Making Sense of the Plantation of Ulster

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Volume'16,'Number'4'
Denver,'Colorado'
October,'November,'December'2015'
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Making Sense of the Plantation of Ulster
Stumped? Here are the Basic Facts of a Pivotal Event
—Zoe von Ende Lappin
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The Plantation of Ulster – how often you have heard about it in your genealogical travels! But what, exactly, was it? How do your Irish, Scots,
English and even Welsh ancestors fit into
that scheme of the early 17th century?
It’s a difficult subject, indeed, complicated
by the usual shortage of records pertaining
to ordinary people, by conflicts of class
and religion, archaic language and a tendency for even the esteemed modern writers to become bogged down in details,
frustrating the most determined researcher.
Even the term plantation can be misleading. In this context, it means a colony or
new settlement initiated not by the settlers
but by an outside agency – the British
government.
The clearest explanation I’ve come upon is
William J. Roulston’s description in his guide, Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors; The Essential Genealogical Guide to Early Modern Ulster, 1600-1800, (2005 and later). It’s not too strong to state that everyone working in this area, and in the migration of the Scots-Irish to America in the 18th century, should
have this book.
Combining Roulston’s descriptions with those of others writing on the subject, here are some points to
consider as you wade into the subject.
First, a definition of Ulster: It is one of the four historic provinces of Ireland, occupying the northeast
corner of the island. Most of it today is Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
In 1603, the British government –led by King James VI and I – embarked on the scheme to populate six
of the nine counties in the province with English and Scottish settlers. It lasted until 1625 roughly; some
sources put the end in the early 1640s. It was motivated by the perceived need to establish a British colony (Protestant, mainly) as a defense against the Catholic Spanish and prevent rebellion as well as to propagate Protestant beliefs and subjugate the so-called barbarian Irish.
—Continued on page 50
www.wise&fhs.org,
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W.I.S.E. Words
October, November, December 2015
opportunity to influence positive change in a family history organization that is already well respected on a local and national basis. Although I have a
lot of ideas on how to improve our administrative
procedures and programs, etc., I quickly learned
that I couldn’t rush the process! You’d think that
after all my years as a manager and
administrator, I would know better than to expect
my fellow board members to eat the entire cake
in one sitting, rather than one slice at a time. I
also recognize that it’s important to include our
membership in the process, so as not to make decisions and changes that impact them without their
input and approval.
President’s Message
I hope you had a wonderful summer filled
with opportunities for vacations and family gettogethers. W.I.S.E. members were busy during the
third quarter, providing volunteer support for the
Colorado Irish Festival, held in Clement Park,
Littleton, on July 10-12, 2015. And, we held
our summer Welsh Seminar in the Denver Public
Library (DPL) Conference Center, featuring
nationally known speaker, Bert J. Rawlins,
on July 25, 2015.
Our next W.I.S.E. Family History Society Annual
General Meeting is scheduled on Saturday,
January 23, 2016. I would like to use it as an opportunity for our members to provide input on
whether they are satisfied with our current programs and activities, or are there things we could
do to improve them? I realize that it’s not possible,
or practical, for our entire membership to attend
the annual meeting in order to share their thoughts
and ideas. So, if you can’t be there, I encourage
you to share them with me in an email, preferably
in advance of our annual meeting. We are also
exploring the possibility of soliciting your
thoughts and ideas in an on-line survey. If we can
bring everything together to do that in a timely
manner, we will notify everyone by email as to
where the survey can be accessed for you to provide your structured input.
As we head into the fall, we are preparing for the
holiday season and an abbreviated return to our
monthly membership meeting schedule. I say abbreviated, because there is no meeting in November since our preferred monthly meeting date
always conflicts with the Thanksgiving holiday.
And, of course, there is no meeting in December
because of Christmas, opting instead to once again
hold our annual W.I.S.E. holiday social, which this
year will be on December 5, 2015.
In the previous paragraph I mentioned the
Thanksgiving holiday. Did you know that the national Thanksgiving holiday in North America,
including Canada, has its roots in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation and
the Harvest Festival, which in the United Kingdom
is traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the
Harvest Moon? It’s also interesting to note
that the Thanksgiving holiday celebrated in
North America is now being adopted in the United
Kingdom, with turkey sales increasing by 95 percent in 2014 as a result of its popularity. Thanksgiving is also the time of year when we
traditionally gather together as families, with
many of our family members joining us from
throughout the United States. As such, this would
be an ideal opportunity for you to engage those
family members in discussions about family history and genealogy, both to increase their awareness
and to advance your research.
So, all that remains is for me to wish you all a
wonderful holiday season and continued good
health and prosperity.
—Allan M. Turner!
Membership Report
—Sandy Breed
Welcome to those who joined W.I.S.E. Family
History Society recently:
May 2015
Stephanie Hayward
Jim and Sheryl Johnson
Sandy Kline
Donna Lynden
Mark, Angela, Brandon and Brittany Wells !
Ever since I was elected as president of W.I.S.E.
in January, I have been excited about having this
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W.I.S.E. Words
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October, November, December 2015
Distribution Coordinator...................................Sue Clasen
W.I.S.E. Family History Society
Country Editors
W.I.S.E. Family History Society is dedicated to
research in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England, the
Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Attention is also
directed to the emigration and immigration of these
peoples as well as heraldry and one-name studies.
Monthly meetings are generally held the fourth
Saturday of most months at the Central Denver Public
Library, 7th Floor. Membership is open to anyone with
interest in family history and genealogy. Membership
dues for the calendar year are $12 for an individual or
$15 for a family living at the same address. The
W.I.S.E. Family History Society publishes W.I.S.E.
Words four times per year, and a subscription is included with membership dues. Add $5 to the dues if you
want a printed copy of the newsletter mailed to you.
© 2000-2015, W.I.S.E. Family History Society,
P.O. Box 40658, Denver, CO 80204-0658
All rights reserved.
Visit our website at www.wise-fhs.org.
Wales ........................................................ Nancy McCurdy
Ireland .......................................................... Thyria Wilson
Scotland ...................................................... Diane Barbour
England .................................................................... Vacant
In This Issue
Making Sense of the Plantation of Ulster .............. 47
President’s Message ................................................ 48
Membership Report ................................................ 48
Treasurer’s Report .................................................. 49
Correction to Program Schedule in Last Issue ..... 50
New Volunteers on Board ...................................... 51
Help Wanted ............................................................ 51
CCGS Delegate Report ........................................... 51
................................................................................. 38
Colorado Springs Field Trip .................................. 52
Officers and Board Members
President ......................................................... Allan Turner
............................................................ [email protected]!
Welsh Research –Tricky but Worthwhile .............. 52
W.I.S.E. Booth at the Colorado Irish Festival a
Success ................................................................... 53
Vice President .....................................Sylvia Tracy-Doolos
Secretary ........................................................... Milly Jones
Get your English On! ............................................. 54
Treasurer ...................................................... Laurie Ramos !
Tech Talk ................................................................ 55
Past President .................................... Barbara Fines Price!
The Great Hunger ................................................... 56
Membership .................................................... Sandy Breed!
Members’ Interests Coordinator .............. Megan Koepsell!
Scottish Clearances ................................................. 58
Publicity Coordinator ............................ JoAnn DeFilippo!
