Lost in Limerick

Finding the Irish ancestors once you get "over the pond" can be difficult if not impossible. My Shea and Farrell side are from Limerick according to information on a family gravestone and family oral tradition. Tracking them down was a combination of serendipity and detective work.

Mary Agnes Shea and granddaughter

Michael Shea and wife Mary Agnes Farrell left Ireland with (according to family tradition) their daughter Mary Bridget, my great grandmother. She was too young to remember Ireland or the voyage. They had at least 5 or 6 other children. Tracking the census information on all of the children led to the discovery that Mary Bridget's brother Michael was also born in Ireland. There is another Shea family in St. Johnsbury VT where Michael and Mary Agnes settled: Patrick Shea and wife Hannah Haley. They are buried in St. Johnsbury and were researched to see if there was a connection. So far none has been proved.

During the famine many ships went from Limerick directly to Canada. Since Canada was part of Britain the passage was cheaper.  No statistics exist on how many people in the Limerick area died during the famine. Nationally, the population declined by an average of 20%, half of whom died and half emigrated. While the Great Famine reduced the population of County Limerick  by 70,000, the population of the City actually rose slightly, as people fled to the workhouses Ships berthed on the Limerick quaysides ready to transport produce from one of the most fertile parts of Ireland, the Golden Vale , to the English ports. Francis Spaight, a Limerick merchant, farmer, British magistrate and ship owner, recorded 386,909 barrels of oats, and 46,288 barrels of wheat being shipped out of Limerick between June 1846 and May 1847. Giving evidence to a British parliament  select committee  inquiring into the famine, Spaight said that: "I found so great an advantage of getting rid of the pauper population upon my own property that I made every possible exertion to remove them ... I consider the failure of the potato crop to be the greatest possible value in one respect in enabling us to carry out the emigration system." The same quaysides were the departure point for many emigrant ships sailing over the Atlantic. (see the Wikipedia article on Limerick)

Immigrants were often promised that they would receive help on arrival but this was usually not forthcoming. Walking over the border into Vermont was possible and tempting. Once the railroad started running between NH and VT and Canada that was another way immigrants arrived. In a report by the trustees of a Vermont "poor farm" (a place for indigent people where they assisted with farm work in return for board and room) in the 1850's it expressed alarm at the influx of immigrants. The trustees felt they were coming just to take advantage of the benefits offered by the county poor farm. Some men left their families in Canada and went ahead of them. Since the Shea family wound up in Caledonia Co. Vermont on the east side of the state it is possible that they crossed  into Newport, Orleans Co. They were one of the lucky families if they did come through Canada. Many of those immigrants wound up in quarantine on Grosse Isle and died there from fever. Fear of immigrants was also connected to a fear that they brought contagious diseases.

The first census of a family that fits them is in 1850 in Newbury, Orange Co, Vermont.   Michael O'Shay 34 b. Ireland 1816, Mary O'Shay 34 born Ireland 1816, John 10 b. 1840 Ireland, Mary 7 born 1843,  Ireland, Michael 4 born Ireland 1846 and Bridget 1 born Vermont 1849. This would give them an arrival date of 1847 Ages and names fit except for eldest and youngest. No death record has been found for Bridget but it would explain a John mentioned in the will of Michael Shea in 1881. (Mary was Mary Bridget) This census also has a  Patrick and Hannah Haley Shay spelled Chay - they live near the O'Shay family in Newbury. They also movcd down to St. Johnsbury. On their gravestone it notes their origin in Ballysheane, Co. Clare. (not far from the Limerick border).

By 1860 both families are living in or near St. Johnsbury. Michael and his family are in Lydon on a farm near the city which remained in the family until the 1920's. Their name gets mangled in the census and appears as Chay.  He is listed as 33 but was probably older. He is a RR laborer. Mary b. 1843-44 is listed as born in Ireland and the other children in Vt. (Later evidence shows that 2 children were born in Ireland) There is no John listed in the family but a John P. Shay age 21 is living in Lyndon in John Darling's hotel  that year. His occupation is painter and his birthplace is listed as Canada East.  Michael owns $1200 worth of real estate in 1870 and is listed as a farmer.  According to family oral tradition Mary Agnes was a midwife as was her daughter Mary Bridget. Both spoke Irish and Mary Bridget absorbed many of the Irish folklore and stories which she passed to her children. She believed in the "little people" and would leave some milk by the door for them. (Making neighborhood cats very happy)

The most important clue to exactly where in Limerick the family came was an "Missing Friends" ad in the Boston Pilot which read: "MICHAEL FARRELL, of parish Mungret, 2 miles from the city of Limerick, who sailed from Limerick in ship Clare, in July, `50. He wrote to his mother about 9 months ago, when he was in Creamwell, Paulding co, Ohio. Please address his sisters Bridget Flanagan and Mary O`Shea, care of Mich Flanagan, St Johnsbury, Vt.  Sept 22, 1855 "  http://infowanted.bc.edu/.  

The ad may indicate that Catherine Farrell their mother was living with or near the Flanagan or Shea families since it refers to a letter received in 1855 from Ohio. A ship passenger list for the Clare arriving on  August 23, 1850 from Limerick Ireland into NYC were John Farrell 13, Mary age 40 and Michael age 22 .  Michael would fit the profile as would his brother John. Is the Mary his older sister Mary Margaret? There is a death record for a Catherine Farrell born 1792 who dies in Burlington in 1857. While this might fit Catherine Supple Farrell her husband is listed as Murt not Michael.

