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Happy Thanksgiving, and a New Blog

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut, Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Ireland, Irish in Waterbury

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Early Irish History, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Irish in Connecticut, Janet Maher, John Wiehn, Waterbury Irish

Love Letter ©2014 Janet Maher

Woolen Mill# 10: Love Letter ©2014 Janet Maher

It’s hard to believe that I have not written here since June of this year, and for that I apologize. I do still intend to complete the series of essays about my magical pilgrimage to Ireland, however, the rest of my life intervened and I had to shift gears.  For now, those who wish to continue to read my posts, please check out a new blog that I have just begun. It’s called “Trusting the Process: Getting There From Here,” and I hope it will be a means through which I can address more topics. Ireland is still at the top of my list and, especially so as I try to complete a new book by the end of the year. This one, to be titled, Waterbury Irish: From the Emerald Isle to the Brass City,” is in collaboration with a friend I made years back while researching “From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley.” John Wiehn is the current president of Connecticut’s Ancient Order of Hibernians and is the director of the Prospect Library. With Mark Heiss, he produced the postcard series book, Waterbury, 1890-1930. He has been very helpful in finding some great old photographs and in gathering info on some of the topics that will be contained in Waterbury Irish, which should be published next May by the History Press. This book will not only condense and complete the work of “From the Old Sod,” but it will resurrect a history of Waterbury, Connecticut that has long been eclipsed and relatively few people recall or perhaps even know about. In my recent art exhibition I included the above image which is the last of a series from my earlier Naugatuck focus. This one evolved into what I felt to be a love letter to the ending of a project and an emotional nod to my hometown and my past.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and thank you for all the attention you have paid this blog since it began in 2011!

©2014 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Researching Irish Family History in Connecticut

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, Naugatuck, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish Genealogy, Irish in Connecticut, Janet Maher, Naugatuck Connecticut, Naugatuck Valley Genealogy Club, New Haven County Connecticut

©2011 Janet Maher, View from Rock of Dunamase, County Laois, Ireland

©2011 Janet Maher, View from Rock of Dunamase, County Laois, Ireland

Recently I presented a talk for the Naugatuck Valley Genealogy Club that I’d like to post (in part and expanded) here. I hope it may be helpful for researchers at any stage of experience.

Many years ago I worked at a public library. This was where I first encountered people actively looking up information in city directories. It seemed to me like such an odd thing to do, as if they were stalkers! I remembered this ironically when poring over the archives of Naugatuck Historical Society city directories myself. Preserved moments in this format initially helped me locate primary people throughout decades of time as I began to envision a larger picture. Now I feel much more poetic about this and other kinds of research we do in the world of genealogy, which is ultimately about honoring our ancestors while learning about who we, ourselves, really are. One thing is certain. Our stories are not simply lying in wait for us—neither physically nor virtually, details all neatly in place somewhere—unless we or one of our relatives already did actual research and published it. The pieces of our stories, however, may be lying in wait everywhere.

Genealogical research is often referred to as a puzzle, but, as an artist by primary profession, I’ve come to think that the process is actually more like making art. Those who do puzzles usually have a reference image already printed on a box cover to which they can compare their progress. In doing genealogical research, by contrast, we have no idea what might be revealed until we finish collecting all the unknown elements and eventually become able to put them together in some logical, beautiful way. That is a creative process. In many ways, I feel as if what I have accomplished in this area has been the most difficult and most rewarding work I have done in my life to date. It has, however, required all my skills acquired over a lifetime as an artist, and those of a hitherto-unrealized professional scholar to uncover what I have. These experiences and struggles joined in opening a new world to me. I feel that this work has been entirely worth doing, and is important for posterity—not typically the feeling I have after mounting an art exhibition! The work would probably never have been done if I had not decided to commit to a challenge that seemed to have fallen intentionally into my lap, then simply roll up my sleeves and begin.

©2006 Janet Maher, Maher-Martin graves, St. Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, CT

©2006 Janet Maher, Maher-Martin graves, St. Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, CT

Simultaneous to creating a beautiful product, family historians and genealogists search for TRUTH. This is where genealogy takes a turn from the act of art-making. In this type of endeavor we need to be careful about accuracy, which leads us into the scientific method. Even as novices we need to approach our project as if we would actually become experts about our particular area of research. (Thank you to the person who once told me—received, albeit, in utter disbelief—that I would become an “expert” on the Mahers!) This means that not only must we gather information from far and wide, but that we must spend the extra time trying to be as thorough and accurate as possible. It is important to find some way to keep our notes in order, to look for multiple sources of the same information, and to document EVERYTHING. Anyone should be able to find the information we present by retracing our foot- and endnotes to our sources, so they can decide for themselves if we were correct in our findings and hypotheses. (This is decidedly NOT like art-making, where we create as we will and call it complete as we feel.)

We develop our research methods along the way. One friend introduced me to her system of keeping three-ring binder notebooks for every family or person, including clear slip sheets that protected documents and were able to contain varied sized pieces of paper. This seemingly small tip was extremely helpful, affording me not only practical advice but also hinting at how vast an undertaking this project might end up becoming. (Forewarned is forearmed!) We all eventually end up with many different kinds of computer files, physical boxes of stuffed folders, overflowing shelves, data in family tree software, as well as, publicly and/or privately, trees on Ancestry.com. In addition to good storage systems, I highly recommend investing in a good magnifying glass. It will become the handiest of tools!

