The Walsh's of Cushina (1)

Yesterday, my nephew and I went in search of our Walsh ancestors from Cushina. My impromptu adventure with Oisin was entirely opportunistic and boiled down to one simple and undeniable fact - I happened to find myself in Laois. As you do. And knowing that I had ancestors who had lived relatively nearby, I decided to take a chance and go and look for them. Simple as that.

Ford's Model T

We had spent the day at the Annual Stradbally Steam Rally with Oisin's dad Philip, brother Luka, and Jose and Maria, a couple visiting from Spain with their two children, Noah and Rodrigo. Fabulous steam-driven engines paraded around the paddock, intermittently emanating horrendous screeching whistles, accompanied by emphysema-inducing billows of  dark fuming smoke. There was a vintage car rally with vehicles varying from Ford's Model T to something out of The Dukes of Hazzard. And the dodgems. And the Bouncy Castle. And the Port-A-Loos. All the Fun of the Fair. The Tractor Pulling Competition was my favourite (I'm not sure if it was a competition or a demonstration - no one seemed to be winning) and I would definitely go back again to see that alone! After the fair ended (or rather, after it was abundantly clear that certain children - who shall remain nameless - had had more than enough and were only minutes away from disembowelling each other), Oisin and I broke away from the main group and headed north from Stradbally to Portarlington and from there on to Cushina. In so doing we managed to divide and conquer, effectively averting World War III in Philip's car on the way home. Phew!

Cushina is in county Offaly (King's County of old) but lies within 1 kilometre of Co. Kildare (which is to the southeast) and 2 km of Co. Laois (ex-Queen's County, which lies due south of it). Townlands and various other geopolitical divisions can span all these county lines, potentially creating problems when trying to isolate in which particular division one's elusive ancestors resided.

The Walsh's had moved to Cushina some time around 1860. They don't appear in Griffiths Valuation (which for Cushina was published in 1853), so in order to locate their homestead we had to rely on the 1901 and 1911 census entries and work backwards using the Cancelled Books from the Valuation Office. I'll speak more of these in a subsequent post. So one goal for the trip was to try to locate the ancestral homestead.

James Walsh was the pater familias. He married Ellen McEvoy on 1st Feb 1861 in the district of Stradbally in Co. Laois. Their first child was born in Cushina in 1864, as were their subsequent children. The farm passed to their son Garrett and from him to his daughters, Eileen and Mary, who eventually sold the land to Bord na Mona.

With a common name like Walsh, and the lack of distinguishing forenames, it has not been possible to pinpoint the likely death records for James and Ellen using the Civil Registration Death indices. Garrett however (having a relatively rare forename) has been tracked down to 1937. I'm assuming that he was buried somewhere near Cushina, and that there may be a family plot and that his parents James and Ellen are possibly buried in the same place. That being the case, a gravestone (should one exist) would potentially offer additional information that would help us expand an important part of the Walsh family tree. In short, find Garrett, and we'll probably find his parents, and possibly a whole lot more. So, goal number two for the trip was to find the family grave.

One of the advantages of actually visiting where your ancestors lived and simply driving around the place, is that you can screech to a halt, slam the car into reverse, and waylay locals who are painting their gates.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the Walsh's lived?"

"Oh, there's some just down the road a bit."

"I'm talking about 50 years ago or so?"

"Oh ... hmmm (long pause) ... hmmm (longer pause) ... hmmm (will it never end?) ..."

"So you don't know?"

"No."

"Well thanks anyway. Good luck with the gate."

Bracknagh cemetery

But we did get directions to the local graveyard. About 2 miles east, in Bracknagh. The gaelic version of the name is Breachanach, which is probably related to Breathnach, which is the gaelic version of the surname Walsh. So we are definitely in Walsh country here. We toured the graveyard, well kept by the local community with obvious pride, and found one Walsh but not one of ours. A dead end. A nice lady suggested we try the cemetery in Walsh Island, and if they weren't there, she said, "they're probably in Portarlington".

Back into the car, back in the direction from whence we came, past the painted gate, right turn onto Pike Road, and no further than 500 yards down the road than we spy another local. Slam, reverse, waylay.

"You wouldn't know where Garrett Walsh used to live, by any chance?"

"Sure. That house right there. I remember my father taking me to see him as a child."

And there it was. Down the road about 300 yards. You could see the farm buildings above the trees. We chatted for a few minutes with this local gent (who must have been close to 80), thanked him profusely for his help, wished him good luck with his gate (yes, he was painting it too), and headed up the road.

