestant country - the few Catholics that there are are scattered so widely it is difficult to minister to them. The new colony isn't a desirable place for new priests. If he came home to see his family, then "a whole town would have to go without Mass for six months". His only excuse to get a pass home would be illness and he is in fine health apart from the trouble the sun is giving him with his eyes - "I have to wear those dark glasses in the open air".

James continues:

Striving to reach upon scattered families, to secure a religious training to so many families where one of the parents is not a Catholic, to lose no one.
In a colony, the loss to the Church of one person means in a generation, the loss of very many others: A young man, a labourer, not worth a penny may in a colony get on well, marry, give a good education to his sons.
You meet with these again, you can hardly believe they are the children of - Patrick Shaunassey – say, whom you knew years ago, rich & risen & educated, respected & influential, but if Patrick lost the Faith or did not attend to the School where his children got their training the whole of the Shaunassys become Protestants, married Protestants, and receive you – the priest – kindly – indeed but quite indifferent – Protestant in name no religion in reality.
Such is some of our sad experiences.

He is proud though of the opportunities for Catholic education in the Cape colony - schools for boys and girls and a Jesuit University College. He talks about a Father Kerr who was from Scottish descent, who used to be a captain of a Man-of-War but now runs the Jesuit mission to Mashonaland. Fathers O'Brien and Fanning are also from Wexford.

One feels he lives in the making of a new Country – in the day of small beginnings & Great Surprises : when every soul is a starting every foothold – the foundation of a Church – every day – full of work & promise. I have been the first in several small missions. Mass in a private house or a Magistrate’s Court, a few Catholics & now there is a Chapel Priest and land. Schools & the children saved.
I was for a year in a tent with our troops in the Basuto Kaffir Rebellion, saw some fighting, all is peace ever since & our missions there are flourishing.
I am with the Bishop now. I preach, write a good deal, we have a South African Catholic Magazine. I take part in most things of a Public character that goes on. The priest in this protestant land is much respected. Friendship everywhere : nothing of the bigotry of Ireland here.

Father James ends his letter by asking for news of Kate's brothers - one (Patrick O'Gorman) was newly qualified as a doctor and James says that there are plenty of opportunities for him in Cape Colony.

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The Prendergast - Fitzhenry letters (1)

The letters that John Joyce shared with me were between the family of Edward and Kate Prendergast in Graiguenamanagh (Graigue) and two of the Fitzhenry men who had gone to seek their fortune in South Africa.

The first of the letters was from "Mr John O'Gorman of Killan, Enniscorthy" to "Mr E M Fitzhenry" in South Africa in April 1881.

Edward Fitzhenry was the grandson of James Fitzhenry and Margaret Gorman and the brother of Father James Fitzhenry, who erected the memorial at St Mullins graveyard to his grandparents and the members of his father's generation.

Erected by the Rev. James Fitzhenry (Missionary South Africa) in memory of
James Fitzhenry died in 1847 aged 73 yrs.
Margaret Fitzhenry Nee Gorman died in 1840 aged 65 yrs.
Edward Fitzhenry died 1847 aged 40 yrs.
Patrick Fitzhenry died 1888 aged 84 yrs
Martin Fitzhenry died 1848 aged 46 yrs
Nancy Ryan died 1895 aged 71 yrs
John Ryan died 1879 aged 73 yrs
Judy Ryan died 1852 aged 74 yrs
Edward Ryan died 1891 aged 92 yrs

Edward does not appear on the newest memorial which commemorates the Rev. James Fitzhenry and his other siblings so it is likely he must have died elsewhere.

The text of the letter is about the land reforms in Ireland at the time, and John exhorts Edward not to believe what he reads in the English newspapers

"You would imagine the Irish farmers were robbers and were striving to do the landlord out of his property."

There are hundreds of ejectments (evictions) being served and fighting between the farmers and the police.

"The Whelans are in still and were never tried for the shooting of young Boyd"

I wonder if this the Whelan family of the other St Mullins memorial, in which Ann Fitzhenry married John Whelan.

"We were glad the Boers gave the English fighting enough out there."

John signs off with his regards to Edward and Father James.
What was the family relationship between John O'Gorman and Edward Fitzhenry? As yet I don't know, so if anyone recognises this family, please let me know.

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John Joyce - a meeting with a remarkable man

Back to Graiguenamanagh which I'm now going to refer to by it's local shorthand, Graigue.
Mary in the Abbey Centre (where I found the baptism and marriage records, and the St Mullins memorial texts) suggested that I talk to one of the local historians Owen Doyle who had written several books about the town. Mr Doyle said that he couldn't help me as he had no records of Fitzhenrys living in Graigue and suggested I talk to John Joyce, who is considered the local expert on the area.

One phone call later and I was being invited round to take tea with Mr Joyce the following afternoon. Although he had no records of Fitzhenrys living in Graigue in the past 100 years or so, he showed me some letters he had which were part of his late wife's family history which showed that there was a link to a Fitzhenry family in County Wexford.

John Joyce's wife had been a Prendergast before her marriage. Her grandmother was born Kate O'Gorman. Kate married Edward Prendergast, a well to-do merchant in Graigue.

You may remember that on the second Fitzhenry stone at St Mullins graveyard, the wife of
James Fitzhenry (1773 - 1847) was
Margaret nee Gorman (1775 - 1840).
This is the link between the Prendergasts and the Fitzhenrys via the O'Gormans (or Gorman in their more Anglicised version) and the letters leave no doubt that this is the family group in question.