©2012 Janet Maher, portrait of the author's great grandfather

©2012 Janet Maher, portrait of the author’s great grandfather Maher, born in America to Irish immigrants

We typically start with very little information beyond the knowledge of our immediate family. Like artists, we dare to face a blank beginning and trust that something good will result, worth the time we’re willing to invest into a long and complicated process. As we sense how some information relates to other information, more and larger questions emerge. We may find that we need to pause and go off on what could seem to be a wide range of tangents. We might, for example, need to study more about an aspect of history in order to better understand the context for a small but important fact that we found. We will likely read a mountain of books about topics we never dreamed would some day become fascinating to us.

We often work on different parts of the amorphous overarching story at different times, allowing some parts to rest until other aspects come into the mix that will allow earlier topics to develop further. This multi-faceted activity requires an all-consuming focus (generally unavailable) that will allow for a larger view to develop over myriad tiny details. It is an organic, intuitive process that requires open-ended time and a fair amount of wandering in wonder. As in art, in the world of genealogy we know that our wanderings are simply part of the path toward other discoveries and that the work is also part of the satisfaction.

We try to picture our ancestors alive in order to holistically grasp who they were or might have been. We imagine ourselves as flies on their walls. What would they reveal if the veils between us suddenly dissolved? We try to speak with whomever is alive, available and willing to share stories about the time and place that our ancestors inhabited. This, if it is possible, is the most important gift. The concrete memories that another person has, the little details that would rarely be found in an archive, best illuminate the humanity of the people with whom we are hoping to connect through our research.

It is only recently that someone told me that into the twentieth century the last of my family’s first generation Irish-American ancestors pronounced our surname in Naugatuck in the Irish way, with two syllables, not in the way I was taught to do, with one! That is one of many treasures living people have made possible for me along this journey.

©2012 Janet Maher, presumed Leary-Farren families, Naugatuck, CT

©2012 Janet Maher, presumed Leary-Farren families, Naugatuck, CT

We look for everything that pertains to individuals in our various tree branches—vital records, baptism and marriage data, voting registrations, bits about them in newspapers, yearbooks, military and land records—anything that might provide more clarity. I am interested in also finding every person’s tombstone. What is inscribed on it? What does it look like and what might that say about the person? Who is buried nearby?

Importantly, for Irish-Catholic immigrants and their descendants, the witnesses at weddings and baptisms may be invaluable for helping to establish connections between people. While many Connecticut church baptism and marriage registries were microfilmed and can be viewed at the Archdiocese of Hartford, some were not filmed and several early books have long been lost. Whether or not one would be allowed to look at records in a rectory is a gamble. The Immaculate Conception Basilica in Waterbury, for example, will not allow this. To see early Immaculate Conception records one must make an appointment at the Archdiocese (and bring your magnifying glass along!).

Data helps to inform photographs, and so can images help to inform data. There are many articles about estimating dates of old photographs through the fashions of the time and types of photography produced. One book I recommend is Joan Severa’s Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900, which provides a broad study of cultural, photographic and clothing history. Since childhood I’ve had an artist’s sense that if I stared at certain photographs long enough and puzzled over them, eventually they would start to reveal themselves to me. Similarly, as I learned in adulthood more about my family’s history, certain characters from the past who peered out from old photos seemed to will me to find them and give them a chance to live again through my researching and chronicling of their life stories.

©2010 Janet Maher, Three Women (including the author's gg grandmother)

©2010 Janet Maher, Three Women (including the author’s great-great grandmother, from Ireland)

In order to try to identify unmarked photographs we may need to learn more about an entire community. Who else might have ended up in photographs that were saved over the decades? Who made up the extended families? What groups were individuals involved with? Where did everyone live? Who were their neighbors? The earliest Irish settlers of Naugatuck, Connecticut, were a very tight and interconnected community. Studying their neighborhoods and intermarriages became illuminating, combined with an in-depth focus upon the first Catholic cemetery, where so many of them ended up buried together.

©2010 Janet Maher, Woolen Mill, ca 1870s-80s, Naugatuck, CT

©2010 Janet Maher, Woolen Mill, ca 1870s-80s, Naugatuck, CT

Tools for Irish and Other Research in Connecticut

In Connecticut it is necessary to become a member of a genealogical organization recognized by the various departments of Vital Records (such as the Connecticut Society of Genealogists) in order to be able to do independent research. The Connecticut State Library website clearly explains what is allowed to be accessed. Do not assume that finding an immigrant’s death record will neatly provide the person’s parentage or his or her townland in Ireland. If one is lucky, however, a county might be listed and a mother’s maiden name. The early records usually do not include parents’ full names, and the birth place listed is usually, simply, Ireland (hence the title for Irish genealogist Jane Lyon’s premier web site — From Ireland).

