Margaret Conway from Bourney

I would like some help please. After the excitement yesterday of finding Margaret in Lismaken Cournaganeen ( Bourney ) in 1844, I went to Roots Ireland for further confirmation only to find that they have her mother as Mary Carmody. 

Roots Ireland have a Kitty Conway - 1841 - father Michael Conway - mother Mary Kennedy. Also, a Michael Conway -1846 - same parents. Do you think it reasonable that the Margaret Conway - 1844 - father Michael Conway - mother Mary Carmody is an error? 

My initial Bourney information came from a patial transcription of Baptisms to 1848 ( not 1898, my typo) which I found on "roots web ". Could you direct me to somewhere where I can resolve this issue?

many thanks

Denyse

Hello Denyse

I received an email from Eamon Horan in Roscrea and I have seen your correspondence with him on the Roscrea site. I also have seen your post on the Bourney site and I thank you for joining.

I did a quick search on roootsireland.ie and found the following children born to Michael Conway & Mary Kennedy. All baptised in Couraguneen RC Church, as I didn?t pay for any of the certs I only got brief info on the Children.  Mary Carmody could be an error as it is possible when the records were transcribed from the original books. 

Nr born 1837

Kitty born 1841

Margaret born 1844

Michael born 1846

Johanna born 1850

I also did a quick search in the 1850s Griffith?s valuation records to see if they had any property in the area at that time but couldn?t find them in Lismackin or surrounding area of Bourney.

I then checked the Tithe Applotments book which was a list of taxes paid to landlords in the 1820s but had no luck with that search.

So if they had no property in the area they might have lived and worked on an estate in the area. The nearest estate was Ashmear House owned by Joseph Griffin or Loran estate owned by Robert Roe. Ashmear & Loran townsland are less than a mile from Lismackin and Couraguneen.

I looked at the Hanrahan Langdon post and it looks to be correct.

We have monthly meetings and our next meeting is on the 4^th of March. We have a membership of about 30 people and we will discuss your post then to see if anyone has a connection or knows anything about the Conway family.

Sorry I haven?t any more info for you but you never know what can turn up.

Tim Lee ? Bournea Reaching Out

Thank you, Tim, for your efforts. I'm so glad you think that the "Carmody" May be an error. I read the beginning of the Hanrahan post again, and it seems as though they approached the transcription carefully. ( May be wishful thinking) Do you know where the original documents are stored?

I had found the unnamed child & Kitty & Michael, but Johanna is a new one for me.

Is there much information available on life on thes estates in the mid 19th Century?  One of my aunts used to say that Margaret was a ladies maid. 

And yet there is the Templemore baker named Thomas Conway in Slaters in 1856. Is there a connection? I feel as though I'm reading a novel!

Some of my cousins are coming over on Thursday, to talk about the family tree. We arranged this before I joined Ireland XO. I think they'll be bowled over with the progress.

Many Thanks

regards

Denyse

ESTATE: GRIFFITH (AGHSMEAR)

Associated Families

?         Griffith (Aghsmear)

Description

Joseph Griffith, son of the Reverend Joseph Philip Griffith, married Eliza daughter of George Roe in

Hello Denyse

The original Birth & Baptismal records are held in Roscrea RC Church which can be assessed easily enough and checked for errors. I think the Templemore connection is interesting and worth following up. The following is info on Ashmear house. We are also on facebook " Bournea Reaching Out" 

Ashmear House

September 1846 in the parish of Bourney, barony of Ikerrin, county Tipperary. At the time of Griffith's Valuation Joseph Griffith held an estate in the parishes of Bourney, Corbally, Killea, Rathnaveoge and Templemore, barony of Ikerrin, county Tipperary. In the 1870s Joseph Griffith of Aghsmear owned 2,218 acres in the county.

Houses

Thank you, Tim. I wonder if there are any records of workers on the Ashmear or Loran estates from Margaret's time. 

I notice on the printout of Johanna's Baptism record that her mother is listed as Lilliie Kenidy. Do you know of anyone who would check the Bourney records for me? There are 2 queries - 1) in 1844 is Margaret's mother actually Kennedy not Carmody. 2) in 1850 is Johanna's mother Mary Kennedy not Lillie ?

I'm still searching for Thomas the baker in Templemore, but so far he only shows up in Slaters 1856. 

I have a Michael Conway death in Roscrea in 1880 with a birth date of abt 1815. Maybe....

I'll be very interested to hear about the meeting next Tuesday. 

