A Letter from 1948 "delivered" by the Irish Post Office leads to Discovering a Cousin: The Mannion 's of Addergoole in Lahardane and Castlehill, Mayo,Ireland

The obituary of Anne Cormac Mannion Barrett1, provides a wealth of information helpful when researching Irish ancestors. Anne's father is identified as John Mannion and her mother is "the widely-known, talented and accomplished", Elizabeth Cormac (spelling variations include Cormick and Cormack).  Anne's mother is listed as being from Castlehill.  This clue to a potential townland provides one of the most important facts when researching back to Ireland. The townland serves as the rural address, not quite today's equivalent of a postal code, but they were standardized in the 1820s and 1830s by the Boundary Commission and Ordnance Survey.

The obituary indicates that Castlehill is "one of the most picturesque estates in Mayo, Ireland". Researching the Griffiths Valuation for Ireland led to identifying a John Mannion in Castlehill, likely representing Anne's family. However, further research yielded little additional information.

Obituary for Anne Cormac Barrett (nee Mannion)

While reviewing records, letters and email correspondence, I reviewed what appears to be an account of the family in Ireland, possibly written by Thomas F. Barrett. This letter provided another lead in the Cormac line while providing many names in the Mannion family. Yet there were no dates and the names did not always correspond to evidence found on some individuals, including baptismal records for the Parish of Addergoole.

Page one of "Family Names and a little record of no account"

Turning then to a letter written by an “aunt Catherine” to “Kathleen” on 9 Feb 1948 which was kindly provided by a cousin laid out a few additional names of the family in Ireland not previously identified.  The additional clues indicated the townland of Laharadane, the names Lavelle and Devaney as well as Flynn and McHale and of course more recent names from 1940s.  Could any of these people still be living in the area in Ireland?

Transcription of letter from 1948:

“Dear Kathleen,

I promised you I would look up the address of some of the family in Dear Old Ireland so thought better write it as if I call you on phone you would have to bother getting a pencil and paper and jotting it down so here is the best information I can give you. You know if course Charlie Manning is over there and his sister is there she is a Mrs. Walsh. I believe they are living on the family estate and I think it is Lahardane County Mayo. Aunt Frances was a Mrs. Frank Lavelle but her husband and stepson as well as Aunt Frances have all departed. Aunt Frances died about the same year Uncle Henry died which I think was about 1944 or 45. Aunt Frances was in the Post Office in Lahardane for 70 yeas she was about 95 years old I believe and spent her last days with a Grand Niece a Mrs. Frank Devaney (Emily) and she has 2 children girls Frances Marcella and Ann Marie. They lived in County Sligo. There was nieces of Aunt Frances Flynn one of them the youngest Marcella Flynn married a Jim McHale. There was a John and Charles Flynn that were living in Lahardane and a Flynn by the name of Henry living in Dublin. These are the older members of the family there was a Anna Marie Flynn but if you can not locate them you probable locate some of the younger members of the family. The Flynn Family is (Mamma Sister’s Family). The priest in Lahardane will probably put you straight on some of the members of the family. I hope she will visit the shrine of Our Lady of Knock. I remember my mother making a visit there. I guess we call them Novena’s they called them pilgrimages in those days.”

A fortunate trip to Ireland offered an opportunity to spend a few extra days and research the family and possibly visit the townlands of my ancestors.  Since Castlehill was called an estate, it seemed to offer a good starting point.   The Landed Estates database for Ireland is useful in tracking names and places of estates in Ireland, a search of the database indicated that the house from about the 1830s was still “extant”2 and therefore, I hoped there was a way to visit the site.  I looked into hiring a guide in Ireland, as I intended to spend more time taking photos and looking around and did not need the worry about driving on which side of the road, let alone not knowing the roads in rural Ireland. My one criteria for a guide, they at least had to I indicate an interest in genealogy so they would not think I was nuts for ignoring the Blarney Stone, Waterford and the Cliffs but rather wanting to head to rural Ireland to see Lahardane and Castlehill by Lough Conn.