Early in my years of researching in Connecticut I would plan to stay over in hotels or with very generous friends and family members. I was primed for (mostly) standing up throughout the days taking notes in various vital records offices, always prepared with cash to purchase certain ones (at $20 a pop!). I eventually learned that it is possible to rent microfilm from Utah that can be read at one’s nearby Latter Day Saints Family History Center. Thankfully, I happen to have one about 45 minutes away from where I live, and after renewing a film three times it remains on semi-permanent loan there. This allowed me to look at some Connecticut and Irish data when I cleared time to go out there, without the pressure of having the reels sent back within a few weeks.

Like places in Connecticut include: New Milford Public Library, and Family History Centers in Goshen, Newtown, Southington and New Haven. In these offices one can sit and study to heart’s content or until the places close, then come back again another day. In some, digital copies of the records can be saved to a thumb/flash drive and taken home.

Newspapers and microfilm can also be accessed at the Connecticut State Library, some of which can be checked out three reels at a time via interlibrary loan. See their web site for a list of what is available in their collection (in addition to clicking on other links I’ve provided here). You can also purchase a card to easily use their copy machine and not need a pocketful of change. By researching in these ways to find index information, it is then possible to go to a Town Hall and purchase copies of the necessary documents—a much more convenient way to go about things.

All town libraries have some kind of local history collection, and the main Silas Bronson Library branch in Waterbury is a good size. This library also has nineteenth century newspapers on reel that can be researched. With a library card you can access Heritage Quest from home via most libraries, and, likewise in some libraries, Ancestry.com. (At some point you will likely bite the bullet and pay for your own subscription.)

In Middletown the Godfrey Memorial Library is a treasure-trove of a collection, and they offer an online subscription membership, as does the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. I have also found the publications of the Irish Genealogical Society International, based in Minnesota, to be quite good. Their Sept back issues that focused upon Irish counties were very helpful when I started out.

I had a subscription for a few years for Newspaper Archive, which has three Connecticut papers in its database, one of which is the Naugatuck Daily News. (Some of these may also be available on Ancestry.com.) The early papers were full of excellent tidbits about people visiting each other between cities and states and other human interest events that may help tie people together in one’s research.

Boston College hosts a database of October 1831 – October 1921 Missing Friends postings in the Boston Pilot Newspaper by Irish nationals and immigrants trying to find one another. This can prove to be of help in one’s research, as can finding evidence of ancestors in the Emigrant Savings Bank.

©2011 Janet Maher, Saint Brigid's Well, Kildare, Ireland

©2011 Janet Maher, Saint Brigid’s Well, Kildare, Ireland

Research about Irish immigrants is especially difficult if critical documents do not exist. Given all of the above, one might still not find important missing pieces. While learning how and what to research in America, it is necessary to simultaneously attempt to comprehend the history of Ireland, particularly in the era that a known family member had lived there. Historical clues might suggest possible reasons for a family or individual’s emigration and even, perhaps, why they might have kept “a low profile” once they arrived in their newly adopted homeland. Maybe there was a good reason that one’s ancestors cannot be definitively found in a passenger-list database.

It is important to know that the earliest decades of Anglo settlement in America were vehemently anti-Catholic (the majority religion of the Irish people), and to recall that religion was the primary weapon used by the English monarchy against the Irish over the centuries. Those who sought their own freedom claimed territory that was already inhabited by Native Americans, a variation on Ireland’s own colonization. Colonial America was predominantly Puritan, as was Oliver Cromwell, who succeeded in devastating Ireland in the seventeenth century. Some members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans came into early Connecticut, which was predominantly Congregationalist, where a few other Protestant sects were also allowed in. Religion ruled the day for our earliest ancestors, whatever their persuasion.

The eventual overt entry of Irish Catholics into a very settled Connecticut society pre-Irish Famine and throughout the 1850s was no small thing. How this played out in all the different towns varied, particularly during the pre-Civil War era of the Know-Nothings. The earliest Irish Catholics, while bound and determined to establish and feel free to practice their religion in America, also likely tried to assimilate as quickly as possible and not make waves among the established ruling class. They sought to be considered Yankees, first and foremost. They often would seek to marry an American, which might help ensure future economic stability, as such alliances with Protestants, other non-native or Anglo-Irish residents had done in Ireland. That so many early Irish-Americans nonetheless died unmarried might have been partly attributed to their difficulty in finding an established or otherwise suitable spouse who was also Catholic or who was not still prejudiced against either the Irish or Catholicism.

Catholic laborers in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries had significantly less means in both Ireland and America than those with aforementioned ties, unless they had finally been able to become educated, enter the merchant, health care or teaching professions, or become part of the wave of Catholic middlemen—i.e. sub-leasing rent collectors. Those who were once noble had been stripped of their ancestral lands. Some sought, or were forced into military service in other countries. Some were able to rise into some level of public service, although information about such individuals is not as difficult to find. There are no bounds to the kinds of details that factored into the quality of life that Irish were able to lead both in their homeland and once they emigrated, particularly in their ability to acquire and retain property.

Many emigrated as outlaws, slaves, or indentured servants and began their American chapter in relative obscurity. Many who worked in the coal mines, quarries, laying railroad tracks, building roads and bridges, or other grueling physical jobs likely experienced life in conditions far worse than those which they had left in Ireland. Working extremely hard, earning very little money, many died quite young, some from the infectious illnesses that spread quickly through communities. (Tuberculosis appeared amid many of the families I have studied.) There may have been few or no records at all generated about many of the early Irish in America, especially if they lived and died here between the census years.

