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Archive for the ‘Beatty family’ Category

Our last Beatty brick wall ends with Charles Beatty (Abt 1730-1798) of Farnamullan

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), Beatty family, Charles Beatty (Abt 1730-1754), Farnamullan, Fermanagh, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), James Beatty 1842-1903, tagged , , on September 14, 2024| 1 Comment »

I’ve been more interested in birding than family history for the last seven years, but thought I should tie off this loose end after all the work I’ve put into it. Here are the earliest four known generations of our Beatty ancestors working back from James Beatty of the flowing beard who brought his family to Melbourne, Australia in 1878.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out anything at all about his mother.

Some of the research progress leading to the connection between the Beattys of Aghavoory and Farnamullan is recorded here and in earlier posts, but briefly: from the marriage record from his second marriage we knew that James Beatty of Aghavoory, Fermanagh had a father Archibald who was a farmer. There had been no Beattys in Aghavoory before James. We knew from his death certificate that he was born about 1797. I was in contact with Pete Beatty who was the closest of all the many Beatty genetic matches using FTDNA. His earliest Beatty ancestors were from Farnamullan, Fermanagh, and were well documented for the time because they owned their land rather than leasing which was the norm in Fermanagh after the Plantation of Ulster. Therefore they wrote deeds to do with the exchange of property which mentioned a lot of names and relationships. Charles’ son Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan (1758-1831) married Martha Moore of Aghavoory in 1794. They had a second son James, born about 1797 of whom nothing else was known except he was still alive somewhere when his brother Archibald also born about 1797 left him 4 pounds in his will in 1869. I spent several days in Belfast and Enniskillen in 2016 combing through the archives for some documentary proof of the connection. I found a lot of interesting background information but no certain proof, and yet the circumstantial evidence alone is overwhelming. Apart from all the above, James’ son-in-law William Robinson was a witness at the wedding of Martha Beatty of Farnamullan to Alexander Carrothers in 1871, and James Moore witnessed deeds for Beattys of Farnamullan. In 1829 James went to register his new holding at Aghavoory in order to vote accompanied by his neighbour James Moore – his Uncle. On top of that is the very close genetic link.

I’ve rewritten the early part of The Beattys out of Ireland : 1700s and 1800s and have extended my family tree accordingly – at least my ancestry.com tree. I used to show the link to my Legacy tree on the sidebar of my website, but when my old ISP, grapevine, went defunct I lost the bit of web real estate where it was stored and haven’t been able to replace it yet. Instead I’ve replaced it with a link to my ancestry tree in the meantime, but probably only other people who subscribe to ancestry.com can open it.

I’ve also notified the Beatty Project that lineages 535 and 560 have been joined.

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I hate/love ancestry.com!

Posted in Beatty family, Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 9, 2024| 2 Comments »

After smashing through another one of my brick walls I love it that with ancestry.com you can whizz through a newly discovered branch establishing links using the sources that they make available. One disadvantage is that ancestry makes it seem very easy, but you actually need to be REALLY careful to cross-check every step or you just build a castle of crap and there are so many trees like that on ancestry!

I put up a tree based on my years of painstaking research which broke new ground (though I say so myself!) – and I guess I should be flattered rather than annoyed – but there are dozens of trees that have copied large chunks of it without citing any sources at all! Occasionally I find a tree with an unexpected new family member added in that I couldn’t find out anything about (eg one of my gg grandmothers!), with no source given and I would dearly love to know what information it is based on in case there’s something substantial there. But so often people don’t reply to questions you ask them in ancestry (sigh) And often people don’t even copy accurately, linking people in at the wrong generation etc. Please, if you’re going to copy my family at least get it right!

This leads to another pet hate which gets worse the more information I put in ancestry. Ancestry attach little green leaves to ancestors which are supposed to mean there’s some new information about that person. In fact 90% of those green leaves now just lead to yet another tree which has simply copied the information which I put in ancestry in the first place!

Worst of all, I get green leaves in ancestry for images which I can tell have been copied directly from this website and put into ancestry! I’m pretty sure I said my images could be used with acknowledgement… and thanks to some people who have asked and given acknowledgement – though none of you came via ancestry!