I wrote to Ms. Helena Nugent, in particular sending off an email asking about visiting Castlehill, Laharadane and County Mayo as way to “walk in my ancestors” home. Ms. Nugent responded promptly, and began to ask questions and in particular asked if I had any cousins in the area.  I indicated that I did not know but thought not, as I had no information beyond the obituary information for Anne Cormac Mannion and the letter dated from 1948 and the account from possibly Thomas F. Barrett.  All of this was forwarded to Ms. Nugent, who was interested in the information, indicating that there was a lot of information in the material.

To my surprise, Ms. Nugent wrote me back indicating that I had a cousin still in Lahardane.  I asked how she found my cousin, Ms. Nugent called the Lahardane post office and proceeded to read the letter from “Aunt Catherine”.  The postal worker was kind enough to listen then asked her to hold as a patron who happened to walk in might have “some information”. The patron listened patiently as Ms. Nugent read the letter,  where upon reaching a line about “Francis Marcella” he stated that that was his mother.  Marcella still happened to live in Lahardane and he was kind enough to provide contact information.

Ms. Nugent contacted Marcella Gibbons (Devaney) and we then began a long train of emails. Marcella is descended from Anne Cormac Mannion's brother Michael Mannion. Together we pieced the information together, finding multiple records on Ancestry.com (now available through the National Library of Ireland for Parish Records), thus assembling a tree for the Mannion family indicating we are 4th cousins, 1 times removed.

Children and Spouses of John Mannion and Elizabeth Cormac

Children of Francis Mannion and Mary Clifford

Children of Michael Mannion and Sarah Gunning

Children of Anne Cormac Mannion and John J. Barrett

We arranged a meeting during my too quick of a trip to Mayo, meeting in Ballina and then taking a ride to Castlehill the next day.  I was able to learn more about my cousins who remain in Ireland. We then were able to visit Castlehill, thanks to the kindness of the owner.  I was able to see the view towards Lough Conn and know that this is where my 3x-great-grandmother was born. 

View from Castlehill towards Lough Conn

Marcella and I continued to piece together more of the Mannion lines, from Ireland to Pennsylvania and Delaware.  This led to contacting another cousin descended from Maria Mannion, daughter of Francis Mannion and Mary Clifford, living in the U.S. 

Meeting my Cousin in Lahardane
L. to R. Thomas "Toss" Gibbons, me, Marcella Gibbons (Nee Devaney)

It is amazing to start with letters with few names and no real dates, a list of names (not always accurate) and some luck to find a cousin in Ireland.  Knowing the townland and Ms. Nugent's insight to call the post office of these smaller areas, as well as the luck in Marcella's son being at the post office at that moment, provided a wonderful trip to Ireland.  The trip offered me a chance to meet a cousin I never knew I had, walk in my ancestors' footsteps and see sites that added to the family history and took me off the tourist path.  You never know what you can find by reviewing your files, and looking again at what might have been missed, and what records are more readily accessible now.   

The events were from a trip in 2014.

© 2015 William C. Barrett.

1The Scranton Republican (Scranton, PA). "Death of Mrs. John J. Barrett, of Pittston." December 26, 

     1893, 8. http://www.newspapers.com/clip/248943/the_scranton_republican_26_dec_1893

2NUI Galway. "ESTATE: CORMACK/CORMICK." Landed Estates Database. Accessed August 23, 2015. 

     http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=263.

Leveraging Irish Records and Histories to Establish Potential Links between the Cormick/Cormack/Cormac Family of Erris and Tirawley to John J. Barrett and John Mannion

The family of John J. Barrett and Anne Cormac Mannion arrived in the United States in the 1870s, settling in the areas of Pittston, Luzerne, Pennsylvania and Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania. The obituary of Anne led to the discovery that the family immigrated from County Mayo, establishing a link back to Ireland¹. The obituary identified her parents as John Mannion and Elizabeth Cormac and included the townland/estate, indicating it as “one of the most picturesque estates in Mayo, Ireland, Castlehill”.