I’ve spent some time studying databases that contain indexes about Irish men and women who were considered convicts—even for such actions as stealing food during times of starvation. It could well be that someone’s elder siblings and/or parents were convicted of crimes, killed or deported, lost in such ways to the genealogical winds.

Whether we find what we need or not, in this collaborative endeavor, I, for one, am grateful for the wonderful people I’ve become involved with over the last seven years. Some have helped me learn to do this kind of research and others have been willing to share their families’ stories with me. All have helped to build a picture of early Irish New Haven County through our various perspectives and lenses, and I am bound now, in turn, to offer guidance to others. There will always be more to learn and to do in our time available, even as life pulls us in so many other directions. I have returned 180 degrees back to my studio practice, although I suspect that I will never entirely leave this research. It may simmer quietly on the back burner, so to speak, forever. I, however, am somehow altered due to what I have learned about my own lineage. For that grounding I will be forever grateful.

I have honed in on a particular area of Ireland and am interested in scouring that location in the way that I have New Haven County and the Naugatuck Valley. I am even more interested in revisiting my new-found Irish friends and meeting in person potential future ones. I have untangled some of the origins of Kilkenny-based Meagher families who have Connecticut connections, and even found Maher links to the original Sisters of Mercy in America and New Zealand. However, I can’t help but still hope to learn more about my TEN southern Irish immigrant direct ancestors with two intermarried other lines—not only all there is to learn about the illusive Meaghers!

May those who read this have much success in finding all you still seek and true Irish luck in also finding happiness and friendship along the way!

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Some Notable Mahers/Meaghers (and other spellings)

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Janet Maher in History, Mahers, Meaghers

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Ikerrin, Janet Maher, Joseph Casimir O'Meagher, Meaghers, Notable Mahers, O'Meagher, Saint Machar, Some Historical Notices of the O'Meaghers of Ikerrin, Thomas Francis Meagher

O’Meagher Coat of Arms from original 1890 text of Joseph Casmir O’Meagher’s Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, digitized and colorized, ©2006 Janet Maher

Like Mahers in the Early Wars, this entry reprints and greatly updates a portion of my 2006 website that is no longer available online. Six years ago there were not as many links to famous Mahers/Meaghers as there are today, particularly to that of Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher. Here I have also included some of the many references to individuals mentioned in “the Maher Bible”—Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, from which I’ve compiled some additional information, cited as SHN, along with page numbers. In some instances I have connected these references back to my own previous blog essays. In particular, I have made the discovery and connection here between the death of Very Reverend James Maher, of Carlow-Graigue, 1874, with my own tombstone transcriptions of Killinane Cemetery of a previous post. It also seems likely to me that contemporary Mahers of Kildare whose ancestry has remained in place near Kilcullen had likely been related to James Maher, below, of 1673. Indeed, O’Meagher’s book was one of the resources I used to plan our trip to Ireland last summer, scouting out particular places he mentioned!

A new friend, an American Maher who had his DNA tested, was surprised that his results seemed to lead his ancestry, confusingly, to Spain. I recalled both the early origins of Ireland, and J. C. O’Meagher’s notices of the many O’Meaghers who had been defeated in their efforts to defend their homeland in the seventeenth century and were forced to relocate abroad to serve in foreign armies. The result speaks to me, rather, of possible authenticity to a long ancestral line. Might he be a contemporary descendant of the ancient Mileasians that evolved into the Meachairs and other spellings of the surname that led to the Meaghers/Mahers? I found in Naugatuck some curious references to names that seemed foreign. Might they also have been quiet clues to ancient aspects of Meagher history or to earlier family members who numbered among the Wild Geese? Such mysteries, while worth considering, are likely unsolvable and unprovable.

[Since I was advised to include a photograph of myself in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Early Irish Catholics in New Haven, County, Connecticut, I have also taken the liberty of including my own web site, currently under re-construction, on this list. Note that, unlike this blog, my book is not all about Mahers, although information about Maher families and individuals of New Haven County, among other surnames, is contained there. It is of much broader interest regarding the topics of Irish history and the origins of Catholicism in Connecticut, but it would undoubtedly be of interest to Mahers and those with Irish ancestry in New Haven County, Connecticut, especially the Greater Waterbury Region and Naugatuck Valley.]