Book Reviews .......................................................... 60
Archivist ....................................................... Elaine Osborn
Member Profiles ...................................................... 63
CCGS Delegate ................................................Bill Hughes
W.I.S.E. Program Schedule ................................... 64
Hospitality Coordinator ................................ Roberta Dice
Webmaster ...................................................... Allan Turner!
Member-at-Large ................................. Sandy Carter-Duff
Treasurer’s Report
Newsletter Staff
—Laurie Ramos
Newsletter Editor ...................................... Nyla Cartwright
.............................................. [email protected]
Checking and savings
Petty cash
Cash balance on January 22, 2015
Deposits cleared
Checks cleared
Balance as of July 31, 2015
Assistant Newsletter Editor .................. Mary Anne Larson
Book Review Editor .......................... Zoe von Ende Lappin
Technical Resource Editor ............ Sandra Keifer-Roberts
Proofreaders ...................... Jack and Zoe von Ende Lappin
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$10,634.66
$
50.00
$10,684.66
$ 8,639.81
($ 8,494.95)
$10,829.52!
W.I.S.E. Words
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October, November, December 2015
Atlantic and Southeastern regions of what is now
the United States. In general, these are the most
difficult to research.
Correction to Program Schedule in
Last Issue
The guidelines for plantation were both theoretical
and practical. Colonization had to be justified on
moral and political grounds, and the king’s agents
consulted the Bible for guidelines. Then practical
directives had to be devised, and finding settlers
wasn’t easy. Many of the undertakers ignored the
rules and let native Irish (Catholics, mostly) stay
on their land because somebody had to work it to
make it productive. Some undertakers were speculators and went home after selling or abandoning
their land. Others never showed up.
The listings in the program schedule for
September and October were transposed in the last
issue of W.I.S.E. Words. It should have read:
September 26, 2015: Understanding the British
Army - Ed Storey.
October 24, 2015:'World War I Heirloom Sharing.
It has been corrected in this issue. Apologizes for
any confusion this might have caused."
Making Sense of the Plantation of Ulster
The plantation of Londonderry was different
from that of the other five counties. Its settlers
were businessmen – merchants – recruited to
further the influence of the city of London in the
plantation
scheme.
The
county’s
name
was changed from Coleraine to Derry and eventually to Londonderry to emphasize the connection
to London. The Irish Society, comparable to
the East India Company or the Virginia Company,
ran the operation and allocated lands to 13 chief
companies representing trades: cloth workers,
drapers, fishmongers, goldsmiths, grocers, grocers,
haberdashers, ironmongers, mercers, merchant
tailors, salters, skinners and vintners. Grants to
each group theoretically were for 3,210 acres, but
most were much greater.
–continued from page 47
The six escheated (or confiscated) counties to be
planted were Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine (later
Londonderry), Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone.
Their land had been confiscated from the
Irish chieftains. In addition, private plantations
were instituted in Counties Antrim and Down,
where the English already were in power,
and Monaghan was never part of the scheme because a British-model land system was already in
place there. Approximately 12,000 Scots, primarily Lowlanders, and English were settled in the six
escheated counties, with another 4,000 or so in
Antrim and Down. (Note that historic Ulster had
nine counties; modern Northern Ireland has only
six – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan now are part
of the Republic of Ireland.)
The native Irish were a hard case, and they would
have said the same about the colonizers. Historian
Jonathan Bardon, in The Plantation of Ulster, the
British Colonisation of the North of Ireland in the
17th Century (2011), sympathized with those Irish:
“Their most cherished lands and fisheries had been
seized; their forests were being plundered; new
fortifications rising up gave visible proof of their
subjugation; their beliefs were castigated as being
Romish and barbarous; and they lived in daily expectation of expulsion from their native territories
to make room for newcomers speaking an alien
tongue, abiding by laws they hardly understood
and (following) a religion they found heretical.”
The new landowners of English and Scots origin
were called undertakers and most were Protestant.
(A notable except occurred in Antrim where a
Catholic Scot, Randal MacDonnell, got more than
300,000 acres in 1603.) In the government
scheme, land also went to servitors, mostly
English, who had served the crown in a civil or
military role; to so-called deserving native Irish;
and to such institutions as Trinity College, Dublin,
and the established Church of Ireland (Anglican).
It was up to the undertakers to populate their land
with English and Scots and a few Welsh. They
were required to plant 10 families or 24 men for
every 1,000 acres they received. Scottish Lowlanders were preferred over the fierce and “untrustworthy” Highlanders, and it’s those
Lowlander names we see most often among the
early 18th century settlers in what are the Middle
That’s a strong indictment. Conflict was inevitable, as events prove time and time again. Some
students of the era assert that without the religious
division, the natives and the newcomers would
have found a way to co-exist in relative harmony.
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But that was the 17th century and separation of
state and church was far in the future.
October, November, December 2015
Mary Anne Larson is the new assistant newsletter
editor. Find out more about Mary Anne and
Sandra in the Members Profile section of this
newsletter. Volunteers are still needed to fill other
positions. Please read below.#
For genealogists, the prominent undertakers and
servitors – as expected – are fairly easy to study.
Michael Perceval-Maxwell, in his 1973 book, The
Scottish Migration to Ulster in the Reign of James
I, lists chief and ordinary Scottish undertakers.
Surnames include such popular ones as Stewart,
Hamilton and Cunningham as well as such
uncommon ones as Moneypenny, Smailholm,
Achmutie and Wishart.
Help Wanted
W.I.S.E. Family History Society is seeking volunteers who can fill the following positions:
Country Representative for Each British Isles
Country: Searching for four people who can organize fun activities and / or advocate / facilitate
the needs and wants of our members in areas including, but not limited to, research and education
for each individual British Isles country. Contact
Allan Turner at [email protected]
A frequently cited work, An Historical Account
of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement
of the 17th Century, 1608-1620 by the Rev. George
Hall (1877), purports to list every single grantee,
including native Irish. It pertains to the six escheated counties and is online through the catalog
at FamilySearch.org and in several libraries. Philip
S. Robinson’s The Plantation of Ulster: British
Settlement in an Irish Landscape, 1600-1670,
(1984), lists all grants made to servitors, undertakers, the established church, the London companies,
towns and forts plus major “deserving” Irish.
England Editor: Seeking a person knowledgeable
about the history, genealogy and culture of
England to produce quarterly articles for our
newsletter.
Contact
Allan
Turner
at
[email protected] or Nyla Cartwright at
[email protected] ."!
Other authors on the subject include Theodore W.
Moody, Robert J. Hunter, John McCavitt, Victor
Treadwell and Nichols Canny. Hunter was an especially prolific historian and writer, and Roulston
and Bardon have published other books on the
subject. The Denver Public Library owns many
volumes on the Plantation, several of them donated by W.I.S.E.
CCGS Delegate Report
—Bill Hughes
The summer quarter meeting of the Colorado
Council of Genealogical Societies was held on
July 11, 2015, at the Pueblo City-County Library
(Rawlins Library) and hosted by the Southeastern
Colorado Genealogical Society. In addition to
council members present in person, five members
attended via GoToMeeting. All CCGS members
are invited to attend council meetings in person
or online.
