Firstly, I had a good look at James Beatty, Farmer of Aghavoory, Fermanagh (c1810-Aft 1875) now that we know more about him (for example that his father was a Farmer called Archibald Beatty), and can see that he must have been born about 1807, earlier than I had thought. The earliest mention of him (so far) at Aghavoory is in the Enniskillen Chronicle 14 May 1829, listing persons in Fermanagh who have registered their freeholds to establish their qualification to vote at elections. Probably at the time you’d also need to be over 21.
Secondly, on the basis of our YDNA111 tests, there’s a 70% probability that the Grandfather of James above will be our common ancestor with the person whose test results are closest to ours of those tested so far. We* both also carried out “Big Y” tests whose significance I don’t really understand, but am told that we share a mutation that makes the relationship even more likely. Pete has been researching this family for many years and has an extensive tree of Beattys in Fermanagh. In his tree is a Farmer Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan townland (1758-1831), whose son James Beatty born c1807 disappeared off the genealogical radar. Pretty interesting eh? Furthermore, Archibald of Farnamullan in 1794 married Martha Moore who was from Aghavoory townland! It’s hard to believe this is a coincidence – there are 2,294 townlands in Fermanagh! I’m guessing that James, who was the eldest surviving son of Archibald, inherited the lease on the farm at Aghavoory from his mother’s family – I understand that leases could be inherited? Leaving his younger brothers to inherit the Farnamullan lands. I spent a few hours spreadsheeting all the Archibald Beattys in Fermanagh at the time, using every mention from the usual online sources, and as far as I can tell, only two are likely candidates to be the Farmer father of James of Aghavoory, one of whom is Archibald of Farnamuallan.
This is so exciting after all these years of facing our Beatty brick wall that I’m booking plane tickets to Belfast for next week. Aghavoory townland was on the Colebrook Estate of the Brooke family, one of the few estates whose papers survived. The papers are in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. I’m hoping to spend a few days combing through them for clues about our family, and hopefully some proof that Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan was the father of James of Aghavoory. I’m sure to end up very knowledgeable about 19th century farming practices in Fermanagh at least!
And the common ancestor, if all this can be established, the father of Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan, was Charles Beatty (1725-1798). We know that name!
I’ve been cross with our g grandfather James Beatty of Ballina/South Yarra (1842-1903) for passing on virtually nothing useful about his family in Ireland – not even the name of his mother! Yet he did in a way – by leaving little clues scattered among the names of his children 🙂
*Not my DNA of course! I borrowed some from a sibling with a Y chromosome!
Hope your trip is successful, Sue, and it helps to link all the clues.
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Thanks. I’m really looking forward to it! I’ll post about progress, and will probably go to the relevant places in Fermanagh. It’s only about an hour’s drive from Belfast.
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How exciting. I wish I could meet you in Belfast but I’m away in Brussels 20 th March to 24th. My son is recovering from A broken foot and daughter in law about To have tonsillectomy. I will get to Ireland at some point for more research. I did contact Peter but he didn’t get back To me. I look forward to hearing more. Let me know if I can help. Sue
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Would have been good to finally meet Sue. Maybe another time. I hope the recoveries go well! I’m virtually certain now that a couple of my ancestors (brothers James and Archibald Beatty) only passed through Mayo/Sligo during 1860 and 1877 so my research is now concentrated on their birthplace, Fermanagh.
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terrific news about the trip to Ireland!
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Land leases could be inherited. One of the most common forms of lease in Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was “three lives”. This worked well if a young man bought a lease, and his inheriting child and grandchild had long lives, but not if they died young.
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Thanks Helen! I’ll soon know a lot more about this stuff 😉
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