Selected Mahers, Meaghers, in time:

  • Calendar of Irish Saints, 7 September, feast day of daughter of Meachair (SHN, pg. 14)
  • Calendar of Irish Saints, 6 January, feast day of Dermod, son of Meachair, Bishop of Airthear-Maighe, Tuath-ratha (Toorah, Co. Fermanagh), (SHN, pg. 14)
  • Saint Machar, disciple of St. Columba, Archbishop of Tours; also called Mochumma and Mauritius (name given by Pope Gregory); founded Church/See of Aberdeen (formerly Ferryhill), Pictish Kingdom (Scotland), 1366, parish church of Old Machar, north of King’s College. Near the cathedral in 1890 stood St. Machar’s Cottage and Old Machar’s Poorhouse; also three instances of Machar’s Hough, near Kildrummie and Aberdeen (SHN, pp. 14, 25, 26)
  • The First Maher Website, Jack Wilson, 1996
  • Maher Island, Antarctica
  • Alice Maher, Irish artist
  • Anne Meagher, widow, of Cloyne Castle, forced in 1653 to transplant to Connaught at the end of the Confederacy war waged by the Puritans; seventy-five people accompanied her into exile (SHN, pp. 21, 40; see also pp. 95-101) Before the war, twenty-seven castles in the barony of Ikerrin were property of O’Meaghers. See my previous post, O’Meagher Castles.
  • Anthony O’Meagher, Parke, Co. Tipperary, “Titulados” [i.e. graduate, higher education] in Ikerrin, 1659 census. (SHN, pg. 134)
  • Ashley Maher, singer-songwriter, world music
  • Bill Maher, political humorist
  • Brendan Maher, writer, Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science
  • Daniel J. Meagher, of Roscrea, Tipperary (formerly Ikerrin Barony), Co. H, 5th NY, Valorous Firefighter
  • Danny Aloysius Maher, born Hartford, CT, 1881, Jockey, National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame
  • Ellen O’Meagher, daughter, sole heiress of John O’Meagher, chief, Clonakenny, wife of Dr. Gerard Ffennell, assigned her estates in Tipperary and Galway to Jasper Ffrende, 1671; died 1681, was buried in Holy Cross Abbey. (SHN, pg. 134)
  • Francis Meagher, 1798, “included in the ‘Banishment Act,’ with Thomas Addis Emmet, Lord Edward Firtzgerald,” and others. (SHN, pg. 141)
  • George Alfred Maher, champion figure skater, Canada
  • George Washington Maher, architect
  • Gillernew O’Meagher, 11 January 1571, received a pardon after fine.
  • Inghin, daughter of O’Meagher, King of Ikerrin, 1280, married to Seaffriadh Bacagh MacGilla Patraic, the Lame (SHN, pg. 14)
  • James Maher, Fine Art photography
  • Very Rev. James Maher, DD., 24 May 1792 – 2 April 1874, Parish Priest of Carlow-Graigue (and formerly, Leighlin Bridge and Paulstown), died 1792; “This eminent ecclesiastic…had for nigh half a century been a known and honored figure in the land;” spent many years in Rome; “it is no exaggeration to say, that even in the ranks of the Irish Priesthood, none whose lives have been cast in the same era with the late Father Maher will bear a more exalted example to their brethren and to posterity. In every movement to advance the liberties, the happiness and the well-being of Ireland, which has taken place within forty years, Father Maher occupied a prominent and distinguished position…A master of great dialectic skill…Blameless as a man, honored as a patriot, loved as a priest, his death is regretted far and wide throughout the country…” His nephew was Cardinal Cullen; biography written by his grand-nephew, Cardinal Moran. (SHN, pg. 139) See my previous post, Killinane Cemetery. Also see Prof. Donal McCarthy’s article about him, hosted on rootsweb.
  • James Maher, designed the public grounds, Washington, D.C. (SHN, pg. 182)
  • James Meagher, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, 1673, “commanded forthwith after sight to appear before His Majesty’s Secretary at Dublin Castle, to answer such matters as should be objected against him;” a warrant issued the following year for his failure to appear. (SHN, pg. 134) See my previous post about Old Kilcullen Graveyard.
  • James O’Meagher, Tipperary, Co. Tipperary, son of James O’Meagher and Catherine Lloyd, born 1805; ordained 15 August 1853, Cistercian Abbey of Mount Melleray; “extensive knowledge of medicine…He was a most exemplary man during his life, and after his death his Brethren regarded him as a saint…died of consumption, 8 May 1871.” (SHN, pg. 142)
  • Janet Maher, artist/author of this blog
  • Lieut./Capt. John Meagher, Grange, Co. Tipperary, thanked by King Charles II for his “services beyond the seas” during the Act of Settlement, 1660, restored to his property in Ikerrin; John O’Meagher, Grange, Co. Tipperary, Assessor of Taxes, 1689. In 1649 he, along with Thomas Maghery, Thomas O’Meagher (Ensign, Bagnell’s Foot; also a Thomas who was Capt., Mountcashel’s Reg.), Philip (Liet., Oxford’s Foot); and William O’Meagher, were among 49 officers to the King. They were associated with Donegal, Longford, and Wicklow. (SHN, pg. 55, 133, 134, 135)
