Hello. Your narrative made me feel as if I was following your relatives, so nice to read about them. I remember reading somewhere in my genealogy work that Catholic marriages were discouraged at one point in Ireland if not illegal. Perhaps the reason your ancestors had such an odd history to their marriage was for this reason. I apologize for not remembering exactly but I've been through so much researching my own family some of it is a blur now. The eldest son of a family was said to have registered as Protestant in order to inherit land as well when they were actually Catholic. Again, my apologies for not being able to give you a reference. Kathleen\ ---- [email protected] wrote: > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. McCarroll - Gaffigan marriage (jim at syracuse) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:13:08 -0600 > From: "jim at syracuse" <[email protected]> > Subject: [IRL-CAVAN] McCarroll - Gaffigan marriage > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > McCARROLL – GAFFIGAN Marriage. > > AGNES BRIDGET GAFFIGAN was born and lived in San Francisco before she came to Ireland to marry my grandfather MICHAEL JOSEPH McCARROLL (sometimes aka Carroll) of the Donacavey and Clogher Parishes, County Tyrone. They had met in San Francisco after Michael joined his two brothers. > > Agnes B. left for Ireland when she reached majority, but we do not know if she accompanied Mickey McCarroll on that journey. Instead of being married in the Fintona area, where his family lived and he chose to settle as a publican/merchant (after residing in Omagh at least until 1914), they were wed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dundalk, County Louth. We don't even know if they traveled together, or where in Ireland they had landed, or even where they stayed before they left for County Tyrone to raise their family. > > We have no idea if marriage banns were published, but at that time there must have been. > > I was wondering about if it would be possible to see if some kind of note was placed in St. Patrick's Cathedral's records about their marriage which that took place 25 June 1912. (I do have the marriage record, but nothing else.) > > Mickey became a publican/auctioneer/seller of shoes and coffins at their public house on Main Street in Fintona (the pub owned by the late Mr. Francis McAtee). > > Michael and Agnes had a number of children, including my father: MICHAEL JOSEPH, b. 25 March 1914 in Omagh; PATRICK EUGENE, b. 1915, who passed away after three days; MARY CATHERINE (who became Maura when she migrated to the USA), 1917 and passed away in 2004; THOMAS LEO, b. 1918; BERNADETTE ANTHONY, b. 1919; and, KEVIN BARRY, b. 1921. All of these siblings had returned to the States in 1924 with their mother, after the passing of Michael Joseph McCarroll. > > Michael Joseph Carroll Sr. had left for California in 1887, aboard the Etruria, to join his brothers in San Francisco: THOMAS and PATRICK, who had become USA citizens. In 1904 Mickey also gained US citizenship. After sometime in the Bay Area he returned to Fintona and began a family in 1912. There is some speculation that he was ill in California and returned to Ireland because of that reason, but he had recovered from whatever the illness may have been. > > You know, this has been a mystery to me (and perhaps a mystery to others in my family) but it does seem quite funny. The two of them went to Dundalk to get married, before the partition so that was not the reason. Dundalk would seem to be half way point to Dublin, but then why would they land, or at least, she would land there from the States? It would seem more likely that they would come ashore at Moville. In those days marriage was fairly strictly regulated for the Catholics and while both were of the age; why not Armagh and its cathedral if they did not want to get married in Fintona? > > I just thought that there might, and I emphasize the "might," be something in those Cathedral records regarding the marriage of the "Yank" and his lady. Or, someone may have knowledge that would fill in the voids. As they say, "Nothing ventured, Nothing gained." > > > > [email protected] > > ------------------------------ > > To contact the IRL-CAVAN list administrator, send an email to > [email protected] > > To post a message to the IRL-CAVAN mailing list, send an email to [email protected] > > __________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] > with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the > email with no additional text. > > > End of IRL-CAVAN Digest, Vol 2, Issue 84 > ****************************************

If you have never read "the Princes of Ireland", and the sequel "The Rebels of Ireland", by Edward Rutherford, you will probably enjoy them for the history. Although I thought I was somewhat familiar with Irish history, it sure is a much more tangled web than I realized. Reading the second book, especially, is giving me insight into my Cavan ancestors, the spinning wheels and some other areas of interest. Although this author gets kind of 'the same' if you read many of his books, it makes the history understandable. In these two he follows about five families from Ireland's beginnings, through many generations--so he has a Viking family, an English one, etc., all of them Irish, but from such different backgrounds and beliefs. Nancy ----- Original Message ----- > I remember reading somewhere in my genealogy work that Catholic marriages > were discouraged at one point in Ireland if not illegal. Perhaps the > reason your ancestors had such an odd history to their marriage was for > this reason. I apologize for not remembering exactly but I've been > through so much researching my own family some of it is a blur now. The > eldest son of a family was said to have registered as Protestant in order > to inherit land as well when they were actually Catholic. > > Again, my apologies for not being able to give you a reference. > Kathleen\