Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Dr. Albert Eugene Casey's Blackwater Irish in Ontario

When my brother, sister and I searched for our Moynahan roots in Ireland in 2019, the Kerry locals directed us to the Sliabh Luachra area on the Cork/Kerry border. "That's where the Moynahans are" said the owner of O'Carrolls Cove Restaurant (Kenmare Bay) and sure enough, we found three cemeteries and many, many Moynihan's/Moynahans there.

See blog post "Try Where the Old Chapel Was at Freemount” .

I researched the Sliabh Luachra area and learned that this area was also the ancestral grounds for a Dr. Albert E. Casey (1903-1982), an Alabama pathologist, who collected Irish records from this area obsessively through the 1900s and published them in a 16 volume collection called, "O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and the Upper Blackwater"

Fast forward to October 2020, the Essex Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society invited the Olde Sandwich South and Area Historical Society (OSSAHS) to give a presentation for their October 2020 meeting and I learned that some other Irish settlers in Sandwich South (Ontario) were from the same Blackwater area in Ireland as well!. 

Source:"Casey Aid" by Michael Patin http://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlker/pdf/caseyaid.pdf

OSSAHS member Judy Robson gave a wonderful presentation on the early Irish settlers in Sandwich South, Ontario (at 16:41). Judy is a retired school teacher (and a 5th generation descendant living on the same land originally granted to her ancestors) and she reported that her Downey/Downing ancestors were from the Blackwater area in county Kerry and had emigrated to Essex county, Ontario through Pennsylvania in the same time frame as my Moynahan ancestors. 

This inspired me to revisit Dr. Albert Casey, the Blackwater area in Ireland and the Kerry Irish of Maidstone, Ontario.

Dr. Albert E. Casey (1903-1982)
 
Clipped from
The Press Democrat
Santa Rosa, California
 18 Mar 1973, Sun  •  Page 94
 

Irish author and genealogist John Grenham wrote, "Three cheers for the weirdo obsessives" and he was affectionately referring to Dr. Albert Eugene Casey.

Dr. Casey collected, recorded, and transcribed every record that he could find in the Sliabh Luachra area resulting in 30,000 pages and  3,000,000 personal names (indexed in each volume) in the 16 volumes pictured above. John Grenham added, 

"If you know the area, you might understand Casey’s intense fascination – it is an extraordinary place, saturated in traditional Irish music, song, dance, poetry, and culture.  Sliabh Luachra people are different, and if you had some in your ancestry, you’d want to know more too" (John Grenham)

I do want to know more! This hard-to-find collection most likely holds information about many of my ancestors from the area as well as a good number of Irish families in Maidstone, Ontario like Judy Robson's "Downey/Downing" ancestors.

Because Dr. Casey was a pathologist, he noted that the Irish folk from the Sliabh Luachra area had a longer lifespan than average. He found a correlation between hard work and longevity and determined that "natives of an upland bog area in southern Ireland ... attained a world-record average life-span of 77 years."

The Press Democrat
Santa Rosa, California
 18 Mar 1973, Sun  •  Page 94

If I could get my hands on a copy of Casey's "O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and the Upper Blackwater" I would begin by consulting the comprehensive "Casey Aid" by Michael Patin http://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlker/pdf/caseyaid.pdf

Although dated (the "Casey Aid" was reprinted from The Irish Genealogical Quarterly, March, 2001 Vol. 10, No.1, Irish Genealogical Society of Wisconsin) it provides a real sense of what can be found in the volumes, how it is organized and even suggestions on several research approaches (General browsing and locality research; seeking ancestral names in a specific locale; and seeking ancestral names in an unknown locale)

My Moynahan kin are found in  O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Volume1, Surnames Index http://www.igp-web.com/Kerry/casey1surnames.html


The Blackwater Irish

The video below from the Cork Genealogical Society from the 9th of March 2017, features Lorna Maloney speaking about "O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and the Upper Blackwater in Ireland"  (Note: sound is poor in parts) https://youtu.be/DKxS7ob3OS0

The Blackwater Irish in Ontario 

In the October 2020 Essex OGS presentation, Judy Robson highlighted the rural disturbances in the 1820s, particulary the Rockite movement in the south of Ireland which constituted one of the most extensive and serious rural disturbances in Ireland before the Famine.

Britain set a plan where they hoped to

  1. Clear Ireland of rebellious Irish Catholics 
  2. Colonize Upper Canada by enticing Irish Catholics to emigrate.

Many, like my ancestors, accepted. The Irish emigrants either went directly to Canada or else they landed in the United States and made their way to Canada.


Judy explained that Col. Thomas Talbot, Land Agent for Essex county (Ontario) granted land to her ancestors Dennis Downey/Downing (Lot 302) and James Houlihan along Talbot Road as shown on a county map of 1824 (below).

"In 1823 along with other young Irish men from the district, Dennis Downing took the grueling trip across the Atlantic, arriving in Philadelphia first, and then making his way to Detroit and then the Walkerville area. His name appears on Col. Talbot's 1824 map at Lot 302 on the Talbot Rd."

Screen Capture of Essex OGS Pesentation

 
My 4th great grandfather Matthew Moynahan (1770-1860) was located by Col. Talbot near the Downing farm at 296 on the Talbot Rd. (See my blog post: Talbot Settlement and Survey Maps 1793-1849 Online! )
 
 
Many of the names written in on this map are from the Blackwater area of Kerry, Ireland. These names also appear on the Maidstone Celtic Cross.

The Maidstone Celtic Cross

On July 23rd, 2000, a mass was held at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Maidstone, Essex County, Ontario for the blessing and dedication of a Celtic Cross in the attached cemetery. The cross is engraved with the names of 159 surnames of Irish families, the first settlers of the area. (The names were taken from church records dated 1846-1910)

Dr Albert E Casey (1903-1982) would be happy to know that "Casey" is one of the names on the stone.