  • Captain John Meagher, “notorious ringleader of the rogues,” taken by William Wolseley near Mullingar and hanged in Maryborough, 1690 (SHN, pg. 55)
  • Private John Maher, died 1916, France, Battle of the Somme
  • Keidagh/Keddaghe O’Meagher, Ikerrin, commanded rebel forces, 1599. Spanish help arrived in 1600 in Kinsale; Red Hugh O’Donnell, Hugh O’Neill (who camped at Roscrea and Templetouhy), the third son of Viscount Mountgarrett, some Graces, and Thomas Butler (related to Sir Edward Butler) with 200 additional men, came to his aid, joining his army of “300 rogues.” (SHN, pp. 19, 54)
  • Maher Sanctuary, Barry County, Michigan
  • King Malachy of Erinn, 1012 A.D., defeated in war with the Danes in, Drinan, Co. Dublin, along with his son, Flann, and Lorcan, son of the King of Cinel Meachair
  • Mary T. Meagher Plant, “Madame Butterfly,” Kentucky, Olympic swimmer, three gold medals, 1984, bronze, 1988
  • Matt Maher, Christian singer-songwriter
  • A. Michael Maher essay, The Six Napoleons member, Sherlock Holmes club
  • Michael Maher, executive producer, film, Ondine
  • Miranda Maher, American artist
  • Molly Maher and Her Band of Disbelievers, alt-folk rock, Minneapolis/St. Paul
  • Meagher County, Montana (USGenWeb Project)
  • “Release of Mrs. Meagher,” Ballingarry, Clonmel Nationalist, May 9, 1891
  • Mechair, son of Conla, Meachair, son of Forat, baptized by Saint Patrick in Muscraighethire, 470 A.D. (SHN, pp. 14, 130)
  • See my previous post, The Mahers of Kilkenny
  • “The Mighty Meaghers” in Irish America
  • Patrick Maher, Middletown (buried in St. John’s Cemetery), served in the Revolutionary War, 3rd Regiment, the Connecticut Line, from 1777; also James Maher, Hartford, same unit; Burr Maher, served in Hartford State Militia; Joseph Maher served in New London. (SHN, pg. 157)
  • Father Patrick Meagher, S. J., Waterford, brother of Thomas Meagher, mayor and member of Parliament, uncle of Thomas Francis Meagher, Brigadier- General. Served in Dublin; “his eloquent sermons, which he prepared with great care and which were remarkable for their polished language, drew crowded congregations, wherein might always be counted many literary men.” (SHN, pg. 142)
  • Major Patrick Maher, American Civil War; see my post, Mahers in the Early Wars; he is also included in a vignette in my book.
  • Very Reverend Philip Meagher, “Master of the Faculty of Divinity, Paris, Treasurer, Diocese of Cashel and Emly, Parish Priest, Fethard.” In 1738 certified the degree of John Stapleton. “There is a tradition in Fethard that one of the O’Meaghers of Drangan was a distinguished member of the Irish College in Paris.” (SHN, pp. 136, 137)
  • O’Maghers, etc., inhabiting the territory of Ikerrin, “fit for plantation” by English, 1620 (SHN, pg. 90)
  • O’Maugher, listed among those Irishmen against whom gallowglass were hired to fight at the border of the English Pale (Dublin), 1560 (SHN, pp.51, 52)
  • O’Meagher, Chief of Ikerrin, and his wife, Honoria, died, 1424 (SHN, pg. 49)
  • “O’Meagher, Meagher and Maher – and their dispersal in Tipperary,” William J. Hayes (Tipperary Historical Journal, 1993, excerpts)
  • O’Meagher of Ikerryn, listed as one of the chief Irish of Ireland in 1549 report, “What Ireland is and how much,” (SHN, pg. 51)
  • The O’Meagher, of Bawnmadrum Castle, Ikerrin (Bourney Parish, included Knockballymeagher), hosted bard Angus O’Daly in 1617. The poet had distained the Irish chieftains throughout the provinces, and at this castle, after satirizing this chieftain was stabbed by a servant. As he died he composed: “All the false judgements that I have passed / Upon the chiefs of Munster I forgive; / The meagre servant of the grey O’Meagher has / passed an equivalent judgement upon me.” (SHN, pp. 19, 20)
  • O’Meaghers in the army of King James, 1689: John Meagher, Sarfield’s Horse; Cornelius, Brian, Edmund O’Meagher, Purcell’s Horse; Daniel O’Meagher, Butler’s Foot; John, Edmund, Thomas O’Meagher, Bagenal’s Foot; Philip O’Meagher, Oxburg’s Foot; Thomas O’Meagher, Mountcashel’s Foot. (SHN, pg. 21)
  • O’Meaghers who had participated in the Jacobite war in support of King James served after their defeat and emigration in: France (Bulkeley, Clare, Galmoy, Lee regiments); Spain (Hibernia, Irlanda, Wauchop, Waterford regiments); Prussia (Von Derfinger’s Dragoons, and garrison of Custrin). FRANCE: Regiment Irlandois de Galmoy (1689): Edmond O’Meagher, Lieutenant, an invalid in 1706; another lieutenant listed in 1707; Regiment Irlandois de Lee (1683), Mountcashel’s Regiment; called Regiment Irlandois de Bulkeley 1734-1775, then incorporated with Regiment Irlandois de Dillon, after 1793 regiments were named rather than numbered: Le Major O’Meagher, and another, Le Capitaine Patrice O’Meagher (1741); Regiment Irlandois de Clare (1689), Regiment Fitzgerald (1763), Regiment de Meade (1770), incorporated with Regiment