Mayo

[jhnw10050]

My ancestor John GILES (born c1834) joined the British Army in 1852. His Attestation states that he was born in the Parish of 'Cagheen' (or 'Cogheen'), near the Town of Clare in County Mayo. It also states that he enlisted at 'Bale', County Mayo, taking  the oath at Castlebar the following day.  I've been unable to pinpoint the whereabouts of Cagheen(Cogheen)/Bale, and I wonder whether the names have changed over time. Can anyone with local knowledge give me a steer on this, please? John

[Elwyn Soutter]

Bale could be Balla which is the next town and parish along to Castlebar. Can’t see Cagheen or Cooheen, but there is an RC parish of Crossboyne & Taugheen in the county.

[jhnw10050]

Thanks for the prompt response, and I can now see the tie-in to 'Balla'. I wonder whether the 'Cagheen' spelling was perhaps an anglicised version of a Gaelic name place? Regards, John.

[leprechaun]

 It could be Carheen in 1837 the name was Corheen.

[muckjack]

Following on from Elwyn, the nearest town to Crossboyne and Taugheen (the T sometimes sounds like it's pronounced as Ch), is Claremorris. Sometimes Taugheen is spelt Tagheen and it's a double parish set-up with Crossboyne.

Balla is also about half-way between Claremorris and Castlebar.

[muckjack]

Something else to maybe consider is that Gill would have been, and is, a common surname in that general area.

[jhnw10050]

Thanks to all for the advice.  I think my next step is to buy a detailed map of Mayo, as  I've been unable to pinpoint many of the places suggested above.  Does anyone know whether the Mayo parishes bmd's have been/are being put on line?

[shanew147]

You can browse historic maps of Ireland free on the website of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland - see : http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/

The 6" maps are from the 1st editions and dated between about 1820 and 1840. The 25" historic maps are from about 1890. On the 6" colour maps the townland borders are shown in red, and the civil parish boundaries in green.

Good websites for searching for townlands and placenames are :
    http://www.thecore.com/seanruad - Townland database
   www.logainm.ie - official placenames database

Transcripts for a number of RC and CofI parishes in Co. Mayo are available on the pay-website of the Irish Family History Foundation at www.rootsireland.ie


Shane

[shanew147]

for reference the town of Clare, Co. Mayo is in the civil parish of Kilcolman. Church of Ireland parishes usually followed the same boundaries as civil parishes.

The RC parish which covered the town was Kilcolman/Claremorris and has baptism records back to April 1835, marriages to 1806.



Shane