Jane Forbes

Hi Susan

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out! 

I am going to take a trip into the local library here in Tuam, Co. Galway for a book by Jim Herlihy The Royal Irish Constabulary, A Complete Alphabetical List of Officers & Men 1816 - 1922. This book provides a listing of over 80,0000 men in service with the RIC and their service number. I have checked online and the only Forbes I can see is a Constable James Alexander Forbes from Co. Tryone but he didn't join the RIC until 1901. I am hoping the above book will include a Forbes that will fit with your info. I checked for a wide range of dates but can't see a baptism for Martha anywhere. Hopefully the library will help at least with their father's first name.

Will get in there tomorrow hopefully, if not, then Saturday morning and will update you over the weekend.

I had a look on rootsireland but couldn't see a baptism record for Jane in Co. Louth, but as we don't know parents' names or an exact date it is hard to poinpoint what baptisms in neighbouring counties might be relevant. There is a Jane in Co. Tyrone baptised on 23rd July 1854 to a father William and a mother  Biddy McGlone in the Parish of Ardboe. As members of the RIC tended to move around, depending on their service, it could be that she wasn't born in Louth, unless you know for sure she was. 

All the best

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

I don’t know of a Blackrock in Co Louth but there is one in Co Dublin. If you can’t find Mr Forbes in the RIC records, try the Dublin Metropolitan Police. He may have served with them. (Blackrock, Co Dublin fell within F Division of the DMP). Jim Herlihy has published a book listing members of the DMP too!

The village of Blackrock, CountyLouth is situated about 3 miles (5kms) south east of Dundalk.   It is in reality the seaside portion of the town.   In recent years Blackrock and Dundalk have practically been joined by new housing developments.  There was an old Police Station at the Southern end of the village, and this was also the Garda Station until the l970/80s when a more modern one was constructed.    Police or Gardai at Blackrock would be under the command of the District Officer at Dundalk.   It may be important, in view of the nature of the query, to note that the resident Sergeant at Blackrock would have lived in the married quarters which were part of the Station building.    Tallanstown is another  County Louth village (most noted for the residence of the Plunkett family to which St. Oliver Plunkett belonged)   It is located between Dundalk and Ardee and is about 7 miles west of Blackrock and the same distance south/west of Dundalk.   Hope this is of assistance to the enquirer.   Patrick

Hi Susan

Blackrock is as described above outside Dundalk. I found your query interesting on a number of fronts as I searched your name Forbes in this sitehttp://www.jbhall.freeservers.com/ and got a large number of hits so the familiy name while unusual in these parts now was certainly about in times gone by, included in the hits are a Forbes family in Mapastown very close to Tallanstown in a corn survey of 1740, also there was a Forbes MP in Drogheda about 25 miles from Tallanstown at some stage, I also searched the Down survey here and it appears there was a Sir Arthur Forbes (sometimes Fforbes) in Longford in 1641 and 1670 so the name has been here prior to Cromwell. See http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/index.html

I know this interesting stuff does not locate Jane but I am assuming she was Church of Ireland and they are putting their  parish records online slowly but can be found here, they are already on some subscription sites and I will take a look later. 

http://ireland.anglican.org/information/63 

Also the members of the RIC I understand were not usually posted in their home area so that may explain the move to Blackrock but it appears to be too close to Tallenstown for that to hold. There is a police website here, now the police were separated in 1922 after the war of Independence and civil war but records are held in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. http://garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=72&Lang=1 I have emailed them myself previously and found them helpful, the notebooks of the RIC were returned to London (Kew I think) to protect any people who may have assisted the police prior to independence and are available to see when in London. By the way police in Ireland are Garda. For Northern Ireland contact PRONI at http://www.proni.gov.uk/

There is also a history website here which requires you to join which may have some historical stuff and the MP story, it is not expensive to join, €15 annually I think, see http://www.clahs.com/

I have also been on touch vis this site with a woman whose family emigrated from that area in about the 1830s to New Zealand. There is a book about the area on the first website on the Wild Goose Lodge murders in the early 1800s, tough stuff. If you think your family go back to then it shows what went on and it is not pretty.Also there is a Robert Forbes in Tallanstown on Griffiths Valuation dated 1854 in Tallanstown renting land from Lord Louth. The link also provides a map which I understand can be super imposed on current mapping using or Ordance Survey site and Google maps showing as it was and as it is, it is still a rural area so I doubt there is huge change, my wife has used it and located family property back in the day. http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNam…

That is some link but the site is Ask About Ireland and Griffiths Valuation, a land survey done in the 1852 to 1864 period recording only land owner and tenant.