Mr Joyce is a mine of information about the locality of Graigue, the family groups who lived there and the political history of the area. He has written several books about the town. It was truly a wonderful experience to have the benefit of his knowledge and I am very grateful to him for his hospitality that afternoon.

The next post will look at the letters between the Prendergast and Fitzhenry families and the people described in them.

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More about the Fitzhenrys of Selskar Street, Wexford

We've had an email from May Devereux who saw this posting about the birth of Johanna Frances Fitzhenry in Selskar Street, Wexford in October 1902

Re. the Birth of Johanna Frances Fitzhenry and family.
They didn't emigrate.
In the 1911 census Charles is living with his Mother Johanna and his brothers and sister in Shelmalier Commons.
I couldn't find his wife and family in the census either.

Mother and Daughter Mary Ellen (Mrs Hammond) had a sweet shop in Selskar, Wexford later on.
Son Charles lived there also, son Robert went to England.

I hadn't heard of the baby Johanna, but would like to know what happened to her.

Charles had 8 siblings, one being Fr. Robert, Parish Priest in Marshallstown, Enniscorthy Co Wexford.
He died age 43, and is buried in the church there.

Unfortunately, according to the GRO indexes, Johanna Frances Fitzhenry died before the end of 1902.

As May said, Charles was resident with his mother on the night of the 1911 census:
1911 census Ireland

Residents of a house 18 in Shelmalier Commons (Aughwilliam, Wexford)

Fitzhenry Johanna 81 Female Head of Family
Roman Catholic Co Wexford Farmer
Read and write -
Widow - 57 years married 9 children 7 living

Fitzhenry John 54 Male Son
Roman Catholic Co Wexford Farmers Son
Read and write - Single

Fitzhenry Catherine 47 Female Daughter
Roman Catholic Co Wexford Farmer Daughter
Read and write - Single

Fitzhenry Charles 41 Male Son
Roman Catholic Co Wexford Farmer Son
Read and write - Married

... and no, we can't find Mary Ann and the children in the 1911 census either.


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St Mullins Graveyard, County Carlow - 2

Since I wrote the previous posting, Matthew Fitzhenry (who is a descendant of the Graiguenamanagh Fitzhenry family group) has found the St Mullins transcriptions online at the Rootweb site at:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/St_Mullins_Churchyard_01.htm

These are the same transcriptions in the book I found at the Abbey Centre in Graiguenamanagh. They were transcribed in the late 1980s, so any burials/inscriptions added since then in the graveyard won't appear on this site.

Here are the other 3 Fitzhenry "mentions" in this graveyard.

Near the ruins of the old church were three very old Murphy headstones in a row.

HIS
DOM
Erected by Patrick Fitzhenry
In memory of his wife Ann
Fitzhenry Als Murphy died
June 15th 1803 ag'd 32 years
And 3 of her children
May they rest in peace
Amen

Isn't this a fab stone? The light wasn't the best on this day but at least you can read the inscription really easily after 200 years. I don't know who Patrick and Mary were, or if they had any children who survived into adulthood.


This is more modern gravestone

In loving memory of Bridget Kelly, (Nee Furlong) Templeudigan,
who died 17^th July 1916, aged 58 years.
Also her son Patrick Kelly
who died 30^th Dec. 1957 aged 73 years.
Her daughter Mary Kelly
died 18^th Nov. 1965, aged 77 years.
Also her daughter Catherine Gordan (Nee Kelly) Ballyloughan,
died 16^th July 1972, aged 78 yrs.
Also her daughter Johanna Fitzhenry, (Nee Kelly)
died 1st June 1974, aged 77 yrs.
R.I.P.

In the 1911 census, William (63) and Bridget (53) Kelly were living as farmers in Templeudigan with 4 of their children. They had been married 29 years, Bridget had borne 13 children and 8 were still living. The family all had been born in County Wexford and were Roman Catholic.
The children at home were:
Patrick aged 27
Mary aged 23
Bridget aged 20
Johanna aged 14

I haven't found Johanna's marriage yet, but I expect that she married into the Templeudigan Fitzhenry family.

The sixth gravestone is a much older slab not far from the original 3 Fitzhenry stones mentioned in the previous post. This is in the Whelan plot.
I have made some amendments to the transcript from the book. As usual for stones of this age, the text was full of abbreviations to ensure that all the words fitted in!

Here lieth the body of John Whelan
late of Grange who depd Oct'ber 13th 1798
aged 65 yrs. Also his wife Ann Whelan
Alias Fitzhenery dep'd Janry 12th 1799 aged
45 yrs. Their son Edward Whelan wh°
dep'd Sep'ter 23rd 1799, aged 24 yrs.
Lord have mercy on their souls Amen.
Their son Robert departed this life
March the 14th 1856, aged 80 years and his
son Edward departed this life March the 12th
1837 aged 19 years.
Elizabeth Whelan, wife of Robert Whelan
Died 14th March 1884 aged 92 years.
Their Grandson Robert Whelan
Died 15th Nov 1874 aged 27 years.
Their son James Whelan
Died 6th May 1900 aged 74 years
Their daughter Mary Whelan
Died 3rd Oct 1900 aged 74 years
R - I - P

I hadn't got this family in the database even though I have several Fitzhenry - Whelan marriages. Grange is about 3 mile south west of Kilkenny. There are no Whelans in Grange in Griffith's valuations, so I now have to hunt them down a bit closer to St Mullins. If anyone has found them, please let me know.

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