A final word to family historians: Be prepared for
disappointment. The records are short on common
people, and even if you do find your own surnames among them, it may be impossible to identify them as your ancestors. Still, studying this
major milestone in the history of the British Isles
will immeasurably enrich your understanding of
your family and the forces that drove them to
America. Never quit looking. "
Topics covered during this meeting included:
1. The 2015 nominating committee announced candidates to be elected at the
2015 fall council meeting. The candidates
are Robert Larson of Larimer County for
vice president and Judy Keilman of
Denver for secretary.
2. The 2016 nominating committee is
Harry Ross of Longmont (chair),
Diane Barbour of Broomfield and
Bill Hughes of Denver.
Editor’s note: Read more about Ulster research in
the Tech Talk article starting on page 55.
New Volunteers on Board
Two members have recently volunteered for
positions at W.I.S.E; Sandra Keifer-Roberts has
filled the position for the tech tips editor and
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W.I.S.E. Words
3. Harry Ross made a presentation on a
genealogy society management seminar as
discussed at the spring quarterly meeting.
A motion was approved to proceed with
planning for the seminar at the Denver
Public Library conference center. The
large meeting room can be subdivided into
three smaller rooms for concurrent sessions. Programs will be planned for local
societies’ officers and chairmen and on
topics such as projects, publishing, recruiting new members, social media and on
fund raising. It is planned that the meetings will be available via GoToMeeting.
4. Volunteers for the seminar are needed, especially from Longmont and the Denver
area. Date will be announced later. The
plan is to have no admission charge for
members of council societies. Please contact Harry Ross at 303-772-8645. "
October, November, December 2015
examining minerals and rocks. There were also
photographs of Cripple Creek mining. Taking the
tour made us want to come back and see the museum in depth.!
A steam engine, built in Cornwall, England, around 1838,
sits on the grounds of the Western Museum of Mining. This
engine served two mines in the United States.
After the mining museum we went to the Golden
Bee, an English pub, for lunch. The pub has a 19th
century ornate bar that was brought to Colorado
Springs from England. The fish and chips, sandwiches and pot pies were excellent. The ales
flowed freely amid lively conversation. We were
full and happy when we left the pub.!!
Colorado Springs Field Trip
—Thyria Wilson
A group of W.I.S.E. members and guests met on
June 27th for a tour at the Western Museum of
Mining and Industry then enjoyed lunch at the
Broadmoor’s Golden Bee Restaurant in Colorado
Springs after the tour. We learned about mining
and a great time was had by all!
Welsh Research – Tricky
but Worthwhile
— Sylvia Tracy-Doolos
The Welsh Research Seminar featuring Bert
Rawlins was a wonderful success! We had a
small but mighty group of W.I.S.E members and
non-members come together at the Denver Public
Library to learn more about the idiosyncrasies
of researching in Wales. Mr. Rawlins
was educated at the University of Wales –
Aberystwyth, which I still cannot pronounce correctly. Friday evening he joined a group of board
members for dinner and regaled us with stories
of his adventures in learning the Welsh language
while attending school there after serving in
the U.S. Army.
The group “bellying up to the bar” at the end of the tour.
This museum is well worth visiting. Our tour
guide was knowledgeable and was able to add information that pertained to the British Isles. We
saw very large pumps and other machines that
were used in hard rock mining. The drills were
very loud, but fun to watch. We saw some very
interesting artifacts and experienced darkness only
lit by lamps. One of the highlights of the tour was
He opened the seminar with a primer on the Welsh
language that opened our eyes to many of
the unique properties of Welsh, including how the
‘dd’, ‘ff’ and ‘ll’ differ from their single character
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versions, and why Welsh dictionaries are especially difficult to navigate.
October, November, December 2015
Allan Turner whisked him off to the airport for a
5:50 p.m. flight back to Salt Lake City.
Mr. Rawlins generously donated one of each of
his booklets for the Denver Public Library’s use.
He also left us several copies of his book, The
Parish Churches and Nonconformist Chapels of
Wales, for purchase ($24), plus a full set of his
booklets that can be copied for anyone interested.
These include: Civil Registration in England and
Wales - 1837 to the Present - ($7), Effective Use of
Bishop’s Transcripts ($2.50), Church Records –
Parish Registers ($4) and Economic, Religious,
and Social Change in Industrial South Wales ($4).
We hope to offer a program in the first quarter of
2016 to share what we have learned about Welsh
research and the resources and techniques that will
aid our membership."
W.I.S.E. Booth at the
Colorado Irish Festival a Success
—Bill Hughes
W.I.S.E. volunteers again did an excellent and
professional job in operating the genealogy booth
at the 2015 Colorado Irish Festival held July 1012, 2015. We received many accolades from the
fair organizers and the festival attendees. One of
the fair organizers felt the genealogy booth was
one of the “anchors of the festival” and the director of the Cultural Village said our genealogy
booth “was the Cultural Village.”!
Bert Rawlins shares Welsh research tips with the audience.
The second session was a study of patronymics
which can be particularly tricky because of the
lack of an organized system for handing names
down from generation to generation. He shared
with us several examples from his files that point
to the lack of conventions in naming patterns.
Mr. Rawlins agreed to answer questions for the
group while we enjoyed our lunch, providing
interesting insights into our individual difficulties.
After lunch he began with church records and gave
us the history plus examples from parish registers
and bishops’ transcripts. He also covered the
degree of non-conformity in Wales and what
this means for researchers. Did you know that during the 19th century the non-conformist population
of Wales rose from about 12 percent to about
77 percent.
Festival attendees outside the W.I.S.E. genealogy booth.
The closing session covered land tenure and he
shared with us the history as well as a variety
of resources and techniques for finding our
ancestors. After answering a variety of questions
The enthusiasm, knowledge and empathy shown
by the volunteers resonated with the festival
attendees. Nine presentations covering the
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W.I.S.E. Words
Irish famine, Irish history and Irish in the
Civil War proved to be popular with the
festival attendees. Marylee Hagen gave four
presentations and developed a special presentation
for children!entitled Passport to America. Children
attending that presentation took home Irish passport mementos.
October, November, December 2015
celebrate with our British brethren in and around
central Colorado.
If you’re looking for a place to have a scone or
hobnob and a “cuppa tea” why not get a group
together and stop by one of the tea rooms in
the area:
In Denver stop by The House of Commons - an
English Tearoom on 15th Street and Denver Tea
Room & Coffee Salon on South Broadway.
If you’re out toward Aurora try The English Teacup on South Havana.
In Parker visit the English Tealeaves on
Main Street.
If you’re in Littleton, Mrs. B’s Tea Parlor on West
Alamo Avenue or the Serendipi-TEA Shoppe on
South Curtice might tempt your taste buds.
Boulderites can stop into the The Dushanbe Tea
House on 13th Street.
From Boulder, head down the Denver-Boulder
Turnpike to Broomfield and to The Wildflowers
Tea Room on Metro Airport Road.
Heading south to Castle Rock, the Augustine Grill
on Wilcox offers an elegant tea once or twice
a month.
West of Denver in Georgetown visit the Dusty
Rose Tea Room on Rose Street.
If you’re in Colorado Springs, high tea is served at
Miramont Castle, actually in Manitou Springs, and
Glen Eyrie Castle as well as at a Saturday afternoon tea at the Broadmoor.