Why do I pay ancestry so much! Maybe I’ll delete my ancestry tree and leave all the copy-cats to chase each other’s tails in ever diminishing circles. On the other hand I did all this research because I wanted our family story to be known.

ALERT FOR ANCESTRY COPY-CATS. There’s a whole new branch of this Beatty family – never before linked on ancestry or anywhere else – for you to copy now 🙂 get to it!

Oh and I’ll give details of that here soon.

End of rant. Thanks for listening…

[Update Tues 10 Sept: Apologies for that! I could have avoided making our family story public and made my ancestry tree private and I chose not to, so it’s all self-inflicted. And I know that many people who follow this blog are serious family historians who would do none of the things that upset me yesterday. And not everyone who is curious about their family has the time or skills to do serious research and it’s OK just to see what you can find in ancestry, and ancestry’s silly algorithms are not your fault! The path I chose has advantages and disadvantages. Moving on.]

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Part of our Beatty family story I was too shocked to write about until now

Posted in Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, James Beatty 1842-1903, tagged , on September 1, 2024| 6 Comments »

James Beatty 1842-1903

Family research can be a lot of fun, but one hazard is discovering things you would have preferred not to know about – and certainly things that your ancestors would not have wanted you to know about. When writing up our Beatty family story some years ago I discovered something that felt too shocking and embarassing to publish about – especially since my great grandfather James Beatty had already suffered a reputational knock by having his drapery business in Ballina go bankrupt.

I found this church baptism record (on the RootsIreland database) for a John Beaty born in Ballina 22 April 1869:

Name: John Beaty
Date of Birth: 22-Apr-1869
Date of Baptism: 02-May-1869
Address: Knox St/Ardnaree
Parish/District: Kilmoremoy/Ballina
County: Co. Mayo
Gender: Male
Denomination: Roman Catholic
Father: Unknown Beaty
Mother: Eleanor Loftus
Sponsor 1/Informant 1: John Loftus
Sponsor 2/Informant 2: Cath McLaughlin
Notes: The father is a draper (a protestant) living in Knox St. Ballina

You can imagine the father of this unmarried girl, and also the outraged parish priest, taking a vindictive pleasure in adding the incriminating note which, more than 150 years later, would shock a great grand-daughter researching her family story!

There were very few Beattys in Ballina at the time and James and his elder brother Archibald had come from Fermanagh and were only in Ballina for a few years from about 1860 after their mother died and their father remarried, until 1878 when James emigrated and 1874 when Archibald moved on. There was only one Beatty who had a drapery business in Knox Street in 1869. 

Baby John was born about four years before James Beatty married into the minor gentry and about eight years before he and his family emigrated to Melbourne, Victoria where they lived in anglican respectability and were friends of the bishop. I wonder how my distant cousin John fared? I can find nothing else about him in the records.

I guess we have all made mistakes and have things we'd prefer that nobody knew about.

What do family historians (and family members!) think? Should we tell the family story as we find it or should we cast a rosy glow over the past by ignoring the failures and mistakes of our ancestors that we uncover? I know at least one member of my own family who prefers to believe all the debunked family myths to the carefully researched family story that I've uncovered 🙂

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Marcella’s Bible : an example of the value of a website for family history research!

Posted in Alfred Joseph Beatty, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Beatty family, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland, James Beatty 1842-1903, James Paget (1802-72), James Paget Beatty, Kinard Lodge, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, Ireland, tagged , on December 30, 2023| 3 Comments »

James and Marcella Beatty with James, Emma and baby Archie in Dublin late 1877.