de Berwick (1774): Le Captaine Phillipe O’Meagher (1755-1764). SPAIN: Regimento de Infanteria de Waterford (1653): Don Guillermo Meagher (transferred from French regiment Berwick); Don Juan Meagher, Lieutenant-colonel reformado (1710); Don Bernardo Meagher, Lieutenant (1722); Regimento de Infanteria de Irlanda (swordsmen who had been defeated at decison of Limerick, 1691): Don Guillermo O’Meagher (1709-1725, graduated from sergeant to captain); Don Miguel O’Meagher (born 1767, graduated from cadet, 1781, to Lieutenant-Colonel of Grenadiers, 1803); 1715 transferring from French service to Regimento de Infanteria de Wauchop and Regiment de Conacia: Don Thomas Meagher, and Don Guillermo Meagher (born 1663), transferred into this regiment 1711 after eighteen years in France, Lieutenant (1715), then Captain (1725). POLAND/SAXONY: Thadée de Meagher, Lieutenant-General and Colonel Proprietor of the Swiss Guard, Poland/Saxony (1734, had previously served in France, born 1670), Chamberlain to the King; negotiated treaty of neutrality with Frederick the Great, Seven Year’s War. (SHN, pp 21, 22, 40-44.)
  • O’Meaghers ordered to transplant to lessor lands, forfeiting their homes in 1653: An O’Machar, Cloyne, Tipperary; Edmund O’Meagher, Cloughrale, Tipperary; John O’Meagher, Ann O’Meagher, Clonkenny Castle; Edmund O’Meagher, Cloghrale; Honoria Ny Meagher, Limerick City; Donogh O’Meagher, Barnane; Daniel O’Meagher, Thomas Meagher, Polinstown; Juan Meagher, Killawardy, Tipperary; Thomas O’Meagher, Lorhane/Louraine, Tipperary; Teige Meagher, Killduffe, Tipperary; Owny Meagher, Parke, Tipperary; Teige Meagher, Gortenane, Tipperary; David Meagher; Cornelius O’Meagher, “Innocent,” Thady, Esq., Drangan, “outlawed.” (SHN, pp. 92, 93, 133, 134; also see forfeitures, 95-101)
  • O’Meaghry de Ikery, chyef capytaine of his nation, 1514, listed in the Kings’ report among the Irish kingdoms recommended for suppression (pg. 49, 50)
  • Ownia/Winifrede, daughter of O’Meagher of Templemore (Ikerrin), early 1600s, married Hervé de Monte Marisco (with special dispensation) and he became the lord of Ikerrin. (SHN, pg. 27) [See more about this in my book.]
  • Shane Begge O’Meagher, Roscrea, apprehended by Piers Butler (Fitzedmond), hanged  as a traitor in Kilkenny, 1589
  • Dr. Stephen J. Maher, tuberculosis specialist, New Haven, CT
  • Tadhg O’Meachair, commander of the Kerns of Munster, 1401, at a battle that Art, King of Munster, initiated against the foreigners, the Danes in Dublin. Poet Gilla-na-naomh O’Huidrin (father of Tadhg) wrote,” Mightily have they filled the land,/ The O’Meachairs, the territory of Ui Cairin,/ A tribe at the foot of the Bearnan Eile; / It is no shame to celebrate their triumph.” (SNH, pg. 15, 16)
  • Teige O’Meagher, Chief of Ikerrin, died, 1462
  • Teige-oge O’Meagher (married to a Butler, but no children, son and heir to the O’Meagher of Clonykenny Castle), raised a regiment for O’Dwyer’s Irish Confederates Brigade called  O’Dwyer’s Foot for the Irish Civil War of 1641. The Brigade surrendered on 23 March 1652 and Brigadier O’Dwyer was allowed to leave the country with 3,500 soldiers to serve abroad, but O’Meagher, Theobald Butler and others were executed. Joseph Casimir O’Meagher believed that Teige-oge was been found guilty of uttering “traitorous or disloyal words or speeches.” In 1642 he led 1500 men, with Purcell, O’Dwyer, and others “with [colors] flying,” to block the entrance to Cashel Castle [likely in defense of the castle, see William, Coolagh, below].  (SHN, pg. 20, 21, 39, 133)
  • [Note: Tadg/Tadhg has been Anglicized as Teague, Teige/Teigue or Tim, meaning  storyteller, poet or philosopher; Teige-oge would likely have referred to “young” Teige, who would have had a father by the same name. Thadeus/Thaddeus may have been an equivalent of Timothy.]
  • The Blessed Thaddeus, 1490, appointed Bishop of Cork and Coyne (his birthplace); died of exhaustion in 1492 on his way to Rome. “A great light glreaming on the bed” at his death, “a light that did not burn.” (SHN, pg. 16, 17)
  • Thadeus O’Meagher, of Ballydine, and Anastasia Purtil, buried in Augustinian Abbey, Fethard, Tipperary, 1600; also mentioned there: John O’Meagher, who restored the abbey, his only daughter, his son, Daniel Costello O’Meagher, and his son, Rev. John O’Meagher, curate of Templemore. (SNH, pg. 53)
  • Thadeus O’Meagher, member of Parliament for Callen, Co. Kilkenny, 1689  (SHN, pg. 55)
  • Thadeus Gankagh O’Meagher, of Drunsaileach, near Roscrea, buried 19 Dec. 1627 in tomb at Dangan (SHN, pg. 55)
  • Thaddeus O’Meagher, 1798, “enlisted in the 7th Fusileers so as to avoid the consequences of a ‘fracas’ in which he had taken part, when he sided with the people against a Yeomanry Corps, drawn up at College Green.” A long military career, died 1820.