I had no record for my Mary Agnes that showed her parents but when Bridget Farrell Flanagan died Vermont death records list her parents  as Michael and Kate. Unfortunately early records from the parish of Mungret are not available but from the clues in this ad, a search of Limerick records database through brsgenealogy.com  yielded   a Bridget, Margaret and Ellen whose father is Michael and mother is Catherine Supple -b. 1817, 1814 and 1820 in Ballybricken and Bohermore Limerick. (not far from Mungret about 8 miles from Limerick City)   Her sister, Mary Agnes , born  earlier (1812-16) does not appear. The same site gave me the baptism records in Mungret for several of Bridget's children (she and her husband Michael Flanigan were married in Ireland. The same parish had Michael Shea, son of Michael and Mary Farrell baptized in September of 1845. No records were available for his older sister Mary Bridget Shea. Since the records start about that time the marriage record for my great great grandparents will probably not be retrievable but it is likely it was around 1840.

Mungret today is a suburb of the city of Limerick http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/mun004.pdf had almost 3500 inhabitants in the 19th century when the Sheas and Flanagans lived there. It was on the road to Adare.  One of the earliest monastic settlements was founded here going back into the earliest days of Christianity here. In the middle ages there was a large abbey with six churches and as many as 1500 monks. The abbey was a magnet for Viking raids and was destroyed at least 5 times between the 9th and 11th century by Vikings, fire and other raiders. For Mungret map see: http://www.maplandia.com/ireland/mid-west/limerick/mungret/.

Ballybricken and Bothermore were farming areas eight miles from Limerick City. http://ukga.org/ireland/Limerick/towns/CahirellyorBallybricken.html  It was smaller than Mungret having about 1400 inhabitants. A mid 19th century description writes: "CAHIRELLY, or BALLYBRICKEN, a parish, in the barony of CLANWILLIAM, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 8 miles (S. S. E.) from Limerick; containing 1346 inhabitants. This place appears to be of considerable antiquity, and its church is said to have been founded by St. Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, in the time of St. Patrick; it would also appear to have attained an early degree of importance, as three castles were erected within its limits. The parish is situated on the river Comogue, by which it is bounded on the south; the mail coach road from Limerick to Cork passes within a quarter of a mile of its western extremity; and it is intersected from north to south by the road from Limerick to Hospital. It comprises 2636 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which 33 acres are roads and waste, and the remainder arable, pasture, and meadow land, of which last a great portion is frequently overflowed by the river. the western portion is rich grazing land, mostly belonging to large dairy farms, and the greater part of the eastern portion is in the occupation of small farmers, and is generally cultivated by spade labour. "

Vikings and Visigoths: the DNA mystery

I am often struck by how we are the results of random choices by our ancestors, decisions to move, to immigrate, to live one place rather than another. My parents might never have met if my grandfather had not lost his business during the 1920's and moved from one side of Vermont to another.  My father would not have been living there if his parents had not decided to finally settle permanently in Vermont. His family had a history of almost 100 years of going back and forth to Canada. He was born in Canada. Recently I had my DNA tested for ethnic origin, thinking it might answer some questions. Like many genealogical answers it only provided  more questions.

My limited understanding of how DNA works is that you get pieces from both parents: 1/2 from each. What pieces they pass along may differ. My profile is came out as 58% British Isles, 19% Scandinavian, 17% Southern European and 6% other.  However my sibling's is 78% Scandinavian, 19% Southern European and 3% other. With an Irish mother it does seem strange that there is no British Isles DNA in her profile.  Looking at the migration patterns of the Celts below it is also possible that they may have contributed to the Southern European DNA that both of us have. Viking DNA is distributed widely over Europe: Ireland and France would both have Scandinavian DNA. Irish legendary migration histories have the invaders coming to the island through what is now the Iberian peninsula.

The migration of the Celtic tribes across Europe reached the Irish isle in the period from 2000-300 B.C. These peoples probably carried DNA from what is now Austria, France, and Spain. Ireland is unique in that it was never invaded or conquered by the Romans who occupied what is today modern Britain and Scotland.

I was expecting my Irish mother to contribute British Isles and Scandinavian DNA. The Vikings founded the cities of Ireland when they were tired of plundering and realized they could make a bigger profit by becoming merchant traders.  These "trading posts" developed into the cities of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork and others. I  suspected there was some Welsh ancestry  and one line is Norman Irish which could either bring the Scandinavian or British Isles genes.

From my Dad obviously I got some British Isles, Scandinavian and Southern European - he was French Canadian and part Native American which might account for the 6% other. I wondered why it did not reflect central European DNA - which covers France. So I started to look at the history. Given the immigration statistics on the areas where his ancestors originated I found the Celts and Vikings again. Normandy and the area around Paris were Celtic strongholds. Paris, a Roman city was taken over by Frankish tribal peoples and attacked by the Vikings. There were many immigrants from La Rochelle and surrounding areas passed back and forth in the middle ages between English and French control.  More British DNA perhaps? That area was also settled by the Romans - more southern European DNA? What I didn't expect was the Visigoths. 

The Visigoths were a "barbarian" people who had invaded Italy and Rome in the late 4th and early 5th century. They migrated through the Mediterranean countries and became sufficiently powerful to fight a successful war with the Romans whom they defeated in 378. A treaty allowed them to fight on the side of Rome until conflict broke out and they sacked Rome in 410. They swept into the power vacuum left by the declining Roman empire in the 5th century. They converted to Christianity and became the civil authority in the structures of the empire left behind. Their capital was at Toulouse. (We have a double connection with Toulouse through my great grandmothers Adelaide and Virginia Raymond dite Toulouse)  The settlements in France were largely in the south west along the Garonne River. The Visigoth kingdom in Gaul was defeated by Clovis in 507. The main territory remained  Spain and Portugal, at least until the 8th century when there was a Muslim invasion. They may account for the southern European DNA.

DNA opens interesting windows into the past. Its bits and pieces have been sorted and passed on from parents to children for centuries.