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« on: Sunday 02 September 12 01:48 BST (UK) »
Hello Tara. Looks like Oak Mount might be the right one. The family I am tracing are William and Lucy Roberts. William came from Lissangle Caheragh where his father Alexander farmed 34 acres. Lucy came from Dromcona? Caheragh. Her father was a labourer. One of their daughters Deborah, born 1861 married in Wales, 1884, father described as a caretaker. On census records for Deborah, her birthplace is Skibbereen. Daughter Elisabeth born 1864 Skibbereen. Daughter Lucy born 1866, address Oak Mount, district of Castletown. Lucy's address on her marriage cert in 1897 gives her address as Kilbrittain, and her father as a farmer. Another daughter Kate born 1869 also Castletown, but as I don't have a birth cert for this, do not know address. She is with her sister Elisabeth in London, on the 1901 census and gives birthplace as Skibbereen, not Castletown. Just as a matter of interest, if the father William was deceased at the time of Lucy's marriage in 1897, would it say so. The reason I ask is that I can only find a death for William Roberts in 1890, and I know that her mother Lucy was a widow on the 1901 Irish census. I will quote you a passage from some handwritten notes from one of the great-grandsons ......"Lucy Roberts was born on a farm called Hollybrook, near Skibbereen, she and her older sister Mary lived for 12 years at Kilbrittain Castle owned by Jonas Alcock-Stole, a friend. Mary was born on Valentia Island near Caherciveen, she was secretary to Knights of Kerry. Hollybrook farm ran hunters and hounds, one sister Kate was good horsewoman and won gold bracelet. All the sisters were educated in private schools. There were 3 sons, two who died young were Waterloo soldiers and another Jack who ran away to sea as his father was so strict, I believe he settled in New Zealand" ........ I think we can discount the Waterloo reference as that was way before they were born. The writer also makes reference to a cousin Ben Roberts being a politician in the early NZ Parliament, possibly a descendant of Jack Roberts. The only sister who seems to have married "well" was Elisabeth, her husband was a well known physician and surgeon George Burford who set up homeopathic clinics. Moya