The identification of Castlehill as the townland, resulted in two potential Baronies, Tirawley or Erris. Castlehill in the Barony of Tirawley is found in the parishes of Addergoole and Crossmolina, while the Castlehill in the Barony of Erris is found in the parish of Kilcommon. The two Baronies are adjacent to one another as observed in a map of the Baronies of Mayo².

Map of Mayo showing the Baronies of Tirawley in Green and Erris in Light Orange

Baptismal records were discovered for three of John J. Barrett and Anne Cormac Mannion's children, Charles J., Edward M., and Marie³. The listing in the record included another townland, that of Terry, but it is unknown if the reference is to Terryduff or Terrybaun both within Mayo. The ability to map the area using Google Earth, indicates that both Terry's are within less than 1 mile (yellow line is 0.88 miles) thus, adding two more places to search for additional records.

Distance between Terryduff and Terrybaun, Mayo, Ireland

It seems likely from the current data that the townlands, Castlehill and Terrybaun/Terryduff are the areas that John J. Barrett and Anne Cormac Mannion resided in around the 1840s - 1850s in Ireland. The name Cormac/Cormick/Cormack has been noted in Mayo and of interest is the entry found within the Landed Estates in which Castlehill is identified as the seat of Major Michael Cormick until around the 1830s when it appears a John Walsh(e) of Dublin inherited the estate⁴.

The line of John J. Barrett has been more elusive. The obituary for John J. indicates that he was born in Ballycastle, Mayo and educated, graduating from Dublin College ⁵. A separate obituary for John J. Barrett identified two brothers still living in 1899, Edward of St. Louis and Dr. Thomas Barrett of Pittston, no reference was made to his parents other than he had “good parentage”⁶.

The known lineage for John J. Barrett and Anne Cormac* Mannion follows:

*Cormac has also been spelled Cormick and Cormack, thus the names will reflect what was found in each source and will switch based on that throughout.

Several sources have tried to provide some genealogical lines relative to Anne Cormac Mannion, however there was no definitive sources and much conflicting information.

Tony Donohoe presented information on the O'Donnells of Newport AND Killeen⁷:

“Elizabeth O'Donnell married Thomas Cormack of Mullinamore and Castlehill. This Thomas has to be the father of Charles, who was the father of Michael. It was a daughter of Michael who married John Walsh of Dublin and Erris. He adopted the name John Cormack Walsh. The other daughter, Elizabeth, married John Mangan and they emigrated to Scranton. They had a daughter, Anne, who married John Barrett, who was born in Crossmolina and became an important figure in the business life of that city. He was editor of the 'Scranton Truth' and a successful businessman. Anne Mangan Barrett died on Christmas Day 1894, aged 70 years. I have related this about .the Mangan family because it has a local interest. It was always believed, the story goes, that a daughter of John Walsh married Mangan and like a lot of these stories there was an element of truth in it but the difference was, it happened a generation earlier.”

This information suggests that a Michael Cormack had two daughters, one marrying a Walsh and the other Elizabeth who married John Mangan and immigrated to the Scranton. However, the landed estates information indicates that Major Michael Cormick died with no children and his estate in Castlehill was passed to his sisters, one who married a Walsh and the other who married a Coyne. In addition, it is known that Anne's son John E. Barrett was the editor of the Scranton Truth, not Anne's husband John J. Barrett. Thus, even though the conclusion is that there a generation difference from some stories that Donohue writes, it is likely that there is missing family members since the information presented still had multiple errors. However, this information suggests that Major Michael Cormick is the son of Charles Cormack who was the son of Elizabeth O'Donnell and Thomas Cormack of “Mullinamore and Castlehill”.

A letter, dated Sept. 1, 1903 and is believed to be have been written by Thomas F. Barrett⁸, son of John J. Barrett and Anne Cormac Mannion. The letter adds additional history with a few names relative to the Cormac line in Mayo.