Children busy at work during the Passport to America
presentation given by Marylee Hagen.
In summary, we counseled hundreds of fair
attendees, distributed 300 W.I.S.E. brochures and
answered hundreds of questions. Please consider
volunteering for the 2016 Colorado Irish Festival,
scheduled for July 8-10, 2016.
Thanks to Madonna Adams, Kendra Elrod,
Marylee
Hagen,
Debbie
Harrison,
Milly Jones, Megan Koepsell, Susie Kozoh,
Eileen Langdon, Marilyn Lyle, John Manion,
Kate O’Kami, Sandy Ronayne, Steve Saul,
Nancy
Tanner,
Sylvia
Tracy-Doolos,
Thyria Wilson and Christine Wright. "
This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of British
tea shops in central Colorado; and we would love
to hear about your favorites on the W.I.S.E Family
History Society Facebook page.
If you can’t get to one of the tea shops you can
invite a few chums to your house and make a
batch of homemade hobnobs or scones. The recipe
for Homemade Hob Nobs says they “are stogged
full of oats.” You can pair this with a viewing party for the final season of “Downton Abbey” beginning in the U.K. in September and airing in
January 2016 on our local PBS stations. While we
await season six we can enjoy repeats of seasons
one through five. (You know you are looking for a
reason to watch them again!)
Get Your English On!
— Sylvia Tracy-Doolos
As we celebrate with our British cousins as
Queen Elizabeth II took the lead as the longest
reigning British monarch on September 10, 2015,
let’s look at all the ways we can join in the
festivities from this side of the pond. Whether
you prefer a posh private affair, a proper tea offering a variety of delicacies or a pub crawl with
a pint or two, you can find an appropriate way to
If your celebration style is more pub crawl than
high tea you could start with Pints Pub on West
13th Avenue, just a block from the Denver Public
Library, or the The British Bulldog on Stout Street
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W.I.S.E. Words
where you can also watch U.K. soccer, or Argyll
Whisky Beer – A Gastropub on East 17th Avenue.
There are many British Isles style pubs in
Colorado to choose from, and we all have our
local favorites.
October, November, December 2015
calm: while the Church of Ireland registers that
were destroyed “often contain(ed) baptisms, marriages and burials of Protestant dissenters and
Roman Catholics who were baptized, married or
buried within the state church,” the catastrophe
“must not be exaggerated.” On its page titled, “My
Top 10 Free Irish Genealogy Databases Online,”
The Irish Genealogy Toolkit explains that PRONI
contains “details of those who signed the Ulster
Covenant (1912), records of pre-1840 Freeholders,
and the first phase of the Will Calendars (18581900) project.” Schools records and the revised
Griffith’s Valuation are also included.
One last way to capture the feeling may be to join
with the Daughters of the British Empire (DBE) as
they host their annual tea, raffle and bazaar on
October 17, 2015, at the First Plymouth Congregational Church in Cherry Hills Village. This fundraiser is in support of local charities as well as the
DBE British Home. Another organization to connect with is the Denver branch of the EnglishSpeaking Union of the United States. Their
September program has not been announced as I
write this but they offer a variety of activities, both
educational and cultural.
Ulster-Scots: Unfortunately, I still don’t know
if my ancestors were Irish or Ulster-Scots, but I’m
getting warmer. Ask about Ireland, supported by
the Department of the Environment, Community
and Local Government of Ireland, continually adds information from Irish libraries and
provides a useful online introduction to Ulster’s history and
the origin of the Ulster-Scots.
Researchers can use this general information to search for
clues and build a strong argument in the absence of concrete evidence.
As commemorate this milestone in British history
we can take pride in our heritage and find some
small way to add a bit of English culture to
our day. I challenge everyone to join our Facebook
page and add a post or a picture to salute
Queen Elizabeth II. "
Tech Talk
—Sandra Keifer-Roberts
Scots-Irish in Pennsylvania: Temple University
Press offers an illuminating chapter excerpt from
Dennis Clark’s book, The Irish in Philadelphia.
I’m researching two men from different families
who supposedly came from Ulster and arrived before 1776. Researchers usually need to confirm the
county of origin in U.S. documents in order to effectively search through Irish collections. In addition to records posted at FamilySearch.org and
Ancestry.com, the PA Roots site offers some great
resources for tracking down ancestors who settled
in Pennsylvania, including county-level information. The Pennsylvania Archives on Google
Books helped me trace one of these men to service
in the Revolutionary War. According to
The Ulster-Scots Society, “Ulstermen played a
major role during the American War of Independence. . . .Twenty-five of the American generals
were of Ulster-Scots descent as was half of the
revolutionary army. One famous force of regular
soldiers was the Pennsylvania Line and it was
composed almost entirely of Ulster-Scots and the
sons of Ulster-Scots.”
The Scots-Irish Keifers: It might sound funny,
but revisiting my German (Keifer) ancestry this
summer has given me the opportunity to become
immersed in Scots-Irish history. In the 1770s, my
Keifer ancestor apparently left the German Presbyterian community and melted into a Scots-Irish
area of Pennsylvania. Always a hopeless romantic,
I imagine that a handsome German man fell in
love with a beautiful Scots-Irish girl! Their children and grandchildren did not return to the German community and became more Scots-Irish with
each generation.
The Irish Genealogy Toolkit contains useful links
to various sites and databases. If the newly digitized National Library of Ireland collection of
Roman Catholic parish registers doesn’t support
your research, you can always check the Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI),
which concentrates on – but isn’t limited to – the
counties of modern Northern Ireland – Antrim,
Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone.
PRONI advises anxious researchers to remain
!
W.I.S.E. Words
56! !
In addition to The Historic Pittsburgh Digital
Library, which contains searchable books with
biographies and court records (one such record
helped me determine that the one of the men
I’m looking for left two orphaned children), the
“Pastor Lischy” files and other church records
on Ancestry.com are a gold mine. Search by
county—of course, search adjacent counties, too.
These collections are also linked to Cyndi’s List,
Pennsylvania counties. This data helped me confirm that the first Keifer to marry a Scots-Irish
woman was a Presbyterian, so it is likely she was a
Presbyterian, too. According to The Ulster-Scots
Society, religious affiliation is another clue in favor of the Ulster-Scots origin, but of course, it’s
no guarantee. If for no other reason than their
place of residence, I’ve had suspicions that at
some point, my ancestors belonged to the Society
of Friends; however, one fought in the Civil War,
which makes Quaker affiliation unlikely (not impossible). Cyndi’s List and Ancestry.com offer
links to quite a few Quaker records, and Quaker
membership is another important clue.
October, November, December 2015
photos by period (Victorian, etc.) or decade.
Pinterest is also one of my favorite places to
search for photos and information about vintage
clothing. A picture of an embroidered jacket is
worth a thousand words."
The Great Hunger
—Thyria Wilson
One hundred seventy years ago, the great tragedy
occurred in Ireland. There was mass starvation,
disease and exile (emigration). There had been
potato crop failures in Ireland before, beginning in
the 1700s. But the potato crop failures of 18451850 were coupled with actions of the British government and created the Great Hunger, also known
as the Great Famine. Approximately one million
Irish died and over one million immigrated during
the famine years, most to the United States. The
Great Hunger was a watershed moment and afterwards Ireland’s social life and culture were never
the same.
