The weekend before last, my brother had come over from Canada, for his usual family history visit which he doe’s annually, on one of the days we done the usual visits around some of the usual graveyards, but a couple of new ones too, we were definitely not let down either.
My Great great great grandfather Michael Curran's Grave in Dunleckney, reads 'Erected by Michael Curren of Knocklonagad in memory of his father Michael Curren who depd this life the 14th of Oct 1829 aged 69 years' (born 1760)
As well as Glasnevin, Mullhuddart, Drumphea, Kildavin, Clonegal and new from last year, Dunleckney. We also paid visits to Castledermot in county Kildare, where my Grandmother Margaret Doyle’s brother, Patrick is buried. Next up was Fennagh, Co Carlow
Church of Ireland Cemetery, there was nothing there that really took our interest, and we also visited a cemetery in Ballon, county Carlow. Finally we visited Newtown Cemetery (RC) Co Carlow, I must say that this cemetery has truly been a revelation in my genealogical searches around this area.
Andrew(right) and myself at some of the Curran graves in Newtown County Carlow.
Let me explain, it was always considered by members of my elder family that the family homestead is Drumphea, as there is a grave there with a person in it dating back to 1788 as their birth date, and an old building that has been seen as the farm that my grandfather grew up on. Though looking at the many documents around there is only one Curran family living in Drumphea in the 1850’s Griffith valuation papers, this was my GGGF Martin. But if you go 1km south of here there is a small village called Knocklonagad, where there were a number of Currans are there in the same valuation, which says to me that Martin was from Knocklonagad, as there is another brother of his definitely living down there. Yet there is no sign of Knocklonagad Currans buried in Drumphea, but there is one buried up in Dunleckney, Michael Curran. Yet still, other than a couple of other Currans in the same cemetery, this one says that Michael is from Knocklonagad, telling me that he was the father of Martin my GGGF, so he will be my GGGGF. Sorry I should have said that the Michael from Knocklonagad that is buried in Dunleckney was born around 1760, predating Martin by 28 years, is it making sense? Now upon our visit to Newtown cemetery which is about four miles from both Dunleckney and Drumphea cemeteries, we found the most Curranly numerate cemetery yet, only one in Drumphea, only one in Dunleckney, four in Newtown. The Curran’s that are buried here are now referred to by me as the Boherduff Curran’s. My new theory is that my GGGGF Michael left the family homestead in Boherduff, because there was a rather large amount of Currans in the area and probably not too much around for him, Michael moved to Knocklonagad, five miles south, this would have been around 1780, he married had a number of children, who set up various sections of farmland in the Knocklonagad area, one of these was my GGGF Martin who moved a little way across the valley to Drumphea. He then went on to have a number of children, of which one, my GGF Francis inherited his farm and so on.
The older Curran grave in Newtown reads' Erected by John Curran of Boherduff in memory of his son James who departed life june 20th 1830 aged 54 years(born 1776), alos to the memory of the above named John Curran who departed life August 27th 1841 age 90(born 1751), also his wife, Mary Curran who departed this life March 4th 1847 aged 86, also his grandson Patrick who died 14th December 1886 aged 38. The John who is referred to here as far as i am concerned is my GGGGF Michaels older brother.
The other older grave in Newtown, Co Carlow. Read ' Erected by Thomas Curran of Boherduff in memory of his father Patrick Curran who died Dec 15th 1875(born 1783) aged 92, also his mother Mary Curran who died Dec 23 1875 aged 88 years, and his brother John Curran died Mar 7thg 1886 aged 82 years, the above named Thomas Curran died 23rd oct 1916 aged 86 years, his son John died 26th sep 1937 age 67 years, and his son Patrick died 12th jan 1942 aged 75 years, also Annie wife of john died 1st jan 1966(The Patrick that is referred to in this grave would be the son of the John in the grave in the picture above)
I have to offer some very big thanks to one individual for pointing me in this direction, her name is Elaine Curran, from Northern Ireland, who contacted me on one of the many forums that I have put feelers out on, and told me that her husband, Leo Curran’s descendants were from here in Boherduff, I looked up Boherduff on Google earth and low and behold, there is a cemetery in it. I had asked other Currans from the Drumphea area, as to whether or not there were any other older cemeteries in the local area from Drumphea, they told me there were not, so therefore they are unaware of this Curran grouping here in Boherduff cemetery.
We also visited the newly renovated grave in Bunclody of Peter Curran, which I must say has had an absolutely top notch job done on it. It was really nice to have Andrew, my brother over, as it always ends up that we go hunting around for new revelations to get, as well as the new finds in the cemeteries, we also met up with Richard Hoolahan, grandson of Peter Curran, my grandfathers brother. We spent a lovely afternoon with him down in Ballinteer, south Dublin. Also we had a meeting with my auntie Kathleen, her daughter Anna and son Tommy, once again two really enjoyable evenings with them, Kathleen is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to the descendants of my grandfather, martin, this time she told me of the fact that I had a cousin whose name was Frank, that I never knew of, it doesn’t matter how many times you visit a person for information regarding family history, you will always get something new from them. This is something I never actually realised until recently, but never a truer word has been noted, and if I had any advice for other amateur genealogists like myself it would be that.
After my brother leaves, because it is nearly all relating to family history, though he does come over to see the family of course, when he leaves, I am always left with a list of genealogical tasks, one thing that I really have to do is contact one part of my family that I haven’t, this is the descendants of my first cousin, Mona, who was the daughter of my uncle Frank(whom I never met, as he died before I was born) Next is to try and find the current Boherduff Currans, which won’t be a problem, and then there are a thousand and one other things to chase, watch this space..........