The letter by Thomas Francis Barrett does not align with Donohue's reflection in entirety, but given that Thomas Francis Barrett was likely getting information direct form those involved, it suggests there was missing information in Donohue's analysis. The letter notes that Elizabeth Cormac (note the spelling variations continue), was the daughter of a Francis Cormac who was married to a woman named Elizabeth Cormac. He was the owner of an estate where he lived, Castlehill. Francis Cormac was noted to have three daughters, Elizabeth, Lettie and Maggie. It also indicates that Francis had a younger brother who had two sons, a Major and Captain in the British Army and two daughters. Comparing this letter to Donohue's information leads to the possibility that Charles was the younger brother to Francis. The letter offers evidence that the Major Michael Cormick from the Landed Estates record was brother to two sister's, one who married a Coyne and one who married a Walsh.

Furthermore, the letter indicates the daughters of the unknown brother, possibly Charles, who married a Coyne and Walsh, inherited the estate upon the death of their brother, likely Major Michael Cormick. The information from the letter aligns with the estate records in which Maj. Cormack dies and the estate essentially becomes owned by John Walsh of Dublin, later calling himself John Cormack Walsh. A record for a marriage license between a John Walsh of Dublin and Ann Cormick⁹ was found listing the license for 1819. There is reference to a John Walshe married to Anne Cormick, eldest daughter of Charles of Castlehill¹⁰ and Elizabeth Cormick daughter of Charles married to Edmond Coyne¹¹. Thus, it appears Charles Cormick is the father of Michael, Elizabeth and Anne, who seems to have inherited Castlehill upon Michael's death. The Tithe Applotment records indicate for Terry and Masbrook that the owner was a Major Michael Cormick¹² and Michael Cormick, Esq. for Castlehill¹³,¹⁴. The fact that Michael Cormick was a Captain and then Major, might explain the lack of information of another son of Charles and the reference to a Captain and Major in Thomas Francis Barrett's letter.

The combined information from Donohoe and Thomas Francis Barrett's letter provides the following tree for the Cormick family:

J.G. Simms wrote about Mayo landowners in which he states, “In the course of the Norman settlement the Barretts acquired extensive lands in Tirawley and Erris. They still held many of them in Strafford's time . . .”¹⁵. The reference to Strafford is in regards to work that resulted in gathering land and ownership information, commonly referenced as “The Strafford Inquisition of County Mayo” or “Strafford Survey” around 1635. The maps and information has since been destroyed but was possibly recorded in other works such as, County of Mayo, with maps of the county from Petty's atlas, 1683, and of Tirawley barony from the Down survey, 1657, prepared for publication with introductory notes by R. C. Simington.

Simms writes about a Michael Cormack, an owner of large amounts of land in Erris, in which he “... bought lands confiscated from the Barretts.” The article indicates that Cormack was an official of some sort or “clerk of the market”. There is mention that Michael Cormack's name appears in a list of “Irish transplanted by the Commonwealth”. This references a J.C. Erck, Repertory of patent rolls, James I, ii. 297; H.M.C., Ormonde MSSS, ii. 126¹⁶. The paper continues to discuss the confiscation of lands from Catholics through the course of changes of the rulers of England to the eighteenth century.

During the reign of James I, it is reported that a Dermot or Darby Cormick, a Munster lawyer, purchased much of Irrus (or Errus). Several genealogical lines for Dermot exist and from the Ordnance Survey Letters, County Mayo, Vol. I¹⁷:

This genealogy of the Cormick family can be transcribed in the a different way and begins to provide additional links to the genealogy presented earlier on the Cormac family.

The information presented in the Ordnance Survey letters for the Cormick family, provides a potential link to draw in the previous analysis of the Cormick family as follows:

The sources in Ireland for establishing relationships begin to thin after church records. Land records including Griffith's Evaluation and the Tithe Applotment Books provide the names of the land owner/renter but the Irish census records prior to 1901 have largely been lost.

Another clue comes from the Tithe Applotment books for Castlehill located in the parish, Addergoole¹⁸:

This record shows Michael Cormick living in Castlehill and also found are an Edmond Barrett and John Mannion. The record is from 1815, John Mannion at some point married Elizabeth Cormack, they had Anne Cormac Mannion about 1823, among several other siblings. The Tithe Applotment record might be the best link between the fairly well documented Cormick family and the Barrett and Mannion line.