The Windsor Star
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
 21 Jul 2000, Fri  •  Page 5

Names Appearing on the Maidstone Celtic Cross

ALLEN, AUSTIN, BARRETT, BARRY, BATTERSBY, BEAHAN, BRADY, BRAZILL, BRENNAN, BRODERICK, BROWN, BURKE, BUTLER, BRYNEE, CAHILL, CARROLL, CASEY, CHITTLE, CLANCY, COLE, COLLINS, CONNELLY, CONROY, CONWAY, COSTIGAN, CRONIN, CUNNINGHAM,CURNEYN, DALY, DANIBER, DAUGHTERY, DAWSON, DEEHAN, DELANEY, DENNISON, DEVLIN, DILLON, DIXON, DOLAN, DONAGHUE, DONNELLY, DONOVAN, DOOLEY, DORAN, DOWNING,DOYLE,DRISCOLL, DUNN, FAHEY, FALLON, FARRELL, FERRY, FIELDS, FITZGERALD, FITZPATRICK, FLANAGAN, FLANNERY, FURLONG, GALLAGHER, GAUGHAN, GEARY, GRAHAM, GRANT, GREEN, GREENAWAY, HALEY, HALFORD, HAMILTON, HAUGH, HAYES, HEALY, HENCHEY, HENNESSEY, HENRY, HICKEY, HIGGINS, HOGAN, HOULIBAN, HUGHES, HURLEY, JONES, KANE, KAVANAGH, KEANE, KEATING, KELLY, KENNY, KILROY, KIRBY, LANE, LARKIN, LAVIN, LENNON, LYNCH, LYONS, MAHER, MAHON, MAHONEY, MARKHAM,MARTIN, McAULIFFE, McCANN, McCARTHY, McCLOSKEY, McCOY, McDONALD, McGUIGAN, McGUIRE, McHUGH, McINTYRE, McKEON, McLAUGHLIN, McLEAN, McMAHON, McNALLY, McNAMARA, McPHARLIN, MITCHEL, MOONEY, MORAN, MORTIN, MOYNAHAN, MULLINS,MURPHY, NANGLE, NOLAN, O'BRIEN, O'CALLAGHAN, O'CONNELL, O'CONNOR, O'DONNELL, O'FLYNN, O'GORMAN, O'HALLORAN, O'KEEFE, O'NEIL, O'RILEY, O'SULLIVAN, POWERS, QUINLAN, REYNOLDS, ROBINSON, RUDDEN, RYAN, SAVAGE, SCULLEY, SEXTON, SHANAHAN, SHEEHAN, SHEENAN, SHERIDAN, SLATTERY, SMITH, SMYTHE, SWEENY, TIERNAN, TWOMEY, WALSH, WARD


The best account of the Moynahan journey from Ireland to Maidstone, Ontario is that of Timothy Moynahan (1813-1902) that appeared in the Detroit Free Press (November 25, 1900). 

I originally learned of the newspaper article accidentally while researching the PalmerScrapbooks (219) of the Burton Historical Collections at the DetroitPublic Library in the 1980s.

I have broken the newspaper article into five parts. Click on each title to visit a new page.

  1. Timothy Moynahan the Kerryman 
    "Should you ask anyone in Windsor – that is any person that is at all acquainted with the town and its inhabitants, for the address of Hon. Timothy Moynahan, you will be directed to a modest little home out on a quiet by-street that has the environment and atmosphere suited to old age and reminiscence. There, seated on a glowing hearthstone, you will find a hale, cheerful old man, with a broad honest face and a wealth of snow-white hair. He has a bit of the brogue – just enough of the rippling dialect of the Kerryman to make the most commonplace expressions entertaining – and his memory is as fertile as the green fields of his native soil.
  2.  From The Old Sod 
    "To begin at the beginning, I was born in Count Kerry eighty seven years ago and came over when I was nine years of age, my folks settling in Pennsylvania where we lived three years before coming to Windsor. The Thomas of Cork, Captain Bamfield , master, was the ship upon which we sailed. She was an old war remnant, as slow as molasses in January and the trip occupied six weeks and three days.""
  3. The Day Of The HorseBoats  "Well I landed in Windsor in 1829, when it was nothing but a big cornfield. I crossed the river in a horse ferry, which was the means of transportation between Detroit and Windsor in those days. The horses propelled the boat in treadmill fashion being enclosed at the sides. Bessie was the name of one of the horses, and I can remembers as if it was yesterday how promptly she would stop when the boy shouted "Whoa, Bessie!".
  4. The "Shillelagh Guards"  "When the so-called patriots invaded the land in 1837 and the call to arms was issued, about 700 as daring and adventure loving young fellows as ever charged an enemy, grabbed their guns and went on the warpath."
  5. Timothy's kin? "When Timothy was asked about his kin, a shadow passed over the old man's cheerful countenance. "All dead", he sadly replied "All gone now. There were five brothers and three sisters and they have all passed before me.

O'Kief, Coshe Mang Links

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3 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 25, 2020 at 4:14 AM

    I find this further research to be very interesting. I have only read it over once and will be rereading it a few timens

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CindiOctober 25, 2020 at 4:22 AM

      Thank you for taking the time to comment on this blog post. I do hope you find it helpful.

      Delete
    2. UnknownNovember 8, 2020 at 8:51 PM

      Thank you for the added information. I was always interested as to why the young men of this beautiful area of Ireland would want to venture to the hard live offered in Upper Canada? Now we have some idea as to why.

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