  • Theodore de Meagher, Maréchal de Campo in 1660, served under the Prince of Condé, Spanish Netherlands, having been allowed to emigrate after the failure of the Irish Civil War, 1652. (SHN, pg. 21)
  • Thomas Meagher, 1680, high sheriff of Limerick, son of Thomas Meagher, surgeon. (SHN, pg. 134)
  • Thomas O’Meagher, Fethard, son of Thomas Mor, 1841, “was at the height of his fame as a classical teacher at this period. Both father and son were noted for their scholarly attainments, in the ancient classics, modern languages, and for rigid discipline.” Along with the school of Thomas Walsh, nearby, in Killenaule, students came from all over to study with them for the priesthood. “They were boarded and lodged free in the villages, towns, and county adjacent, and many of them wee afterwards distinguished in Carlow, Thurles, Maynooth, and Trinity Colleges; the medical schools in Cork, Belfast, and Dublin; in the Sorbonne, Louvain, and Rome.” (SHN, pg. 151)
  • Thomas Meagher, 1796 -1874 (father of the Brigadier General),  born near Waterford; his wealthy father, a sea merchant, owned an estate and seven ships, trading with Newfoundland; he was the first mayor of Waterford, re-elected (1844-46); member of Parliament, 1847-1857; philanthropist; his wife was Miss Quan, daughter also of an established merchant; their children: Thomas Francis (below), Henry (J.P. Lieutenant-Colonel Waterford Artillery, lived in Kingstown, IRE), Mary Agnes, a nun (Taunton Convent, England). He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
  • Thomas Francis Meagher, 1823- 1887, Brigadier General, American Civil War, leader of the 69th New York Irish Brigade; Secretary and Acting Governor, Montana; LINKS/IMAGES: Brigadier-General: his political and military career with selections from his speeches and writings, by W.F. Lyons;  Monument at Antitam Battlefield, Civil War Ballad,   Meagher Is Leading the Irish Brigade; article by Rick Steves, The Amazing Life of Waterford’s Favorite Son; Wilson’s Almanac on Thomas Meagher and Young Ireland; Meagher County, Montana, 1895 U.S. Atlas; Lithograph, Meagher At The Battle of Fair Oaks, VA, June 1, 1862; Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY, grave site of Mrs. Thomas Franicis Meagher, Elizabeth Townsend Meagher – requests being made for donations for a monument for Thomas; Stone at Green-Wood Cemetery; Christmas Ornament issued by Capital Restoration Foundation, Helena, MT; The American Civil War Photo Gallery; Neihart, Meagher County, MT, Butte-Silver Bow Public Library image; Thomas Francis Meagher: the making of an Irish American, by John M. Hearne and Rory T. Cornish; The Irish General: Thomas Francis Meagher, by Paul R. Wylie; The Irish Orators, A History of Ireland’s Fight For Freedom, by Claude G. Bowers (pp. 323-372); Statue outside of Montana state capitol, Webzine, Ann Telling, editor; Transcription of a letter from Prof. Paul Chrisler Phillips research file, Mansfield Library, Montana; Trial of the Irish Patriots at Clonmel; Currier and Ives image, General Meagher at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Springfield Museums Collection, MA; Craig Lancaster, blog entry visit to Fort Benton, MT, T.F. Meagher bust and plaque; William Smith O’Brien and Thomas Meagher prison record, 1823, “serious treasonable practice,” on Find My Past; “Meagher of the Sword,” “The Antebellum Era,” “The Sword Speech,” The Wild Geese Today; “The Wild Geese (The Fighting Irish), Thomas F. Meagher,” John Mooney website; The Irish in the Civil War, Meagher section, Ohio Civil War 150.
  • Tibinia, daughter of O’Meagher, Ikerrin, married on 23 December 1385 (with special dispensation at a time when Irish were not allowed to marry English) Sir Almaric Grace, “for the better preservation and improvement of the peace of the country.” (SHN, pg. 15)
  • Sgt. William John Meagher, Medal of Honor, Arlington Cemetery
  • William Maher, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, 1849, County Coroner. (SHN, pg. 151)
  • William Meagher, Windgap, Co. Kilkenny, “deprived of a handsome pension conferred for his distinguished service, because of his adhesion to the national cause.” (SHN, pg. 151)
  • William Meagher, Coolagh, Co. Tipperary (after travels throughout Munster collecting Fenian lore, resided in Killamory); Irish bard, antiquary, linguist; “acquired the reputation of being the best Irish scholar of the day in that part of Ireland;” Mr. O’Neill published a large collection of his Ossianic poems; “Meagher also composed an Irish song on the occasion of the marriage of John, 17th Earl of Ormonde, brother of the Most Rev. Christopher Butler, Bishop of Cashel.” (SHN, pg. 137)

(Information about purchasing my book is here. I will give a talk and do a signing at the Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut, on October 25.)

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

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