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Genetic DNA testing pays off after all!

Posted in Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged , , on March 17, 2016| 7 Comments »

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!

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Beattys back to the Eighteenth century!!!

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), James Beatty 1842-1903, tagged , on February 27, 2016| 3 Comments »

Firstly, I’m making it official that James Beatty of Ballina was in fact the younger brother of Archibald Beatty of Ballina. I ask you, why else would two young men, both from Fermanagh, both of whose father was James Beatty, Farmer, both appear in Ballina, Co. Mayo at about the same time and share a house there if it isn’t because they’re brothers? There just isn’t another sensible explanation, even apart from the name Archibald occurring in the next generation of our family – SO, moving on.

In my last post it was established that the Farmer father of Archibald (and James) was James Beatty of Aghavoory near Fivemiletown, and two other siblings were discovered whose names also reoccurred in the next generation of our family. The Fermanagh experts in Rootschat drew my attention to a Margaret Beatty born 1863 to James Beatty of Aghavoory and his wife Sarah. At first this set me back on my heels – neither of those names is familiar, and Margaret is 20 years younger than our g grandfather James, who is the youngest of Farmer James’s children so far discovered. It occurred to me that James might have married twice. Then I found this entry in RootsIreland:

Second marriage of James Beatty of Aghavoory, WIDOWER in 1859 giving the name of his father

Second marriage of James Beatty of Aghavoory, WIDOWER in 1859 giving the name of his father

Ignore the spelling of the surname, it is certainly James Beatty of Aghavoory, WIDOWER. Ignore the given age of 22 also, couples didn’t usually give their ages, the convention at the time was just to say if you were over 21. The really exciting thing is that since this marriage occurs in the civil registration period it gives the name of Farmer James’ father – long dead no doubt – another Farmer, Archibald Beatty who would certainly have been born in the 1700s 🙂 🙂 No wonder Sarah and Margaret sounded unfamiliar. Our James and his brother Archibald would hardly have known them. I wonder if it was a coincidence that they both left for Ballina the following year? Maybe young James – only about 17 at the time – didn’t feel so much at home at the Aghavoory farm after his father’s remarriage?

Unfortunately we still don’t know the name of Farmer James’ first wife, our gg grandmother, and we may never know. I BET it was either or both of Emma and Matilda though – the name of our James’ eldest daughter!

[Update September 15 2024: so much progress since I wrote this! back into early 18th century now]

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Archibald Beatty breakthrough

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Beatty family, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged , on February 4, 2016| 2 Comments »

We now know a lot about Archibald Beatty, Merchant of Lisnaskea/Ballina/Liverpool (c1836-1897), almost certainly the older brother of our James Beatty of Ballina/South Yarra (1842-1903). Both were born in Fermanagh with father Farmer James Beatty. In an earlier post we established that Archibald had a nephew Joseph Beatty who was keeping an eye on Archibald’s pork/bacon factory in Enniskillen, Fermanagh after his uncle’s death in 1897. In an attempt to encircle the elusive farmer James, I’ve spent the last few days spreadsheeting every mention of a Joseph Beatty in Fermanagh in the late 19th century that I can find anywhere on the record. Luckily there were fewer Joseph Beattys than James Beattys in Fermanagh at the time and this one was probably alive at the time of the 1901 census (the earliest Irish census to survive intact!). Only one Joseph seemed the right age and to have reason to be in Enniskillen in 1897. He is Joseph Beatty, Egg and Butter Merchant, the son of Joseph Beatty, Farmer of Agheeter townland just south of Fivemiletown. His paternal grandfather is (YES!) James Beatty, Farmer.

Capture

Archibald Beatty of Lisnaskea/Ballina/Liverpool/Fivemiletown family tree

I tried not to get too excited. There were over a dozen James Beattys in Fermanagh in the late 19th century, and 90% of them were farmers. To save a lot of time I lashed out on a subscription to RootsIreland.ie -very expensive, but it gives every detail from birth and marriage records including addresses, even names of witnesses at weddings. Joseph Beatty senior married Margaret Mulligan in 1855. His father was James Beatty, Farmer, and his address at the time was not Agheeter, but the nearby townland of Aghavoory. Since at least 1829, Aghavoory, near Fivemiletown had been the address of a farmer James Beatty. Surely Joseph was still living at home at the time of his wedding! A witness at the wedding was Archibald Beatty. Then I found another Beatty whose address at the time of her marriage was also Aghavoory. She was Matilda Beatty (father Farmer James Beatty), married in 1853, again a witness at the wedding was Archibald Beatty. She has to be Joseph’s sister, right? Her husband was William Robinson a farmer at Breandrum townland near Brookeborough, not far from Fivemiletown. Both were still there at the 1901 Census many years later.