There is no substitute for local knowledge. And the older the person, the more the knowledge. I usually end up stalking old-looking people on my trips. I follow them into shops, or "accidentally" bump into them in graveyards. Any excuse to strike up a conversation. A conversation that always ends with "have you seen my ancestor?"

And more often than not they have! 

Walsh Family Homestead

Rounding a slight bend, a hedge and trees obscuring our line of sight, the Walsh family homestead emerged into view. A simple, but rather long, one-storey cottage. With a porch. And a large front garden. Unadorned and rather plain. In fact, it looked like two cottages joined together. It may have been a single cottage to start with and had the equivalent of another one added later. The Cancelled Book records may throw some light on this. And behind it, the farm buildings. Large barns and storage sheds with corrugated rooves.

Opposite the house, two white horses stood by a gate, bemused. And beside them, a railway track and a level crossing. But no ordinary railway track. This one was much smaller and a sign on the gate indicated that it was owned by Bord na Mona. This was the railway that transported the turf and the peat from the bogs that surrounded the area. Whether it was still in use or not was difficult to say. It looked like it hadn't been used in a while.

Two of the great things about the street view feature on Google Maps is that you can take a pre-emptive virtual trip before undertaking a real one, and you can retrace your steps afterwards. Travelling virtually back along our route that night when I got home, it was easy to recognise the houses along the road, the places we had stopped to ask for directions, and the Walsh homestead itself. Switching to satellite view, the railway track beside the farm was plainly visible, and the house itself easily identifiable. Another important landmark revealed by the satellite photo was the River Cushina which ran in a broad quarter-circle to the north of the property. This will prove invaluable when comparing the present day map with older ones.

Present Day Map - homestead marked by blue marker

Valuation Office OS Map - probably early 1880's: homestead marked by letter a, beneath 4B

So already the trip was a success - we had found the ancestral homestead. Occupied by the Walsh family from the early 1860's. A satisfying conclusion to an impromptu trip, even if nothing else was to be discovered.

An old turf train engine

But we still had to get to Walsh Island and check out the second cemetery. So, back in the car, last leg of the journey (we were getting hungry now), and off to Walsh Island. We passed an old turf train engine on the way, mounted on a set of rails, on a little green in a curve on the road, exhibited, suggesting that these trains are no longer in use.

The graveyard in Walsh Island was another example of a meticulously kept cemetery. It's great to see communities taking such pride in their local heritage. There were quite a few Walsh's therein but no names that I recognised and no sign of Garrett or his parents. So, time to call it quits. The family plot, if there was one, was probably in the cemetery in Portarlington. A job for another day.

Walsh Island cemetery

So it was back home with Oisin, passing gate-painters on the way (was it a National Holiday or some Gate-Painting Festival, I ruminated; well you never know - they pull tractors), stopping for burger and chips along the way. Oh how Oisin does love his uncle - who else would take him to graveyards, and treat him with burgers and chips, and he only six? I ask you.

So what have we achieved? Locating the family homestead will allow us to go back to the Valuation Office Cancelled Books and use them to trace the ownership of the house back to the time of Griffiths Valuation (1853), thus ascertaining who the previous owners were. We still don't know why the Walsh's moved into this house, where they came from, or who lived there beforehand. And we don't know who James' and Ellen's parents were. Perhaps being able to trace the previous owners in 1853 will give us some clues. Secondly, ruling out two of the local graveyards as probable locations for the family plot points to Portarlington cemetery as the most likely location. A visit here might reveal a gravestone with information that will help us sift through all the various online records that could be relevant to our Walsh ancestors.

New records, however, are coming online all the time, and in writing this blog I have happened upon the death record for James Walsh! We knew that he probably died some time between 1876 (the birth of his last child) and the 1901 census (from which he is absent), but just today, hot off the press, I found his death record in the Calendar of Wills and Administrations for Ireland. 

From this it is clear that he died on 23rd Oct 1897. Consequently, of the several previous possibilities for his death record among the Civil Registration Indices, there is only one that matches the above new information, and that is the entry for Oct-Dec 1897 in Tullamore, which estimates his birth year as 1832. I will order this death cert from the GRO (General Registry Office) in due course. And having a definite date for his passing means that we can look for an obituary in the local paper, which may contain details of his relatives.

So, all in all, a very successful trip!

Photos of Walsh headstones from nearby cemeteries

(no known relationship exists between these people 

and our particular clan ... as far as we know)

Walsh - Bracknagh cemetery

Walsh - Walsh Island Cemetery

Walsh - Walsh Island Cemetery

Walsh - Walsh Island Cemetery

Walsh - Walsh Island Cemetery

Walsh - Walsh Island Cemetery

Walsh - Walsh Island Cemetery