Before and during the famine the agents of the
mostly absent English landholders split the tenancies into smaller and smaller tenancies in order
to increase rent. The tenant farmers were at the
mercy of the landlords and the farmers’ holdings
became so small that only potatoes could be grown
to feed a family. Beef and milk had started to
disappear from the peasants’ diet. Potatoes
were the sole source of food for one-half of the
rural population.
In September of 1845, the potato blight in Europe
reached Ireland and much of the crop was “black
as soot.” In 1846, there was more widespread
blight and the tragedy was made much worse by
the British response.
In The Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52
by Christine Kinealy and in The Graves are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish
People by John Kelly, the authors demonstrate that
the famine was neither inevitable nor unavoidable.
The relief effort was woefully mismanaged and
the official responses were influenced by laissez
faire theories of economics and prejudice against
the Irish. The British government saw the famine
as an opportunity to bring about long-sought economic and social changes. The famine was used to
eliminate small tenancies. Large commercial sys-
Sandra’s great-great-grandmother in her fashionable
Zouave jacket, circa 1854.
Vogue: Sometimes clothing can provide
clues about national origin, economic status,
and religion. I enjoy using She Knows and
Fashion Detective to help with old photos. Browse
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W.I.S.E. Words
57! !
tems of farming were introduced. As Kelly states,
it was the worst disaster of the 19th century; a “perfect storm of bacterial infection, political greed,
and religious intolerance sparked this catastrophe.”
October, November, December 2015
ty Donegal saw little excess mortality and emigration in 1847 because the local landlords
and merchants did support the relief effort. Lord
George Hill flouted the Corn Laws and sold corn
at low prices.
The British treasurer, Charles Trevelyan, believed
that Ireland was like a prodigal son who has to be
brought under parental control. “The great evil,
with which we have to contend, is not the physical
evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish,
perverse, and turbulent character of the Irish people,” he is quoted as saying. Most people in
Britain, even the liberals, thought the Irish were
lazy, violent and products of a degenerate race and
religion. It was God’s judgment on an indolent,
hard-drinking, sinful people. There was a financial
downturn in Britain during 1846 and 1847, and
relief was given to deserving recipients in England
and Scotland, not to the undeserving Irish.
Under the transfer of Poor Law relief in 1847, the
use of eviction was made much easier. It became
an efficient way for a landlord to lower his poor
rate. In Strokestown, County Roscommon, Major
Denis Mahon inherited a 9,000-acre property just
as the famine broke out. There were 12,000 tenants, most on three acres or less and most behind
on rents. His agent urged that it was cheaper to
send most of the tenants to Canada than to maintain them in the workhouse. The tenants were sent
off in four ships, two of them “coffin ships.” Many
of the families were lost at sea or died of disease
in Canada.
In 1847, the British government considered the
famine to be over, despite tragic evidence to the
contrary. The British government also decided that
famine relief should become a local responsibility,
not add to the national debt. But in the counties
with the most victims suffering, the local authorities lacked the resources to support the starving
poor, even in the workhouses.
My great-great-grandparents, James Moolick and
Honora (Oney) Doyle, lived within two miles of
each other in County Roscommon. James wrote
his Roscommon address in The History of Ireland,
Ancient and Modern that he purchased in Seneca
County, New York: “James Moolick, Cartron, Parish of Killuokin.” He and his brother Thomas were
produce dealers. Honora Doyle wrote her address
in her prayer book: “Cloonfad More Aughrim Parish.” According to baptismal records, her parents
were John Doyle and Mary Owens. The Doyles
in County Roscommon were gallowglasses,
mercenary warriors.
Artist James Mahoney was sent by the Illustrated
London News to Cork to report on the famine.
He reported that there was “either a funeral
or a coffin every 100 yards.” The emaciated people were trying to live on grass and nettles. The
famine continued.
Most of the Moolicks and Doyles from County
Roscommon immigrated to Canada in the first
years of the Famine. However, some members of
the families appear in Ireland in the Value of Tenements in 1857. By 1850, the Moolick and Doyle
immigrants were in Seneca County, New York.
James Moolick, who became a naturalized citizen
in 1855, was a stonemason who built bridges. Four
sons were born to James and Honora Moolick in
Seneca County, New York. The one story about
Honora is that when she caught her young sons
tossing baby chicks into the air to see if they could
fly, she yelled, “I’ll hang ye, I’ll hang ye all!”
There was already an inadequate response from
the British government and the mostly absentee
landlords and after 1847; the minimal relief efforts
essentially disappeared. The policy was that local
resources had to be completely depleted before
relief would be forthcoming from the Irish Relief
Commission. Even if relief was finally granted,
there were delays in the relief delivery and
the food lacked enough nutrients to keep people
from starving.
In earlier famines in Ireland, stopping exports
of food from Ireland was part of the successful
response. During the Famine, no restrictions were
put on food leaving Ireland. Corn was to be sold
at market prices. Cheap corn was purchased
from America, but the coarse, unground grains
tore up the stomachs of the famine victims. Coun-
Most of the immigrants to the United States during
the Famine years were unskilled laborers, some
of whom did not speak English. Many settled
in the urban centers, but many moved west
with the country. They built the bridges, canals
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W.I.S.E. Words
58! !
and railroads to connect the vast territory of
the United States. So many Irish were killed
working on the railroad that it was speculated
that there was an Irishman buried under every tie.
October, November, December 2015
After my great-grandmother died in childbirth, he
took his three daughters and moved to Norfolk,
Nebraska, to work as a blacksmith for the railroad.
The famine was a great tragedy, but became a
hopeful story in America. There are millions
of Americans today who descend from the survivors of the famine and we are truly blessed with
our heritage. !
The James Moolick family moved to the coal mining area in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
James Moolick was listed in the 1870 census
as a laborer, unlike the other men on the page
who were miners. In 1871, the family homesteaded in Saunders County, Nebraska and built
a small house that is now the kitchen of a twostory farmhouse.
The Scottish Clearances
—Diane Barbour, PLCGS
For those of you familiar with Scottish history, the
Clearances of the late 1700s and early 1800s can
elicit a emotional response. Precipitating events of
one of the more tragic periods in Scotland’s history began about 200 hundred years earlier. In 1603
the union of the Scottish and English thrones occurred when Elizabeth I died leaving no heirs and
the English throne went to King James VI of
Scotland. In actuality the two countries continued
to be two independent sovereign states sharing the
king or the crown. One hundred years later two
more unionizing acts were passed. In 1706 the
Union with Scotland Act was passed by the English Parliament, while in 1707 the Union with
England Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament. This in fact united Ireland, Scotland and
England as one entity called Great Britain. Practically Scotland and England were one country.
Thyria’s 2nd great-grandparents, James and wife, Honora,
seated middle and right, second row, with their family around
1868 in Pennsylvania.
The Jacobite defeat in 1746 at the Battle of
Culloden provided the English an opportunity to
destroy the Highland clan system. Some Highland
clans had supported Charles Edward Stuart in attempting to retrieve the English crown from the
Hanover family and return it to the Stuart family.