The land records and extraction of references form various sources provide information around the late 1500s and into the 1600s and 1700s concerning the names Barrett and Cormick [all spellings], however the absence of vital records or census to add further details to the family regarding the lineages of Anne Cormac Mannion, Elizabeth Cormac, and John J. Barrett, leave no definitive conclusion but the data analyzed presents intriguing clues to the potential lineages.

Probate and wills might be a source to consult, determining what exists for the lines of interest and the location of these records. Additional land records maintained from the late 1500s to the 1700s might offer further clues to begin generating a cluster of each names and areas to further look for more records, as well as additional stories relating to the Barrett, Cormick, and Mannion lines.

1The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania) · Tue, Dec 26, 1893 · Page 8, http://www.newspapers.com/clip/248943/the_scranton_republican_26_dec_1893

2Map of the baronies of County Mayo in Ireland; taken from Atlas and cyclopedia of Ireland, p.228, copyrighted 1900, http://www.archive.org/stream/atlascyclopediao00joyc#page/n228/mode/1up, Patrick Weston Joyce

3A Registry of Baptisms and Marriages by the Rev. P MacHale, Commencing 13th of January 1840P.P. of Adergoole

4"Estate: Cormack/Cormick." Estate Record: Cormack/Cormick. National University of Ireland Glaway, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=263>.

5Pittston Gazette (Pittston, Pennsylvania) · Fri, Apr 28, 1899 · Page 3, http://www.newspapers.com/clip/243982/pittston_gazette_28_april_1899_john

6The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania) · Thu, Apr 27, 1899 · Page 10

7Donohoe, Tony. "O'Donnells of Newport and Killeen." North Mayo Historical Journal III.1 (1992): n. pag. Untitled Document. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <http://www.geocities.ws/newporthistsoc/workhouse/nmod1.htm>.

8Barrett, Thomas Francis. Letter, September 1, 1903. Collection of William Barrett. 

Recorded family history relative to Cormac Family of Castlehill, Mayo, Ireland. Digital Copy of Letter.

9Dublin, Ireland, Probate Record and Marriage Licence Index, 1270-1858 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

10Vaughan, Roger. "The County Families of the United Kingdom by Edward Walford 1890 Search Page." Biographical and Reference - Roger Vaughan Look-up Service. Accessed February 28, 2015. http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/history/county.htm. 

11Walford, Edward. The County Families of the United Kingdom Or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland. 5th ed. London: R. Hardwicke, 1869. Sapienza University of Rome (Biblioteca Di Scienze Statistiche), 24 Oct. 2013. Web.

12"Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1814-1855," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18044-64361-96?cc=1804886 : accessed 28 February 2015), Mayo > Addergoole, 1815-1833 > image 7 of 61; Public Record Office, Dublin.

13"Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1814-1855," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18044-64148-9?cc=1804886 : accessed 28 February 2015), Mayo > Addergoole, 1815-1833 > image 55 of 61; Public Record Office, Dublin.

14"Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1814-1855," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-12230-17355-13?cc=1804886 : accessed 28 February 2015), Mayo > Crossmolina, 1833 > image 90 of 323; Public Record Office, Dublin.

15J.G. Simms, Mayo Landowners in the Seventeenth Century.  The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland V. 95, No. ½. Papers in Honour of Liam Price (1965), p. 237-247

16J.G. Simms, Mayo Landowners in the Seventeenth Century.  The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland V. 95, No. ½. Papers in Honour of Liam Price (1965), p. 240

17John O'Donovan. Ordnance Survey Letters, Mayo Vol. I and Vol. II. (1838).

18Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1814-1855," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18044-64148-9?cc=1804886 : accessed 24 February 2015), Mayo > Addergoole, 1815-1833 > image 55 of 61; Public Record Office, Dublin.


© 2015 William C. Barrett