Week 4: An ancestor I’d like to meet #52ancestors

This week’s theme is to talk about one ancestor you’d like to meet. A super unfair question as there are MANY ancestors I’d like to meet. So many “brick walls” that a face-to-face meeting could solve. To pick one is really hard! 

My husband’s 2ndgreat-grandfather was John Quinlan. Born in Ireland in 1835,[1] he immigrated to the U.S. in the 1850’s when he was in his late teens/early twenties. However, it is his mother that I’d like to talk about meeting. Johanna Roche Quinlan was born in Ireland in about 1796. She had at least five children with her husband Daniel Quinlan. I know that three of those children (all boys) came to the U.S.[2]

I was super lucky to find Johanna and her family in the 1851 Irish census (anyone doing Irish genealogy knows how remarkable that is). She was 55 years old living in the Townland of Downing South, Parish of Kilcrumper, County Cork, with her daughter Ann (24), son John (16), sister-in-law Ann Malone (77), and 9-year-old grand-daughter Mary Hendley. Johnna was a widow.[3]

What would we talk about? Of course, I would pepper her with lots and lots detailed questions, but not just about dates and names. No, what I’d really want to know is what effect the famine was having on her family and in her community? How were they surviving? Why did she send her last boy to the U.S., leaving the women and girls alone in the household? In 1853, the family is living on a one-acre plot with a house.[4]How was she able to pay the rent for the one-acre of land they lived on? In 1828, the family had 31 acres,[5]so what happened between then and 1853? Did her husband’s death or something else cause them to lose all but the one acre? As a Catholic, how did she and her family survive under the Irish Penal Laws? How was the family treated by their landlord, the Right Hon. David R. Pigott, who was a Protestant barrister, attorney general, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and member of Parliament?[6]

All of these questions and many more come to mind. It is almost unfathomable to think about life in rural Ireland during and after the famine. The starvation, extreme poverty, and rampant diseases are almost too much to consider. When she sent John off to America, did she know she’d likely ever see him again? Did she grieve for her loss (to America) of her sons or was she happy that they got away? At least she had enough money to send her boys to America and that’s really saying something! 

You’ll note my addition of footnotes this week. I am trying to be a disciplined genealogist and my previous posts without footnotes are kinda embarrassing. Anyone who knew me in law school knows my fondness for footnotes. That hatred has not changed.

[1]Kilworth Parish, Diocese of Cloyne, Counties of Waterford and Cork, Ireland, baptisms, 1829-1876, John Quinlan, 8 November 1835, unpaginated chronological entries; digital image, National Library of Ireland, “Catholic Parish Registers,” (https://www.registers.nil.ie).

[2]Massachusetts, standard certificate of death 361 (1910), Michael Quinlan; digital image, Ancestry, “Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915” (https://www.ancestry.com). Massachusetts, Death Index, “1901-1980, Daniel Quinlan, 1919; digital image, Ancestry, “Massachusetts, Death Index 1901-1980,” (https://www.ancestry.com).

[3]Masterson, Josephine, County Cork, Ireland, a Collection of 1851 Census Records(Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2000); digital image, Ancestry(https://www.ancestry.com).

[4]Heritage World Family History Services, Ireland, Griffith’s Valuation, 1847-1864, Cork, Fermoy, Kilcrumper, Downing South, Johanna Quinlan, p. 100; digital Image, Ancestry(https://www.ancestry.com).

[5]Applottment for Vicarial Tithes of the Parish of Kilcrumper, Townland of Downing (1828), Daniel Quinlon; digital image, The National Archives of Ireland(www.titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie).

[6]The Irish Church Directory, 1862 (Dublin: James Charles, 1862), p. 171; digital image, Googlebooks (https://play.google.com).

Downing South, Kilcrumper Parish, County Cork, Ireland, 1853

Modern day, Downing South (no house on the likely plot)