When our Beatty ancestors emigrated from County Mayo and Sligo in 1878 they brought with them a Bible given to Marcella Beatty (nee Paget) at her wedding to James Beatty in 1873. Four generations of the details of births, deaths and marriages were subsequently carefully written in it. The location of the actual Bible is currently a mystery and possibly it has been lost. If it resurfaces I’ll certainly post about it here. The information, particularly of the earliest generation has been invaluable. For example it gives the address in Ballina where both James and Emma were born, confirming the home address of the Beattys there as “Commercial House, Arran St.” it tells us that Archibald Beatty was born at “The Lodge” in Enniscrone, County Sligo. This will be Kinard Lodge, the home of Marcella’s father James Paget near Enniscrone. Possibly the Beatty’s lived there for a while after James Paget died, before their emigration. It’s a pity it doesn’t name the ship they came to Australia on, as extensive research has still failed to solve that mystery! The Bible was inherited by James, the eldest son of James and Marcella and passed down through the generations of his family. This means that the entries “Mother’s birthday August 10th. Father’s birthday October 31st” probably refer to James and Marcella themselves. I’m guessing that this is written in a different hand to Marcella’s, probably that of her son. Their dates of birth were previously a mystery as birth certificates can’t be found for either James or Marcella – quite common for Ireland at that time.

I only know about the Bible, and have a transcript of the family notices in it because of one of the many people who found my website and contacted me through it. What a lot of second cousins etc. I have connected with! It has been really fun and I learned so much to round out the family story. Anyway, Janet Godfrey (nee McTaggart) (1933-2007), a great-grand-daughter of James and Marcella through their son James, and whose own mother (Kathleen McTaggart (nee Beatty) (1906-1944) was an only child, was keen to connect with extended family. She saw the announcement of the Queen’s birthday Honours List in 1983 when Alfred Paget Beatty (1916-1998) was awarded the OA. Suspecting that with that name he must be a relation, she wrote to him about the Bible, with all the family details. They had planned to meet up, but she died before that happened. In 2011 Alfred Paget Beatty’s daughter Jocelyn Cooper found my website and sent me a copy of Janet Godfrey’s letter to her father. It would be great if Janet’s family could find the actual Bible, but it’s thanks to her that we do have all the information. I’m so grateful to her and to Jocelyn who found my website, and regret that I’ve taken so long to tell this story.

Here’s the transcript of the family notices in Marcella’s Bible

Source: Letter from Janet Godfrey to Alfred Paget Beatty, 1983

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New chapter covering 1935 to 1946

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Beatty family, Charles Gordon Beatty, Constance Mary Forster, Coutts Family, Enniscrone, Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia, Enniscrone, Thornton, Victoria, Australia, Gwen Littleton, Harold Beatty, James Beveridge Coutts, Peggy Beatty, Sheila Beatty on August 17, 2021| 4 Comments »

I finally got around to writing more of the family saga. Being locked down has advantages. Fittingly it’s Chapter 13 – as everything went wrong for the Beattys of “Enniscrone”, Mont Albert and of Stanhope Grove over this period. Mind you a lot of other people’s lives were stuffed up during WW2 as well. I was going to call it “Camelot unravels” or somesuch, but thought maybe that’s too corny? Anyway, the section on Harold finally gives a point to the name of this website and the photo at the top of it, which is “Enniscrone”, Thornton (taken 1975) from Walker’s property looking across to Mt. Cathedral with Taggerty out of sight to the right.

I have to acknowledge the Diary of Peg Beatty as a really fabulous source. Unlike many diaries it isn’t a sounding board for her feelings and opinions, in fact she so rarely expresses either that it really gets your attention when she does. She just records every move she and members of her household make, including frequent mentions of numerous extended Beatty and Forster family that she sees or exchanges letters with, and she writes every day without fail for 55 years. Maybe I should offer it to the National Library?

I can’t write much further ahead now though I’ll think about it. My policy is the same as most family historians which is that you don’t mention people who are still alive, but you also don’t want to upset anyone – though I try to be very fair. I do have a fair bit of stuff about Harold Forster and Hilda Forster which ought to be up there and so I should get on with that next.

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So who is Archibald Beatty, Farmer, father of James Beatty of Aghavoory?

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged , , on April 29, 2016| 1 Comment »

I’ve now updated the chapter: “The Beattys out of Ireland” in the family story to include all the latest information I have about the early generations of our Beatty family. The Colebrooke Estate records at the Public records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) didn’t go back quite far enough to tell me where our ancestor James Beatty (1797-1873) came from before taking up farming at Aghavoory townland just south of Fivemiletown, Co. Fermanagh, sometime before 1829. They did tell me the year he died, which enabled me to find his death certificate, so here is his death record.

