Carragher - the name and links

 

174,572nd

Most Common

surname in the World according to forebears . Less than 2500 people worldwide have this surname.

one of the first resources I found online re. Carragher, was of a Carragher who is trying to document more about the name. Though I can't find a genetic genealogical match, he has been the only person I have found online that is making any real, concerted effort to compile info about the name. 

He also created a profile in the name study of Carragher

Could it lead to my ancestors?  Possibly...the name is relatively rare, even with its variants. Were it a common name, the answer would be a definitive no. But one of the things I have found in family research is to look for the less common names, that maybe, just maybe, a bit of luck may come into play. So far, this hasn't quite manifested, but I am in contact with a DNA cousin with this name.

from surname db:

"Recorded in a number of spellings including (Mac) Caraher, (Mac) Carragher, Carah, Carrah, etc. but more usually without the 'Mac' or 'Mc' prefix, this is an Irish surname, but one which is closedly associated with the Scottish MacFearchair, the modern Farquar. It is claimed that the clan did originate in Scotland and probably before the 12th century a.d., but this seems impossible to verify. However nameholders are mostly to be found in the border area of Counties Armagh and Louth, between Ulster and Leinster provinces, a region of strong Scottish influence in the past, so this seems logical. The name literally translates as 'dear man', and this was a reference to the first chieftain who was given either to good works, or who may have been a follower of a 'holy man'. Many Gaelic clans descend from chiefs who were known by their often very descriptive 'nicknames', and this is one of the less 'robust' examples. According to the famous Irish biographer and etymologist MacLysart, the name as MacCarehir is first recorded at Dysart, County Louth, in 1616, during the reign of King James 1st (1587 - 1625), and outside the Plantation area of Ulster. This is a way of his suggesting that the name is not of Scottish influence. As MacCarraher it is recorded in the Hearth Tax Rolls of King Charles 11nd in 1663, whilst in the modern forms it is recorded in the Famine Registers of 1846 - 1848. An example being Mary Carah, one of the very first emigrants, who aged only fifteen and given as being 'a servant girl', left on the ship John R Skiddy of Liverpool, on March 16th 1846, bound for New York, USA."

and the John Grenham link

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less common names - Carragher, Caragher, Carraher, Caraher

 

in working on my own family tree for the past two decades, I have often clung to less common names (first, middle, last), to try and make breakthroughs.

Family research, especially for those of us who contend with limited documents (as is the case with the Irish experience in Ireland), means often flip flopping along different sides of the ocean, to seemingly unrelated families, with the hopes of possibly finding connections, or more information about the names. This warrants a few posts.

Carragher.

This name is either the one of my 2x, or 3x great grandmother and probably has caused me the most frustration of all. I can't correctly document my 2x great grandmother....this isn't that far back really, 1850s, but the cusp of official registration in Ireland, a seeming marriage of Catholic and Protestant, misspellings  - Kellar in one of the death certificates of one of my 2x ggmother's children in Scotland. I feel Carragher was most likely her mother's name, that she was the more common (and frustrating to search) O'Brien.

But here we are.

My Carraghers hail from the Crossmaglen and environs area of Armagh, Northern Ireland. Could they have also been from Louth or Navan? Possibly.

There were branches of Carraghers who went to the US and changed their name to Callaghan (likely the customs officer changed it?). More than one of these former Carraghers are genetic genealogical matches (weak but there).

There were branches that went to Canada, I have yet to find genetic connections here, but worth spending more time here.

And there are those that remain in Northern Ireland, in the places known to have at least some connection to my Carraghers - Cappagh, Crossmaglen, Lisseraw (Liseragh, Lissera). These places have links to the Troubles.

They were primarily RC, though it looks like my ancestor married a protestant.

How easy it is for names to be lost - Carragher to Kellar on a child's death record....

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breaking down brick walls - Thomas Briggs

 continuing from my last post, am going to trace (and hopefully figure out the connection), the witness to my 5x great grandparents' wedding in Banbridge, Down, Northern Ireland in 1788.

WHO IS THOMAS BRIGGS to my ancestors? Usually a witness to a marriage was a family member, so am starting with this assumption.

