Had an interesting meeting last night

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

As I sit here today, preparing for a golf tournament this afternoon, I can't help but reflect on meeting Karen James last night. Karen is a descendant of Michael McGrath and Catherine Brennan - our mutual great great grandparents. Not much is known of Michael or Catherine, but the search goes on.

With research we have come to the conclusion that Michael and Catherine both came from the Clough, Castlecomer area of County Kilkenny. I have a copy of the record of the marriage of Catherine's parents John Brennan and Ellen/Eleanor Walsh from the parish church in the parish of Castlecomer. The date was 15 November, 1830. John was living in the townland of Crutt but Ellen's homeplace was not given. No parents names were given but the witnesses were Martin Phelan and Judith (Judy) Neil.

Baptisms of their children shed only a little light on the matter as it is obvious they were not baptized soon after birth. The oldest child was Margaret, and her baptism was recorded as 20 August 1838. Sponsors were John Walshe and Margaret Nolan. At the time the family was living in Clough and the mother's name was given as Eleanor Walshe.

Two years later we have Catherine baptised on 25 May 1840, with parents John Brennan and Elenor Walsh who were living in Coolalean. Sponsors were Edmond Comerford and Catherine Comerford.

The same year, a few months later on 10 September 1840, son James Brennan was baptised. Parents were listed as John Brennan and Elenor Walshe still living at Coolalean. Sponsors were Patrick Kavanagh and Catherine Murphy.

The youngest child was William, baptized 20 January 1842. Parents were listed as John Brennan and Ellen Walsh, living at Clough. Sponsors were Robert Nolan and Mary Walsh. The townland was given as Coolaline which I suppose was the same as Coolaleen.

I think, now that I've revisited this information which I got from Rothe House, Kilkenny, I'm going to look more into the sponsors. Catholic parish records are now indexed and online at ancestry.com so perhaps I'll turn up something helpful.

Catherine and Margaret Brennan stayed in Bytown, later Ottawa. Catherine married Michael McGrath in 1854 at the age of 17 - working backwards from her age at death. This means she would have been born in 1837. John Brennan died sometime before 1848 because in that year his widow Eleanor/Ellen, now known as Helen, remarried to a John Doyle. No sign has been found so far of the boys James or William. They were not living with Helen and John Doyle in the 1851 census taken in Ottawa. They would still have been quite a bit too young to be on their own. It is possible they worked as labourers or maybe apprentices to trade, but so far no luck finding them.

Anyway, I have digressed. Karen and I have basically the same information on the descendants of Michael and Catherine. Our records differ on the parents of Michael McGrath. Records are hard to come by. There is a family of McGraths in Ottawa at the same time who seem to be known to our family over the years, but the parents were married in County Wicklow. Another mystery for another day.