James Beatty of Aghavoory, co. Fermanagh. Death record 1873

James Beatty of Aghavoory, co. Fermanagh. Death record 1873

They also showed that the land which James later farmed was leased in 1787 to a Robert McKnight, then aged 32, and that that name remained against James Beatty’s Aghavoory land in the Colebrooke Estate rent book until November 1865 even though James Beatty paid the rent. The original Robert McKnight would have been aged 105 by then. Maybe it was sublet to James by the McKnight family all that time? There seems to be no surviving lease for Aghavoory in James Beatty’s name, even from 1865.

So who was Archibald Beatty, Farmer, who was given as James’s father at his (second) marriage?

We know from genetic testing that we are very closely related to the Beattys of Farnamullan. The YDNA tests indicated a strong probability that Charles Beatty (1725-1798) of Farnamullan could be the common ancestor between our family and descendants of the Farnamullan Beattys. I’m told that analysis of “BigY” tests using the same DNA samples gives an even stronger indication that either Charles or his father must be the common ancestor. I confess that I don’t really understand “BigY”.  As mentioned in earlier posts, Charles Beatty of Farnamullan had a son Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), who married Martha Moore of Aghavoory in 1792. Their second son was a James. It was the coincidence of Martha Moore being from Aghavoory that compelled me to visit PRONI in Belfast. It’s now confirmed that our James was born in 1797. This is the perfect date to be the second son of a couple who married in 1792 and had 8 children. The order of Archibald’s children (but not their birthdates) is given in a transcription of his will whose original is lost. The birthdates of the two youngest children are known from tombstones, indicating that Martha had at least 2 children in her forties. The ages at death of Archibald, his wife Martha and their eldest son Charles who died young come from the transcription of a tombstone at the Church of Ireland in Lisbellaw, very faint when transcribed. From the date and age at death, eldest son Charles would have been born in 1805 – too late for our James to be his younger brother. But also there is a death certificate for third son Archibald who would have been born about 1797. There was no mention of the second son James having died young, and he was left four pounds in the will of his brother Archibald so was still alive somewhere in 1869. So where did he go then??

In short, I haven’t given up on Archibald Beatty (1758-1831) of Farnamullan as the father of our James after all, although there is still no documentary proof. If this Archibald is not the one, and we take the genetic test results seriously, then we’re probably looking for a son Archibald of a hypothetical brother of Charles Beatty (1725-1798) of Farnamullan who would need to have been about the same age as the above Archibald; have married at about the same time and also have a son James. There weren’t as many Archibald Beattys in Fermanagh as there were James Beattys, and only a couple of those seemed likely from a scan of the sparse Irish records. Sigh! I think I’ll leave it at that for a while!

Beatty tombstone CoI Lisbellaw, Fermanagh

Church of Ireland, Lisbellaw, Fermanagh. Tombstone of Archibald Betty [sic] (1797-1869), wife Martha and eldest son Charles.

Update September 2024: Something must be wrong in the tombstone transcription to make the  date for Charles’ birth 10 years too late. It’s transcribed as: “Also their son Charles who depd. this life March 27th 1818 aged13 [?] years” If the barely legible age was 23 and not 13 then he was born in 1795 OR if the date at death was 1808 and not 1818 then he was born in 1795 – and then the birth date of his younger brother Archibald (born 1797) makes sense and James of Aghavoory (also born 1797) is the right age to be the missing second son James. Most likely the age at death is 23 as it is also more likely that a 23 year old would have made his will a few months before he died. 

