Austin families of Kilballyowen and west Clare

Hi Joan

By chance I read your message.  May I recommend that you edit it and add the relevant surnames and use a Message Title that reflects the content (all messages on this message board are about Kilballyowen, so your original title will not attract anyone's attention)?

Check out the discussion of the west Clare Austins on the Clare Past Forum.

George Ambrose Austin's very precise birth date precedes the earliest surviving baptismal register for the united parishes of Kilballyowen and Moyarta.  Where does it come from?

The IGI includes what appear to be your GGgrandparents.

Two Tom Austins (uncle and nephew) from Kilballyowen parish married two McMahon sisters from Baltard in Killard parish in 1886 and in about 1908.  The McMahon sisters were first cousins of my stepgreatgrandmother.

There are transcriptions from Kilballyowen cemetery at clarelibrary.ie and at findagrave.com.

Thomas Austin (d.1953) buried in Kilballyowen is the nephew who married the younger McMahon sister in about 1908.  Patrick and Marty buried with them are their sons.  Thomas's father John was 70 in 1901, 79 in 1911 but only 78 when he died in 1912, so probably born in the early 1830s. If the couple in the IGI are George Ambrose Austin's parents and if all the dates and ages are reliable, then John was more likely Patrick's older brother (or more distant relative) than his son.

Martin and Patrick and Thomas Austin are all listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1855 in Oughterard, parish of Kilballyowen, but only Thomas occupied a house.

Your Patrick and Catherine were still having children baptised in 1859:

NOVEMBER 9^th 1859    JANE AUSTIN  from  CROSS

PAT AUSTIN  &  KATE CONNERS 

JANE CALHANE  &  EDMMOND CALHANE    [ Culhane?]

Revd T McMahon ?? as INWm

They were acting as baptismal sponsors to a possible relative in 1860:

OCTOBER 27^th 1860    JAMES CONNORS  from  KILBALLYOWEN

D? or T? or ?? THOMAS ?? CONNORS  &  MARY GEANY

As PATT, Pat AUSTIN & CATHERINE CONNORS              Revd M M ?

In Griffith's Valuation of 1855, Patrick Austin occupied no.42 in the townland of Cross in Kilballyowen parish (house and office on 22a 3r 22p; immediate lessors Peter, Thomas and Michael Gibson;  rateable annual valuation of the land 6 pounds 5 shillings and of the buildings 5 shillings).  You can locate the precise spot at griffiths.askaboutireland.ie and trace the subsequent occupiers in the cancelled books in the Valuation Office in the Irish Life Centre in Dublin.

In the Tithe Applotment Books for Kilballyowen (August 1825), there were numerous Austins in the parish.

I hope some of this helps

Paddy Waldron

Hi Joan:

I am a great granddaughter of George Ambrose Austin and Eliza McGinn Austin.  I am interested in any Austin familiy information that you would care to share!

Thanks,

Nancy Austin Burton

Hello,

I am researching a John Austin who was born about 1792 in County Clare and died in 1856 in Minnesota, USA.  He was married to Bidelia O'Keefe and had at least three daughters in County Clare: Mary (b about 1827), Ann (b about 1831) and Bridget (b about 1840).  John and the daughters emigrated to the US by 1851.  I'm not sure if Bidelia O'keefe Austin was ever in the US, but I suspect she died in Ireland.

I landed on your messages because when checking Tithe Applotments, the only place I could find Austins and O'Keefes in County Clare was in Kilballyowen.

Do you know of any Austins who left around 1851 or how this John might fit into the Austin families?

The only record I found in Ireland that might be "my" John Austin was from the Kilrush workhouse in August 1849 where a John Austin of Cross was paid for breaking rock. I could not find the daughters' baptisms or the wife's death as the church records aren't complete for this area (as you likely know).

Best regards,

Nancy Moffett

Sunnyvale, California

Hi Nancy, from New Zealand.  

I have transcribed the Carrigaholt / Kilballyowen Catholic Marriage & Baptism Registers of 1852-1881 and collected other information related to 'my' home parishes.      Just a check : you know that Bidelia is the Latin form for Bridget ?  

I see a few "JOHN AUSTIN" men, BUT all more recent than yours :--   

FEBRUARY 12th 1871      JOHN AUSTIN from OUGHTERARD ,  here as Outerard  

married to BRIDGET LYNCH from LISHEEN 

Witnesses:  here as Pat ,  PATRICK LYNCH & MARGARET HASSETT  

Priest: Revd Thomas McMahon    -- written out in full,  like that.

[ There were several ‘John Austins’ of both different, & the same, generations :---  

one from Carrigaholt was married to Mary Blake (as was also a Martin Austin);     another to Margaret McDonnell as Peg MacDonnell ;      another to Margaret Delohery ;      another to Bridget Lynch ;      and another to Annie McKnight(emigrated to Chicago) ;    & ?   etc.   ]       

===================================     

If you have taken an autosomal DNA test [ FTDNA.com is best ], you may see distant matches with relevant surnames from younger AUSTIN generations, perhaps in the female lines?      

Hi Murray,

Thank you for your reply.  I had looked through the records on RootsIreland and couldn't find a likely canidate for John Austin or Bidelia/Bridget O'Keefe Austin (who likely died in County Clare bet 1840-1851) either. 

Is there an Austin Family project or some other group to join on FTDNA? I will ask those in the oldest generation to take a test. It seems I am at the end of the record trail. And of course, there's also the possibility that my hypothesis of Kilballyowen due to both Austins and O'Keefes in the Tithe Applotments is wrong.

Best regards,

Nancy Moffett

Just a quick answer for now, Nancy  -- my email is MURRAY@GINNANE.CO.NZ  -- I hope that doesn't get censored ?!?   

I have never had a need to concentrate on the AUSTIN surname,  yet ......   

I can email back the transcriptions in WORD.docx  format  -- they are 2 quite big files.   

Sally O'KEEFFE features in those Registers as from QUERRIN   -- but her baptised name was not Sally, but Sarah ????   I forget.   She had a sailing boat built locally and named after her a few years ago.    

That is east a few miles from Kilballyowen,      MMG