I focused on unravelling for Michaela of the crystal bowls some of her family tree. She had given me all the details she knew of, her people being entirely Irish, for which this was rather a challenge for me. Michaela's parents, who were both Irish, had met in London, her father Michael O'Driscoll being a doctor and her mother Ethna Sweeney a pharmacist. Michaela herself was raised in London. It was Ethna's side of the family she was more curious to know about. They came from 'The Abbey', near to Ballyshannon in County Donegal. Ethna's father, David Sweeney, was a farmer who drove a horse and trap, and her mother, Bridget, had tuberculosis of the spine since her early 30's, for which she was bedridden. Somewhere in that ancestry were the English 'Blacks'. Tuberculosis of the spine would normally have spread there from the lungs and was called Potts Disease. This was a rare form, but certain notables were known to have had it, such as Saint Gemma of Luca, the poet Alexander Pope, and Louis XVI's (and Marie Antoinette's) son, Louis Joseph, the dauphin of France. It was his wet nurse, Genevieve Poitrine who was accused of hiving him tuberculosis. He had to wear metal corsets to support his deteriorating spine and died aged seven. I found Michaela's parents engagement and marriage announcements in the Irish newspapers, and the death of Ethna's brother from pleurisy at the age of 21. The 1911 census showed David Sweeney to be a farmer of Abbeylands, there was a dog license he applied for, for a male black collie in 1900, and his marriage in 1916, by which I found out that Bridget's maiden name was Mullen. In both the 1901 and 1911 census's, Bridget was living with nuns, serving them in their domestic needs. In 1911 it was specified that these nuns were the Sisters of Mercy. These nuns would educate and take in poor girls, look after the sick, and in the same manner as the Magdalene laundries would take in pregnant unmarried girls. In 1901, when Bridget was waiting on the nuns, aged 18, her younger brother, Michael Mullen, aged 16, was working for the same nuns as their messenger and gardener. It is for young Michaels return to the family home, by 1911, that I found their widowed mother, Bridget Mullen of Rockhill, and in then sourcing her 1901 details learnt that her husband was John Mullen, by which I then found their marriage in 1877, she being Bridget Walsh. This aligned with an old widow living with the family in 1901, Catherine Walsh, who as I had guessed correctly was her mother. The Catholic marriage details were a good find, both bride and groom being of Rockhill, John Mullin's parents being Michael Mullins and Ellen McKay, and Bridget's parents being James Walsh and Catherine Kennaugh. Well, all had seemed challenging upon setting out on this quest, and yet here I was passing on lots of information to Michaela, so that she likened this experience to being on Who Do You Think You Are, especially when I came up with a newspaper report about her grandad David Sweeney winning second prize in the local best cows competition, in the category of cows which have already been pregnant. The Walsh family of Rockhill looked to have been a rough fighting sort; a big feud developing in 1856 with the local Likely family, the Likely lads having threatened the Walsh' at their home, challenging them to a fight, two of the Walsh women being assaulted, one of them, Una Walsh being struck by an iron bar by Francis Likely. Ann Walsh, the other assaulted lady, took up stones and threatened to knock out Margaret Likely's brains with them. I carried on with Michaela's research the next day, thinking I was at a loss to find more, but then more I indeed found. There were only two Irish census's, so that avenue was not so promising. But one found instead Roman Catholic records, court details and dog license records, and this and that here and there. Yes, her people got into trouble, there being many records of drunkenness and fighting. This seemed to be often the way with the Irish, not just with travellers, but in general. As Michaela said her brother suspected there was alcoholism in the family. So the Walsh's were fighters, and as I saw it, it was so with the Sweeney's too. There was a long list of their battles with their neighbours at 'The Abbey' and with the locals in the town of Ballyshannon. I found the English 'Blacks', maybe not so English, as just over the border into Northern Ireland and being of protestant derivation, David Sweeney's parents being Frances Black and Patrick Sweeney. Patrick Sweeney was surely a drinker and a fighter. These were the kind of fights that would be surrounded by riotous crowds. David's parents, James and Bridget Sweeney, were likewise of that nature. Whole families would be warring, the women included. They were farmers, for long at the Abbey. Old Bridget had cows; as I saw, in 1847, her neighbour, Bernard Grimes, was making issue about her cows repeatedly trespassing on his crop of plants. On yet another day I looked at Michaela's genealogy, and noted that the original James Sweeney had married two Bridget's, and he had needed special dispensation for the second being related to the first. The Grimes's, who had fought with the Sweeney's, Michaela had met their current descendants still at the Abbey and said they appeared to be an inbred lot, as maybe anyway were her own Sweeney's, so she remarked.
0 Comments
|
AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
All
|