Next I will find out who he married, his descendents, and see if me or my siblings have any DNA connections (my father died years ago, before I could get him to test, but my siblings and I have)

I found a few baptismal dates (and Ballydown is the area where some of my ancestors are KNOWN to be from). Note there are other Briggs from the area, a shared ancestral space with my known ancestors.

31/05/1765      James           Thomas Briggs       Mary Kinnear           Ballydown

24/05/1768      Jane            Thomas Briggs       Mary Kinnier           Ballydown

03/08/70        Alex’r          Thomas Briggs       Mary Kinnier           Ballygown

16/06/1776      Isabella        Thomas Briggs       Mary Kinier            Ballydown

07/12/77        And’w           Thos Brigs          Mary Kinnier           Ballydown

13/12/1778      Jane            Thomas Briggs       Mary Kinnier           Ballyd--

24/06/1781      William         Thomas Briggs       Mary Kinnier           Ballydown

25/03/1767      Agnes           Thomas Lacky        Martha Briggs          Ballydown

17/11/1776      Thomas          Thomas Lackey       Martha Briggs          Ballydown

I found the aforementioned records here: Bainbridge Presbyterian Baptisms, County Down Ireland 1756-94 (igp-web.com)

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breaking down brick walls - who are the witnesses? BRIGGS

 I have written about past brick walls and some of the ways I attempt to move through them.

One of those is focussing on the witnesses to marriage, as they are often relations (I broke down a major brick wall several years ago by using the witness to my paternal great grandparents' wedding and was able to find that he was a first cousin by tracing back his tree, and confirming it with DNA matches of mine at the 4th cousin level :)

So this is the latest one I have decided to revisit...it is a bit far back (especially for Irish records, where the marker of 1800 is often the date-limit of somewhat reliable research. It is worth trying....

Jun 30,1788     FLEMING, William          GREEN, Isabella
                witness                   BRIGGS, Thomas

wish me luck!

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random research finds - BAPTISMAL RECORDS FOR THE BANBRIDGE NON-SUBSCRIBING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, COUNTY DOWN, IRELAND 1756-1794

 This definitely qualifies - I found a few details of my own ancestors via this document:

BAPTISMAL RECORDS FOR THE BANBRIDGE NON-SUBSCRIBING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, COUNTY DOWN, IRELAND 1756-1794

Sometimes, gems come in the most random of places. For me, this was one of them for one of my paternal lines.

I thank those who researched and compiled these as they serve as an access point for documentation that would otherwise be unavailable online.

Sharing should others benefit for their own family research: the records

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ulster-scot names

 

It's a back and forth...my father was Scottish, raised in Glasgow, and yet much of his family ancestry is rooted in Northern Ireland.

I try to gap-fill, and look for resources, even just simply lists of names for guidance.

The searches in Northern Ireland have certainly led to me being better read on the Ulster Plantations, a period of history I learned about on my own, never covered in school

Family history seems ephemeral in many ways...there were few in my own family who ever bothered writing anything down, My mum has told me memories of her childhood in Ireland where her mother and family would talk about the family, and the layers and generations of it...yet they never wrote it down. Though my interest and research in family history has spanned two decades, I was too late...many of those who held the family stories died - and the unwritten family history went with them.

Sigh

a list of Ulster-Scottish names - I sometimes use this as a quick reference...anything to chip away at those brick walls of hidden/lost history.

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Hedge schools - Irish education despite it all

 I have been on the search for a while for additional documents about hedge schools in Ireland. When I am not engaging in family history and research, I am a healthcare worker, and I teach.

I sort of fell into teaching at the college level - one of my former instructors had an instructor back away from teaching a practical lab, and asked if I'd be interested, if I could help out last minute, so I gave it a go. 

And it felt so natural. It still does. I still love to teach the same subjects with a joy that seems to reach back.

Every generation of my maternal side has had teachers for at least 200 years. So here I am, continuing the tradition.

I do enjoy reading the Schools' Collection, and this excerpt mentions family of mine. The collection is a fun, sweet read, with a trove of remembered experiences not found anywhere else.

The homepage for the Schools' Collection.

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