Charles Beatty will 1817

Will of Charles Beatty from Ireland Diocesan and prerogative Wills and Admins. Indexes 1595-1858

 

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Dublin

Posted in Archibald Beatty (1758-1831), James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on April 13, 2016| 5 Comments »

Only one more day in Ireland, and I’m spending a few days in Dublin in a down-at-heel but friendly and perfectly adequate guest house where you share a toilet (not the bathroom as was advertised – I get a shower of my own!) I’m on the top floor so get lots of exercise. The linen seems clean, I get eggs and toast for breakfast, I can come down to the kitchen to fill my cup with boiling water for my bed-time herbal tea, and if the free wifi is playing up I can come and work down in the kitchen where it’s always good 🙂

As it happens, I’ve suddenly found out what I came over here to establish – in a way.  We had hoped that our ancestor James Beatty of Aghavoory was the son of Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan. DNA testing had indicated  that it was highly likely (our DNA being practically identical to a descendant of the Farnamullan Beattys). The Farnamullan James Beatty was born in 1807. At PRONI in Belfast last week I found that our James Beatty died in 1873 – when the Estate Manager  wrote DEAD beside his name in the Colebrooke Estate rent book. Today I got his death record from GRO Dublin. Due to the number of James Beattys it took a couple of goes and he turned out to be 10 years older than I was expecting. Anyway, James Beatty, Farmer, aged 76, married, died of Bronchitis at Aghavoory 14 Nov 1873. His eldest daughter Matilda Robinson of Breandrum was the informant.

This means he was born in 1797 and is 10 years too old to be the son of Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan! Back to the drawing board. [4/5/2016 Not so sure about this now. See next post] We know that the families must be connected in the preceding generation or two, but how? One good thing about this is that it makes sense of something I was told while visiting Aghavoory and Agheeter . Tommy, who apparently knows the whole history of all the local families for ever, and who knew James’s grandsons, assured me that James Beatty had come from Breandrum. So now we’re looking for an Archibald Beatty of Breandrum  mid to late 1700s. As Pete says: The hunt continues!

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Enniskillen – and farming in 19th century Fermanagh

Posted in Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on April 8, 2016| 4 Comments »

I’d had enough of Belfast, so dragged my chattels down to the bus station through the rain and got on the next bus to Enniskillen. The weather changed from warmish and sunny to rain and sleet five times in the hour and a half it took to get here! So here I am in actual Fermanagh, in a little motel room where I can cook my own dinner (bought ravioli and pasta sauce!) and enjoy a glass (or 2) from my own bottle of (Chilean) wine for the price of one glass in the pub.
Enniskillen is cuter than Belfast at least. I’ve spent the last two days coughing and spluttering all over the kind, helpful people at Enniskillen Library. Maybe a bit less today than yesterday which seems like a good sign. I sure hope you don’t catch this flu Sean! I looked through the 19th century Fermanagh newspapers, but there was no death notice for our farmer James. This is not surprising. Until the late 19th century, newspaper readers evidently only wanted to know about the doings of the upper classes, or drownings and suicides – oh, and “ruffians” get a lot of press – a term which apparently included Union members 🙂
Today I learned as much as I could about farming in mid 19th century Fermanagh.James Beatty land description 1863
This is the description which goes with the map of James’s land in the last post. He has 15 acres of arable land, 13 acres of “heathy pasture” and 3 acres of “whiny pasture”. The latter I’m told, means covered with gorse (currently in vivid golden bloom) not much use for anything.
James, with 60 acres before he split his land with his eldest son Joseph in 1855, and with 33 acres thereafter had a relatively large holding for a farmer at the time – the average was 15 acres I’m told.
He can’t have just grown potatoes, as was scornfully suggested by one of his descendants!  The “arable” land could well have been used for various crops, but, I’m told, would have grown enough potatoes to sink the Titanic!  The “heathy pasture” was probably used for cattle. The contemporary newspapers report frequent sales of “black cattle” at the local markets. Sean thinks these were probably the same as “Kerry c0ws” (Sean says “a lot of Irish things get called  “Kerry””). I gather that both of these terms refer to the cattle that were around in Ireland before they decided that there should be “breeds” of cattle – cattle breeding as such was something the gentry later got into.  James’s farm would certainly have produced milk, butter, eggs and everything else they needed to subsist and earn enough to pay the rent every six months. They may also have had sheep, pigs or goats. It’s also clear from the survey maps that during James’s time an orchard was established. Tomorrow. I’ll go there.