Regards

Denyse

Hi Tim. Just one more thing. I've just noticed that Johanna's record gives the address as Clonakenny Cournaganeen (Bourney) . The others are Lismaken Cournaganeen (Bourney). Do you think this is significant?

regards

denyse

Hi Denyse

Clonakenny and Couraguneen are two villages in the one parish of Bournea. Clonakenny is in Bournea west & Couraguneen is Bournea east. Lismackin is a townsland halfway between both Villages. The parish Priest serves both villages with a RC Church in both (Pics on home page) so he just put down both names no real significant in it.

I can?t get any records on the estates at the moment, but we will keep trying as a lot of people worked in them and we are getting a lot of names like Conway that are no longer in the parish and we are having difficulty in tracing them.

When the Birth/Death/Marriage records were transcribed they were not done by professionals and we know mistakes were made. We will check the original record if we can, we might not be able as they are getting damaged and some churches are putting the originals away for safe keeping.

We also have to try the School records so we could have some luck there.

Did the death record of Michael Conway give a name of informer (could be son or daughter)?

Hi Tim,

Hi Tim 

The death record for Michael Conway does indeed have an informant - he was William Hayes from the Roscrea Workhouse. The date is 1st December 1880. Earlier that year on 1st February, Mary Kennedy died at Bunkershill, Roscrea. The informant was Michael Conway. They both died from Tuberculosis . So terribly sad. They must have been desperately poor.

I am getting nowhere with Margaret's siblings. Perhaps they all perished?

After catching up with some of my cousins last week, I have a few extra Conways to add to the puzzle. Margaret Conway had 2 "cousins" who came to Australia to work in her bakery. They were Margaret & Mary Conway. Margaret married George Graham & moved to Townsville, North Queensland. Mary remained in the bakery here in Brisbane until after Margaret Graham's death, when she went north to take care of Margaret's family. Sometime in 1950s, her brother came out from Ireland. The story is that he got Mary to come back to Brisbane. They then shared a room in a suburb of Brisbane until they died shortly after. The details I have found so far are ......

The parents of Margaret Conway Graham, Mary Conway & Michael Conway were ..  Thomas Conway & Annie Costello. Thomas Conway born Ballyhall, Roscrea, Feb. 1858. His parents were Daniel Conway & Anne Ryan. Thomas Conway & Annie Costello were married in Roscrea 1878. Margaret Conway Graham was born in Roscrea.

i hope this is not too confusing.

cheers

Denyse

So far I can't tie the 2 families together. The "cousins " are too young to be 1st cousins. 

I hope I haven't confused you too much.

Oops! Thomas Conway & Annie Costello were married in 1874 in Roscrea.

Margaret was born in Bunkershill Roscrea in 1876

denyse

Morning Tim - hope you have an interesting meeting tonight. I hope someone has a brilliant idea about Margaret's siblings & cousins.

Denyse 

Hi Denyse

We had a good discussion at our Bournea Reaching Out meeting on the 4^th March. Unfortunately we don?t have any new information for you. It?s such a long time ago that the Conway?s lived in Lismackin. We did find a Mary Conway in Roscrea who was born in Drum at the other side of Templemore. She wasn?t married and was a servant. I checked it up on rootsireland.ie and she was born 1806. Not sure if she is related or not but would be worth checking out Drum area. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie

We dont have ascess to estate records at the moment and I'm not sure they kepet employment records back then. 

Conway, Mary, Age 96, Female,  Head of family, Roman Catholic, Birthplace Drum CoTipperary, Occupation Servant, Read & write and Not married.

It could take a bit of time but will keep searching.

Tim Lee   Bournea Reaching Out                

Hi Tim. Thanks to you & your colleagues for all the time you've spent on my family research. I continue with the search for those elusive Tipperary Conways. I can't find your Mary Conway from Drum - actually I'm not at all sure which county I'm supposed to be looking in. I seem to get different answers everytime I google it.

i found a death record for a Johanna Conway in 1897 in Roscrea. I don't know if it is the right one as I didn't get any parents with the record on Find My Past. There is a Conway family in Latteragh in 1901. The head is Michael - perhaps Margaret's brother?

I was so desperate the other day I looked up the Irish phone book!

I'd really like to know what happened to my Conway family. I wonder if some of the other siblings left Ireland as well. Was there really an arranged marriage from which to escape? 

I have 3 other great grandmothers from Ireland, but for some reason this one has me enthralled.

Regards

Denyse

Hi Tim, 

I recently discovered that Margaret is not on the records of the Sacred Heart Convent in  Roscrea. So disappointing. 

My query today is : what schools existed in the Bourney area during Margaret's childhood  (born 1844) ? I know that when she arrived in Australia she could read & write, at the very least. 

I'm continuing to investigate Thomas Conway, the Templemore baker in 1856. I read that he became insolvent in 1863. Then he absconded before his court case. Those old Irish newspapers are amazing.

Regards

Denyse