At Culloden the English defeated the Scottish
clans and punitive measures were put into effect to
punish them. The clans were outlawed. Members
were no longer allowed to carry weapons or wear
their tartans. There was by this time an already
strong English influence in Scotland and many of
the landed lords who held land in Scotland sided
with the English in this battle. Those who supported the Hanoverians were highly compensated after
the Battle at Culloden while those supporting
Charles Edward Stuart were stripped of their estates, which were sold. Many of these estates were
managed by “factors” who were more interested in
My great-grandfather, Michael Moolick, was the
second son born to James and Honora Moolick.
In 1876, Mike was a freighter and went to
the Black Hills of South Dakota on the hurricane
deck of a four-mule team. He then homesteaded
in Knox County, Nebraska, and became a
frontier blacksmith.
Thyria’s great-grandfather, Michael Moolick, shoeing a
horse at his blacksmith shop.
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W.I.S.E. Words
59! !
profit than the hereditary chief had been. It is on
this stage that the Highland Clearances began.
October, November, December 2015
that were being built as the Industrial Revolution
began. Many of these factories were involved in
cloth production. The meat produced from the
sheep also provided food for the many workers
employed in these factories.
The Clearances started about 1780 and continued
until about 1880. However, there were a few
clearances before 1780 and a few after 1880. They
lasted for about 100 years. It was a terrible time
for the small tenant farmers in the northern areas
of Scotland, known as the Highlands.
The Clearances are seen from two different aspects and that does color one’s reaction to them.
They are seen by one side as a very cruel and inhumane occurrence that denied the historical rights
of a culture and its people. This assumes they were
a greedy attempt by the already wealthy landed
aristocracy to increase their incomes and power. It
is true that many cruel events happened as the
families were removed from the land. It did devastate the Gaelic culture and clan society along with
the language. These were aspects of the group that
made the English landlords fearful. If the Highlanders rose up against the landlords, they could
be a dangerous entity to their positions. Therefore,
many of the families were removed from their
homes and livelihood without notice and marched
to a town or a strip of land along the coastline. The
thought was that a booming fishing industry could
be developed by these people. However, they
were farmers, not fishermen and there was no
attempt to provide them with even meager housing. They were exposed to the brutal climate along
the northern coastline of Scotland. Houses and
farms were burned to keep the farmers from returning. Many of the older and incapacitated people were unable to save themselves and were put
in the open to die.
Many of these families had held their land for centuries under a system of Gaelic culture with their
own Gaelic language. Of course, the English who
held land in Scotland felt these people were inferior: poor and lazy, not intelligent and a little less
than human. The Saxon tribes were considered to
be superior to the the Celtic tribes. Language barriers added to the misunderstanding and disrespect. These folks had held their leases for
centuries, honed their farming skills and created
their own uniquely Scottish culture, headed by
clan chieftains who protected their clan members
and provided men for battle when the country
went to war. Many of these farmers were brave
soldiers in many of England’s wars with other
countries. The relationship between these farmers
and their lords who held the land for so long declined around the mid-1700s. As more English
became land owners they brought the factors in to
run their estates. These factors did not have longstanding relationships with the farmers and were
mostly interested in making the land more profitable and the estates more economically stable, with
no emotional tie or allegiance to the culture.
Not all of the Clearances were of this nature. Some
land owners felt sympathy for the families and
provided them more time and were more patient in
removing them from the land. It was like an evolutionary tide that once started could not be stopped.
Many moved to the cities to find employment. At
this time the local parishes were responsible for
the welfare of many of these families and saw emigration as a means of the ridding themselves of a
long-term expense. Many of the displaced emigrated to Canada and America. Many moved to
the Lowlands and found employment in the factories. Some stayed on the land and paid the ever
increasing rents, called rack renting. There was no
protection for the farmers under Scottish law and
thus they were subject to the whim of the landlord.
The Crofters Act of 1886 finally gave crofters heritable security of tenure and tenant farmers, con-
Scotland operated under a feudal system where
traditionally the land was given to the nobles by
the king and the land owner’s income was derived
by renting the land to farmers. Eventually, a few
sheep were brought in by one estate, which was
very profitable. Other factors and land owners noticed that sheep farming seemed a more efficient
way to manage the land. At about this same time
there had been a couple of famines in which the
Gaelic families had become destitute and required
care from the estates. The general population increase taxed the already strained resources of the
meager Highland land and the estates saw the
sheep as a relatively easy and profitable alternative. An industry based on the production of wool
began to take shape. Wool produced in the Highlands was shipped to the Lowlands and to factories
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W.I.S.E. Words
60! !
trolled rents. It did not return the land already taken. It was not until 1976 that crofters were allowed
to buy their own farms.
October, November, December 2015
trips is typical of the Highlands, picturing abandoned crofter houses and little burned out crofter
villages and communities. My brother and I travelled down single-lane roads where you could see
them almost everywhere. As a proud Scot myself,
I must say that the demise of the clan society and
these people tug at my heart. Change is inevitable,
as we can see even in our own society today but to
see it done so cruelly is unforgivable.
Others saw this as a natural-occurring shift in the
economy from small farming to more efficient use
of land and the shift to manufacturing, which was
happening all over Europe. Enclosure had occurred in England. Population was increasing everywhere, which made it necessary to find better
ways to increase production to feed these new
people. It was a system by which society could no
longer thrive.
What topic about Scotland would you like me to
cover in these articles? Contact me at
[email protected].
Author’s Notes: In preparation for writing this article I read two books. The History of the Highland
Clearances1 was written closer to the time of the
events, as are many county histories. It is comprised of letters written by descendants who emigrated and articles and pamphlets of the time. Two
entire chapters are devoted to the notorious Sutherland clearances in the early 1800s, and the trial
of Patrick Seller, their proctor, who was indicted
but not convicted of culpable homicide for his actions during the Clearances.
1
MacKenzie, Alexander, The History of The Highland Clearances by Alexander MacKenzie, F.S.A., Scot., With a New
Introduction by Ian McPherson, M.P., second edition, altered
and revised (Glasgow, Scotland: P.J. O’Callaghan, 1914).
2
Richards, Eric, Highland Clearances (Edinburgh, Scotland:
Birlinn Limited, ebook, 2012). !
Book Reviews
Diplomat’s Ireland Books Wind Up at DPL
The second book that I read was Highland Clearances2 written by Eric Richards in 2012. Written a
hundred years after History of the Highland
Clearances, it provides a different perspective of
the clearances from a distance in time. I was able
to download both books from Amazon.
The Denver Public Library’s genealogy collection
has been enriched with the addition of about
75 books concentrating on Ireland from the
estate of a onetime member of the American diplomatic service, William D. O’Ryan. Most were
published in the late 19th and early to mid-20th
century and cover such topics as military history,
alumni directories and parish histories. O’Ryan
served in such places as The Hague, Netherlands;
Ethiopia, Germany and Ireland. Here are
summaries of two of his books now in
the collection.
There are many websites that have information
relating to this topic. One I really liked is Education Scotland www.educationscotland.gov.uk.
Aubrey Gwynn, S.J., and Dermot F. Gleeson, A
History of the Diocese of Killaloe, Dublin: M.H.
Gill and Son Ltd., 1962. The diocese – Roman
Catholic – is mostly in County Clare, and this history covers the medieval church until the Reformation, generally 1535. Aubrey Gwinn
concentrated on the early period, Dermot Gleeson
the later time.
