Caulfield and Leader families, Cork

[kimbee]

My Great-Grandmother was Sarah Caulfield of Queenstown, daughter of Richard Caulfield and Catherine Coghlan.  She married John James Tottel and had 14 children of which my grandmother Catherine Clare was the youngest.

There is some verbal history in the family of a connection with the Leader family (or Deacon Leader) also from the Cork area.  It's difficult to look for "leader" as it confuses the hits.

Any "Leaders" out there?

[lormar]

My ancestors are LEADER   Cork.   See www.radleysofcork.bigpondhosting.com
If they are right Leaders, then I have more information that is not on web page.

Lormar

[kimbee]

Thank you very much - what a fantastic site! 

I'm not able to say Yea or Nay at the moment.  I'm still at the very early stages in looking back through family records. 

When my grandmother was living she talked about her Aunt Frances (whom she called Frances Deacon Leader) who would take her on trips to places in Devon. 

The "yarn" always was that my Grandmother's father should have been entitled to an inheritance which he never received and Aunt Frances Leader was trying to resolve this.  I can't get to the bottom of that and it probably is just a good ol' yarn!!

I've never been able to find any records of this lady, (Frances, from whom I inherited my middle name) but on a trawl through the Ancestory website found the marriage certificate for Julia Anne Deacon Leader who married in 1856 at Newton Abbot, Devon.  I haven't seen a copy of this marriage certificate but on clicking on the "see others on page" I found John James Tottel's name.  This would be my Grandmother's Grandfather. 

Her father was also called John James Tottel and his wife (Sarah Caulfield) and the majority of the 14 children were born in Queenstown, Cork. 

Does any of this marry up with what you know?  Sorry I know it's not that lucid!!

Regards

Kim

[lormar]

Thank you for compliment on my website.  I will look up those names. In the meantime try Connors family History. He has a Leader on his site. It is one of links on my pages.

Lorraine

[lormar]

Hello Kim

I found none of those surnames in connection with Leaders. However, that does not mean they were not related in some way.  The Leaders of Keale, Millstreet and Mt.Leader and Stake Hill are well documented in Burkes. If you find anymore surnames, let me know. I will be happy to look up for you. Did you look up Harry Connors site?

    Regards
    Lorraine

www.radleysofcork.bigpondhosting.com

[HarryC]

It's my site that Lorraine has been suggesting. I'm not sure that it will help much, but you might want to look over the Leader portion.

Yes, "Leader" is a lousy search term in Google. The name itself means military leader and is of English origin. The Leaders of County Cork were, supposedly, descended from a "Cromwell soldier" and were landed gentry, primarily in the Millstreet (a town in northwest County Cork) area and were part of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy. I am also reasonably certain that there were members of the family who did not remain part of the ascendancy. My own Leader ancestor, though from Millstreet, seems to have been both poor and Catholic.

"Queenstown" is now known as Cobh and is in Cork harbor. I didn't know that there were Leaders there, but I'm not surprized.

[Rosyposie]

Hi there,

I've just started researching my family tree. I am also a Leader, like my father (George Leader) who was born in Glasgow in 1940. His father was also called George Leader (born 1913/died 1966) also from Glasgow but  have been told that he had Irish roots. Does this help at all?

Rosy

[HarryC]

Well, the standard advice to a beginner is to start with yourself and work backwards obtaining original documents wherever possible. In this case I recommend it because "Irish roots" is a bit vague. It doesn't say whether his mother or father was from Ireland. Start with Scottish records (relatively easy these days).

About the Leaders: There are English and German Leaders. The Germans aren't related and your Glasgow roots suggest English as the source. The name means military leader or officer. I would be surprised if all English Leaders are related. To the best of my knowledge there is only one family of Irish Leaders but I haven't done an exhaustive search. The Irish Leaders I know about were originally English. The family was founded by an English soldier and settled near the town of Millstreet in northwestern County Cork. They had a number of manor houses and were part of the Anglo-Irish Ascendency. Records for this family are good. You can find out quite a lot in the radleysofcork site mentioned by Lorraine above.

At least, the records are good if your family is Protestant. Most Leaders were. But, over time, some married Catholic girls (or had other relationships) and had Catholic descendants. Catholic records aren't as good but by the end of the 19th century records were being kept. I believe most Leaders in Cork now are Catholic. There was a diaspora of Protestant Leaders (and other Anglo-Irish Ascendancy families) around the time of the Irish Civil War.