Ardellis:Baptism

[beavis]

Can anyone help please. I am looking for a R.C. church or churches in or NR. Ardellis. I am on holiday later in the year and hope to find where several family event's occurred. One is for Thomas Callaghan, his family were from/or living at Ardellis. Thomas's was baptized in Nov 1886. Any help will gratefully welcomed....

[Mr J T Arthur]

If it is Ardellis in the civil parish of Fontstown you are out of luck as it is in the Catholic parish of Kilmeade and Crookstown (sometimes listed as Narraghmore) which Kildare Genealogy stubbornly refuse to include in the Irish Family History Foundation site. I suggest you directly email Kildare Genealogy for an explanation and hopefully you will succeed where many others of us have failed.

If by holiday you mean you are visiting Kildare you will need to contact the priest at Crookstown.

Good luck,
J.T.A.

[beavis]

Thank's J.T.A. Yes, I will be coming to Kildare. Three year's ago when we came over to Ireland and did visit by chance the church at Crookstown & met two gentlemen who gave us a guided tour of the cemetery...just the sort of thing that you do when you are on holiday!We were looking for Callaghan,Maher & Winter burial's. We were told that a lot of earlier graves had been levelled. It is a very beautiful church. If you could help (or anyone locally) can help with the priest's name, address, and telephone number it be a great help. I will try emailing Kildare Genealogy. I am afraid my power's of persuasion are not very good....Thank you once again....

[Mr J T Arthur]

Try this:

http://narraghmoreparish.org/mass.htm

J.T.A.

[Mr J T Arthur]

Beavis,

I note with interest your mention of the name Winter as that name was not listed in the whole of Kildare let alone the Crookstown district at the time of the Primary Valuation of Ireland (GV) which in the case of Co Kildare was surveyed in 1852, yet in 1869 a cousin of my grandmother Mary Butler daughter of George Butler and Marcella Cahill was baptised at Crookstown and her godparents were John Winter and Catherine Nugent.

Does the name John Winter mean anything to you and did your Winter ancestors arrive in the district after 1852?

Best wishes,
J.T.A.

[beavis]

Hi J.T.A. Interesting question's...The Winter side of my family is shrouded in mystery. We have a John Winter (my g.g.g. grandfather) he married a Ann Hunter.(never found where they were married)  John Winter had a son called Thomas Henry & we believe a John. Thomas Henry did not seem to know where he was born. But in the 1851 (English census) it states born Ireland (I think it is him)!It is a long narrative of explanation it would take far to long here...  I felt that from some of the early history of the Callaghan's & Winter's  the families may have known one another. My grandfather Patrick Callaghan is said to have worked at some point for the inventor Charles A. Parson's, he was the son of the Earl of Rosse. The strange thing is that Patrick's grandfather Thomas did not live a million miles away from the border's of Co. Offally. There are many Winter's there. My grandfather came over to England in 1892 he was only nine year's old so I am puzzled. He may have worked for Parson's in Sunderland when he was older as the family settled there. I have thus far found no evidence of this.There  is that nagging thought that another member of the family worked for the Parson's family... It is very hit & miss and far more complicated than mentioned here. Thank you so much for all your help. Best wishes.Beavis

[Mr J T Arthur]

The Parsons lived at Birr Castle and I note that in 1854, the year that Charles Parsons was born there was a Thomas Winter in  the town of Birr who sublet several house he leased from the Earl of Rosse who was William Parsons the famous astronomer so there could be a connection there.

I have lived all my life on Tyneside and am therefore well aware of Charles Parsons but I know of no connection that he had with Sunderland. He first served his apprenticeship in the 1870's at the Armstrong's Works, Elswick in the west end of Newcastle less than than 5 miles from my home and later worked at Clarke Chapmans near Gateshead on the south side of the Tyne. Then in 1889 he founded C.A. Parsons and Co. at Heaton, Newcastle. He also acquired the Irish Grubb Telescopic Company in 1925 and renamed it Grubb Parsons but that was based in Newcastle too.

J.T.A.

[beavis]

Hi. J.T.A. I found the same record as you in the Griffith's Valuation.  This is a reason I thought it strange. What I am trying not to do is make thing's fit or jump to, to many conclusion's. We had some information passed on to us by a late aunt. She had a wonderful memory but some family event's were right but not with the right member's of the family. Without her initial knowledge I don't think we would have found our Callaghan's in Ireland. I had some information from a kind gentleman that Parson's lived at a place called Wylam? I have looked at the parish record's for Winter's at Birr sadly they are a mess, but there are many Winter's, plus a few Hunter's. I think I would have to have lived with the record's for a year to make head or tail of them! I miss informed you with the year of the Callaghan family moved over to England, it was 1891 just after the census...bah! I have some family connection's with Newcastle. As a child I visited there with my parent's... alas they are vague memories.... getting long in the tooth, as they say. Thank you again, for your help  with all the info... p.s. almost forgot the name Catherine occur's in our Winter's, both Thomas & John had daughter's called Catherine...

[Mr J T Arthur]

Hello Beavis,

I just live 3 miles from Wylam, a pretty little village on the northern bank of the Tyne about 8 miles west of Newcastle. It was also the home of George Stephenson who lived in much more humble circumstances. I also have a family connection there.

http://www.wylamontyne.co.uk/

J.T.A.