It caught my attention because I recognized the
diocese as the point of origin of one set of my
husband’s Famine immigrant ancestors, the
Hanrahan family. They came from the parish of
Kilfarboy, and the index sent me straight away to
I have taken four driving vacations to the Scottish
Highlands. The picture that I took on one of these
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W.I.S.E. Words
61! !
the parish and to the family – called O’Hanrahan
here. Kilfarboy on the western edge of the diocese,
I learned, has had the same boundaries for at least
1,000 years. That nugget of information could help
my research at some point.
October, November, December 2015
Trinity College, author; edited by George D
Burtchell and Thomas U. Sadleir, Alumni
Dublinenses: A Register for the Students,
Graduates . . of Trinity College . . 1593-1860,
Dublin: Alex. Thom & Co., 1935. This exhaustive,
1,000-plus page volume is a masterful bit of work
inspired by a genealogist and assembled by a pair
of scholar-academics who saw the value in transcribing the admissions records of Trinity College
in Dublin over 276 years. They include sparse but
valuable genealogical information including the
student’s
birthplace,
father’s
name
and
position/occupation, years enrolled, prep school or
teacher, sometimes a clue to later residence or
status. The names are listed in alphabetical order, a
total of about 35,000. Editor Sadleir describes the
process and the frustrations involved in
compiling this book over nine years. For instance,
sorting names often was problematic: two boys
named Arthur Pyne O’Callaghan enrolled on the
same day. It was not an error – they were cousins.
Two ecclesiastical characters surnamed Hanrahan
appear in some events of 1440s and 1450s. The
pope in 1443 had named one Thadeus O’Hanrahan
to head a religious house after removing one
Donatus O’Cuinn who had assumed the post
with the death of Nicholas O’Grady aka Nicholas
Medonios. O’Hanrahan at first had the backing of
the O’Gradys, but in a few years one
Henry O’Grady claimed O’Hanrahan “had
committed perjury and other crimes,” and pushed
for his ouster and installation of a member of his
family. O’Hanrahan survived that attack, but
in 1463, an O’Cuinn got into the act, accusing
O’Hanrahan of celebrating Mass while excommunicated. Gleeson found nothing to tell us exactly
what happened then, though evidence apparently
showed that O’Hanrahan prevailed and in 1479,
another O’Hanrahan (Maurice) was tied to some
financial dealings in the same parish. However,
Gleeson does point out that the events give
us insight into life of a religious house of the 15th
century as self-serving churchmen relied
on nepotism and other nefarious methods to subvert the purpose of Christianity – saving souls.
Predictably, the students were from the privileged
classes and mostly Protestant. Gaelic and Irish
surnames are uncommon so I was not surprised to
find no clues to any of my or my husband’s Irish
ancestors, though I found some of their family
names. Later, I took the search in a different direction by checking the surnames of our families’
landlords in Counties Monaghan and Louth.
Lappins were tenants on the Madden estate in
County Monaghan in the early 1800s, and I
learned that two of the family – apparently brothers – had been enrolled at Trinity. They
were Charles Dudley Madden and John Madden,
both born in Monaghan, sons of Samuel Madden,
a gentleman. Both were 18 when they enrolled,
Charles in 1802 at age 18, and John a year earlier.
There’s no way of ever knowing whether these
O’Hanrahans had any connection to my husband’s
family, but still, this places the lovely name
of Hanrahan in the right place in the folds of
Irish history.
Gleeson, summarizing the history of the diocese,
recognized the frailty of the medieval church,
but took the long view: “Our history thus
represents here in Ireland the story of the survival
of the divinely instituted Church despite the legacy
left by original sin in so many of its members,”
he wrote. “The heartening story of that survival
in the diocese of Killaloe remains to be told in another volume.” That never happened, but there is
an earlier history of the diocese, published in
1878. It’s entitled The Diocese of Killaloe from the
Reformation to the Close of the 18th Century
by Philip Dwyer, and it’s also in the DPL
genealogy collection as a gift from William D.
O’Ryan’s estate.
My ancestors’ landlords in County Louth were
members of the Fortescue family, and 14 of them
who were born in Louth attended Trinity over the
years. (Several others were born in Dublin and
elsewhere.) William Henry, who enrolled in
1738-39 at age 18, was my family’s landlord in
1776-77 when he became Lord Clermont.
Aside from page after page of names and brief
biographies, the book gives us insight into the life
of the Irish upper classes in those days. Students
for the most part were the sons of prominent men
and editor Sadleir tells this story of how they
!
62! !
W.I.S.E. Words
didn’t mind puffing and bluffing: The Register of
St. John’s College, Cambridge, called student
Horne Tooke’s father a pullarius (a dealer in poultry or poulterer). But at Trinity, his son declared
his dad was “an eminent Turkey Merchant.”
October, November, December 2015
the Denver Public Library to help you navigate
your way.
The editors are John and Sheila Rowlands, widely
known Welsh genealogists. It was published in the
United Kingdom by the Federation of Family History Societies Ltd. in conjunction with the
Department of Continuing Education at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. It also was published in the U.S. by the Genealogical Publishing
Co. of Baltimore.
The editors provided us with another insight into
aristocratic Ireland of the past that they may not
even have recognized: Not one of the 35,000 students was a woman, and I found no reference to
even a mother in the brief biographies. Only men
were educated; only their paternal lineage was
noted.
The frontispiece is a lovely portrait of Mrs. Ellen
Lloyd of Ty Newydd, Llannor, Wales, painted by
Hugh Hughes in 1845. Mrs. Lloyd looks like a
friendly sort with whom I would enjoy a hot cup
of tea by the fire of a stone cottage like the drawing on page 328.
A sampling of other titles in the new Irish collection:
A Census of Ireland Circa 1659, with Supplementary
Material from the Poll Money Ordinances (1660-1661),
by Seamus Pender, published in Dublin, 1939.
There are 22 chapters which I will discuss. There
are 52 figures, tables and appendices that include
maps, drawings and photographs to support the
text. The chapters read like stories covering a wide
range of subjects that genealogists will find helpful: religious groups including Catholics
and nonconformists; urban growth and industrialization; personalities in coal and lead mining.
Chapter 8 introduces genealogical strategies. A
person could study a single chapter if the content
is of interest.
Journal of the American Irish Society in five volumes,
1927-1937, lists of members.
History of the Irish Brigade in the Service of France by
John Cornelius O’Callaghan, published in Glasgow,
1925.
History of the Town and County of Wexford, Old and
New Ross edited by Philip Herbert Hore, from the papers of Herbert F. Hore, London, 1900.
Extent of Irish Monastic Possessions 1540-1541 edited
by Newport A. White, Dublin, 1943.
What might you find interesting? How to read old
documents? Sources for surname studies? Sources
of surnames in Wales? Ordinary people in the records of the great estates? An introduction to maps
of Wales for family historians? The national monuments record of Wales? How to use Peter Bartrum’s Welsh Genealogies? A delicious mixed
marmalade of choices!
Burke’s 1958 Landed Gentry of Ireland.
The Diocese of Limerick from 1692 to the Present Time,
by John Archdeacon Begley, Dublin, 1938.