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James Beatty, Farmer, of Aghavoory, Fermanagh

Posted in Aghavoory, Fermanagh, Ireland, Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on April 5, 2016| 7 Comments »

I’ve been crook with a pretty savage flu for the last few days, and even spent the weekend in bed watching silly movies on TV! Today I feel better enough to venture forth, albeit with a lot of coughing and trying to keep away from others as I’d hate to pass it on. Luckily today is Monday when the archives are open again. Belfast continues bleak and rainy. I’ve given up trying to find good coffee – I can’t taste anything at the moment anyway, but the pubs are warm, friendly and very atmospheric.
No, I haven’t been able to prove that our James Beatty of Aghavoory is the same person as in Pete Beattys’ tree, although it’s still highly likely that he is. I’ve learned a couple of other things about him though.

James Beatty's land, Aghavoory townland 1863

James Beatty’s land, Aghavoory townland 1863

His land in Aghavoory had originally been leased to Robert McKnight in 1787, so it did not belong to the Moores although it adjoins their land. It has been suggested to me that (if it is the James Beatty born in Farnamullan) he could have married and needed land of his own before his father Archibald was ready to hand over Farnamullan and no leases were available near Farnamullan. However, if a parcel of land came available next to his uncle’s farm in Aghavoory, the Moores could have recommended him for it. James Beatty paid the rent on that parcel of land without the name being changed from McKnight and I don’t know why, but I can’t find a lease in his name. James also had 33 acres in Agheeter townland. When James’ own eldest son Joseph married in 1855, James gave him the Agheeter land – well in the rent books the name changed from James to Joe Beatty. His younger sons, Archibald and James (that we know of) must have been encouraged to make their own way. They certainly did. Unfortunately Farmer James wasn’t a noticeable tenant. He paid the rent exactly on time every time. The Estate Manager’s note book is occasionally entertaining reading as he threatens to evict miscreants who mistreat their wives, take over land without the Estate owner’s permission, build houses other than where they were told to, or (horror!) with thatched roofs. On the Colebrook Estate everything has to be “slated”! James Beatty never gets a mention, presumably because he never did the wrong thing. We now know that he remarried in 1858 though I still haven’t found out the name of his first wife.
In the Colebrook Estate rent book for May 1873, there was a note against his name “dead”. Even knowing the year of his death, I still can’t find a will.
Enough for today. I’m off to the pub for dinner!

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Belfast

Posted in James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on April 1, 2016| 5 Comments »

After a wonderful diversion via Bolzano, Italy and Innsbruck, Austria, I’m actually here in Belfast. I’ve spent two days at the Public Records Office (PRONI) now. I’m afraid Belfast strikes me as rather bleak and grim, though it could be mainly that PRONI is in the Titanic quarter where the extensive shipyards used to be, largely a wasteland now, with a huge new stadium, flash new PRONI, and (yes, they built it here) the Titanic museum. My hotel is very comfortable with a view over St Anne’s Square in the Cathedral Quarter, over the river from PRONI. All I’ve done so far (apart from persuading KLM to find my suitcase which they left in Amsterdam – it did turn up, 24 hours after I did) is work all day, and in the evenings try to find a cheap dinner. So far the pubs are best.

After two days I’ve worked out the system at PRONI, but haven’t made much progress yet towards establishing the relationship between Archibald Beatty of Farnamullan and James Beatty of Aghavoory. There are certainly many thousands of documents in the Colebrook Estate records, but most of them are after 1850 and too late to tell us which Archibald Beatty was the father of James of Aghavoory. I’ve found a couple of coloured maps of James’ farm, so if I go to Fermanagh I should be able to see if the birthplace of James Beatty of Ballina/South Yarra (1842-1903) is still there. I was going to put one in to add colour to this post, but I’m too tired to work out how to convert it from PDF and I don’t have the “snip” tool that’s on my computer at home.

I found one map of Aghavoory from 1787 which could have been very useful. It shows Mrs Moore at farm No 1, which was leased by Price Moore in the 19th century. It also shows 4a and b and 10,later leased by James Beatty, but they belong to a Robert McKnight, so we still don’t know how James acquired them.

More tomorrow.

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