It is late here now and if I find more on Jane I will post it.

Regards

Pat

Hi again

I couldn't find anything further about the RIC Forbes. There was only one entry, a William Francis born in 1836 in the UK. He was the son of Viscount Frobes and brother of the 7th Earl of Granard, Co. Longford and did not marry until 1863 so this is not our man. 

I am hoping that Pat comes back to you with further info

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support  

Hi Susan,

Did you find Jane ancestors yet?  Which religious denomination was Jane Forbes? Just some links and general info for you to consider.

If Jane was catholic, there records are free and unindexed at http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0234 and indexed on a subscription website www.rootsireland.ie . Tallanstown records dates are listed at http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseact…

If Jane was Church of Ireland, the Tallanstown village area is in the COI parish of Charlestown. There is also another COI parish called Clonkeen in the northern half of the modern day catholic parish. Both of these COI parish baptisms registers are stored in the Representitive Church Body of Ireland in Dublin (RCBI) http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers/Pari…; . They are not digitised as of July 2015. Read this website link to the RCBI and genealogical research http://ireland.anglican.org/information/63 . I haven't read it in detail. Contact them if that is an option and your ancestors are Church of Ireland.

Clonkeen graveyard and church, is called Churchtown church now and it is a catholic denomination church but I don't know the date of transfer. I think the graveyard was mixed religions in olden times, but I'll check and get back to you. It has a lot of plots with no headstones. Some of my family are buried here.  Charlestown graveyard is on my to be visited list, but I think it is COI only. I plan to visit both graveyards in 2016 and will watch out for Forbes headstone also . There are no Forbes listed on this website for Charlestown or Clonkeen graveyards http://www.jbhall.freeservers.com/memorial_inscriptions.htm , but the original survey may or may not have been the full graveyard. The other old graveyard in Tallanstown area is Philipstown, which is not on this website. I'm not sure if it is catholics only or mixed graveyard yet. I'll be visiting this graveyard as soon as it stops raining here in Ireland. I'm trying to find some of my roots from Tallanstown and Louth parishes.

In relation to RIC, the RIC was divided up in districts usually by county or if the county was large it was split into two districts. Dublin city had its own police force. Minimum age of entry was 19 and for sons of RIC men, it was 18 years. You were not allow to serve in the district of your or your wife’s birth. You had to be 7 years in the RIC before you could marry, and you also required permission from your superior. Blackrock and Tallanstown were in the Co Louth district, so this might be just a normal transfer, if the father was still in the RIC when Jane and Martha where born. Attached is the page from Jim Herlihy book re what would appear on the RIC persons record if we could find a Forbes. What other Forbes variant spelling are their. Clare, did you look for other spellings? I won't be able to look at Jim Herlihy book anytime soon.

As RIC where moved a lot, they socialised among there own and it would have been common to marry daughters of RIC men. They worked 6 day a week, long hours and little holidays. Accommodation was normally provided as part of the job, particularly in rural area in the actual barracks for unmarried men and separate quarters for married men. 2 examples of RIC officer I traced are my granduncle, born in Co Meath, served in Co Limerick, married a Co Limerick lady, transferred to East Co Galway 6 months later till he retired from the force. Another man, born Co Wexford, served Co Meath, married a Co Meath lady, transferred to Co Tyrone, shortly afterwards til retirement. Another, born Co Sligo, served East Co Galway, married East Galway lady, transferred to Co Westmeath.

What did Martha and Jane call their first 2 sons and daughters if any born? Might be an indication of their parents’ names?

I'll run a search through www.findmypast.ie tomorrow on the petty sessions records (court cases) to see would a Forbes have given evidence in a case and the travel and immigration records also. A very long short, but we must think outside the box, if we can't find an RIC record for Jane’s father to start off with.

Regards

Catherine McCormack

Moynalty parish

Thank you all very much for your assitance. I'll check through and hope something comes to light.

Happy New Year to you all

Cheers

Susan