The Jesuits 1584-1921; History of the Society of Jesus
from Its Foundation to the Present Time by Thomas J.
Campbell S.J., New York, 1921
–Zoe von Ende Lappin!
Are your reading glasses tuned up? Chapter 16
covers significant family histories: the Vaughns of
Trawsgoed; the Pugh family of Llanfair Llanbedr
1775-1900; the Lloyds of Ty Newydd of North
Wales; Morris Reignald, gentleman sheep farmer
in North Cardiganshire; Titus Jones of Llanfihangel-ar-arth; Baron Lewis Owen of Dolgellau and
his descendants. The authors’ ambition in studying
a specific family tree was to relate the family to
the growth or descent of the estate to indicate the
relationship of the estate to the social, economic
and political landscape. The impact of a prominent family was in enormous contrast to that of
It’s Time to Advance Your Welsh Research
It is back-to-school days, a favorite time of the
year in Colorado. We are enjoying the crisp fragrance of fallen leaves, the deep blue sky, the
great pumpkin and the morning dew on wing and
web. Are you ready to advance to a new level of
Welsh genealogy? After this July’s seminar you
may feel ready for the challenge.
Let’s look at a deep dive into Second Stages in
Researching Welsh Ancestry. This hardback book,
published in 1999, is easily carried in one hand
and is available in the genealogy section of
!
W.I.S.E. Words
63! !
non-landowning, working people who left but little imprints on the landscape.
October, November, December 2015
band, Chris Roger, in 1992. After working for a
few years for the Golden office of a gold mining
company based out of New York City, Mary has
been employed in the legal office at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory since 1994.
Chapter 17 discusses the emergence and rise of
a bilingual native middle class in the 18th and 19th
centuries, a period of significant social change
in rural society. The farm workers, laborers,
domestic servants of a mainly pastoral society
began to challenge the established order of squire
and parson. New opportunities became clear
for the emerging middle class, spurred on by
economic developments in mining and maritime
trade, and among shopkeepers, tradesmen and
cattle drovers. All of these developments are
composited in the story of the Rev. William Pugh
and family, 1750-1845, of Llanfair. The local perspective of this study tended to broaden out
throughout Wales.
The genealogy bug bit Mary early in the
1990s when her husband mentioned that he didn’t
know anything about his ancestry except that
his grandfather was born in Lonmay, Scotland.
Since then, she’s traced his paternal ancestry
back to the early 1700s in Aberdeenshire, and
his maternal ancestry to early Santa Fe,
New Mexico, in the late 1600s. Her parents’
ancestry is from Sweden (Larson), Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire in England and Glamorgan in
Wales, making W.I.S.E. a perfect fit. Mary’s
mother was born in a sod house in northwest
Kansas in 1927; and her father, born in northwest
Kansas in 1924, is a surviving U.S. Navy veteran
of World War II.
The book has an extensive bibliography, the chapters are extensively footnoted and there’s a thorough alphabetical index. The chapter on how to
read old documents I found to be particularly interesting and practical. The writing in old documents can be unfamiliar. The study of old
handwriting, i.e. paleography, is sufficient to decipher many old documents. The authors analyze
illustrations of old handwriting, emphasizing the
need to be careful and systematic.
When she’s not researching Scottish, English or
Welsh ancestry, Mary enjoys cooking and planning the trips that she and Chris have
taken. They’ve visited several countries in North
America and South America, as well as traveling
to Scotland. Usually, their travel involves at
least one genealogy trip to a cemetery or library,
and her husband, Chris, has gamely trooped along
with her (although she says he’s much more
cooperative with a cemetery visit than a visit to a
library or archive). Mary also enjoys traveling
to RootsTech and National Genealogical Society
conferences when possible, and she’s been
a member of W.I.S.E. since 2012. During
retirement, she plans to obtain her genealogy certification and continue her genealogy research. "
The book has 17 named contributing authors, all
educators, all associated with the University of
Wales, and that is why it feels like a good book for
back-to-school days. Is it time to put down the tea
cup and immerse yourself in your country of
origin? This book is rich with information, guidance and challenges like a buttery, nutty, fruity,
chocolatey scone and begs us to dig in.
—Nancy McCurdy"
Sandra Keifer-Roberts became interested in
genealogy at the age
of 11, when her
grandfather decided
to retrieve his mother’s family record
and journal from his
dusty, cluttered attic.
Years later, when
online
genealogy
was in its infancy,
Sandra rediscovered the information in this journal
and began to connect with distant cousins.
Member Profiles
Mary Anne Larson is looking forward to helping
Nyla Cartwright as
assistant newsletter
editor for W.I.S.E.
She grew up on a
dairy farm in northwest Kansas and
moved to Golden in
1990, where she met
and married her hus!
64! !
W.I.S.E. Words
Through this experience, she learned that handwritten genealogy accounts often teach us more
about the writers themselves than the people they
are writing about. In her family’s precious book,
verifiable facts are nestled comfortably beside
glaring inaccuracies.
October, November, December 2015
tions, she’s been interviewing, recording, transcribing and publishing the stories of their elderly
family members.
As genealogy enthusiasts, we know the thrill of
the hunt and the frustration of defeat. We’re
dreamers who want to travel in time; we’re detectives who stubbornly refuse to sleep if we’re
clutching an important new clue. Sandra’s passion
for genealogy has led her on an action-packed
journey full of witch trials, Revolutionary War
battles, Civil War escapes, illegal immigration,
scarlet fever epidemics, unlikely marriages,
mysterious disappearances, Huguenots, scholars,
physicians, businessmen, farmhands, royalty
and common ancestors for her parents. Like
many other researchers, Sandra enjoys celebrating
new discoveries by pausing to read historical
accounts and imagining what life was like
for her ancestors. "
Sandra has earned two master’s degrees: M.A.,
English, and M.S., computer information systems.
After working in technology for many years, she
left the corporate world in order to pursue freelance work and indulge her passion for writing.
An adjunct instructor of English composition
and technology for various local colleges, Sandra
uses her spare time to research and write. Her husband, a Yorkshireman, and her two college-age
sons enthusiastically support her activities. She is
overwhelmed by the volume of her own writing
material, but tries to find time to help others write
their stories, too. Recently, in addition to helping
clients with genealogy or generic technology ques-
W.I.S.E. Program Schedule
September 26, 2015
1:30 p.m.
Denver Public Library
7th Floor
Understanding the British Army
Ed Storey
Ed Storey will share insights about the British Army and discuss guidelines to researching its records. He has been writing for genealogical magazines for over 10
years and has researched in India, Germany and England. !
October 11-18, 2015
Family History Library
Salt Lake City
Annual Research Trip
Contact Sandy Breed, [email protected], with any questions. !
October 24, 2015
1:30 p.m.
Denver Public Library
7th floor
World War I Heirloom Sharing Program
Members will share their World War I heirlooms and stories relating to their
family members from the British Isles.!
December 5, 2015
1:30 p.m.
Denver Public Library
7th Floor
The Front Range Druid Players Present
Tales from the Medieval Welsh Mabinogion
Join us for our holiday meeting, bring British Isles treats and enjoy the
performance.!
January 23, 2016
1:30 p.m.
Denver Public Library
7th Floor
Annual General Meeting and Heirloom Sharing !
!
!