Now Archibald Beatty, with his wife Eudora and son Edward John had left Ballina, Co. Mayo for Liverpool in 1874, and all still had a Liverpool address in 1897 at the time of Archibald’s death. So how come the widowed Eudora, whose own family were from Belfast, died at Breandrum near Brookeborough, Co. Fermanagh? Yes! Her sister-in-law lives there 🙂

Eudora Beatty probate

Eudora Beatty of Liverpool, widow, died at Braindrum (Breandrum), Brookeborough, Fermanagh 19 Nov 1900. Probate to Edward John Beatty

 

Furthermore, Edward John Beatty of Liverpool, England, who must have been a well-off young man after the death of his father Archibald in 1897, in 1898 married Martha Eleanor Beatty, daughter of the above Farmer Joseph Beatty of Agheeter, at Brookeborough, Fermanagh. First cousin weddings were pretty common in 19th century Ireland. She went to Liverpool with him where they raised a family.

Archibald Beatty burial at Fivemiletown 1897

Burial of Archibald Beatty at Fivemiletown, 1897 from the Fermanagh Times 18th March 1897

Finally, thank you Sean at the Enniskillen Library who looked up some local papers not yet digitised and found that Archibald Beatty wasn’t buried at Lisnaskea, Ballina, Liverpool or even Enniskillen, but at Fivemiletown. Well of course he was, having come full circle from his birthplace 🙂

I think the above family tree is proven. Now if only I could prove that Archibald was indeed the older brother of our James Beatty of Ballina/South Yarra. Our James certainly had children named Archibald, Matilda, and Joseph! Hmm… Back to Ballina.

 

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James and Archibald Beatty of Ballina must be related

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Beatty family, James Beatty (1797-1873), James Beatty 1842-1903, James McLean (c1840-1916), McLean Family, tagged , , on January 16, 2016| 4 Comments »

I’m going to focus on breaking through the James Beatty of Fermanagh brick wall now. Just because it’s difficult is no excuse not to try. For those of you interested in the Forsters/McLeans though, I did find one more document which casts a little more light on the McLean family, particularly James McLean, in 1858. It’s now incorporated in the McLean family story .

A question for other family historians: How much circumstantial evidence do you need before you conclude that two people are related? Yes, I know. It isn’t proof. It’s certain that James Beatty the Draper, who is first documented in Ballina, Co. Mayo in 1862 and who brought his young family to Melbourne in 1878, was born Co. Fermanagh in 1842. All we know of his parents is that his father, also James Beatty, was a farmer. At about the same times as James, an Archibald Beatty, Merchant, 7 years older than James, also appeared in Ballina. He is first documented there in July 1861. It is certain that he had formerly been a Merchant in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, but his father, also a James Beatty, was also a farmer. Could this be just a coincidence?  Beatty was not nearly such a common name in Mayo as it was in Fermanagh. Yesterday I found a document showing that Archibald and James Beatty both joined the Freemasons in Ballina on the same day, 16 Dec 1867. Only 2 others joined the same day. What’s the probability that James and Archibald Beatty are brothers? James the Draper named his second son (my Grandfather) Archibald.

The main thing that came out of the DNA testing was finding a fellow researcher whose family are genetically very closely related to ours and who has a detailed family tree of Beattys in Fermanagh, including Archibalds and a James. Thanks Pete! I’m going to work on the area around Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, and follow the names James and Archibald, and hope to work out which Farmer James Beatty is our ancestor!

 

 

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New chapters of the Beatty family story – the 1930s

Posted in Archibald Beatty (1877-1946), Beatty family, Charles Gordon Beatty, Enniscrone, Mont Albert, Victoria, Australia, Harold Beatty, Littleton family, Peggy Beatty, Victoria, Australia, Winifred Blair, tagged on October 15, 2015| 2 Comments »

“Enniscrone” 12 Trafalgar Street, Mont Albert. Home of Archie and Connie Beatty and family. Front and drive 1932

After wading through hundreds of (mostly unlabelled) photos, several years of Peg’s diary and various letters and other stuff, I’ve added two new chapters of our family story: see the links to them in the right hand column. Chap 11 deals with the family from 1930-1935 and includes the move to “Enniscrone”, Mont Albert. Peg’s diary records many visits to and from other branches of the Beatty and Forster family, and I’ve mentioned many of these. The Littleton family, particularly Ruth, Geoff and Gwen occur in many of the photos.  Chap 12 is mainly about Harold and his friends and their camp at Rye Back Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, which they called McBeatsome Town.

I have to say it’s a lot easier and more rewarding writing about this very well-documented end of the family story. It’ll probably take another visit to Ireland to tease out more about the early 19th century Beattys with no guarantee even then.

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Archibald Beatty of Ballina, late of Lisnaskea

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Beatty family, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Ireland, James Beatty 1842-1903 on September 4, 2014| 1 Comment »

We know a lot about James Beatty, Draper, of Ballina, born Co. Fermanagh c1842, who came to Melbourne with his young family in 1878, but his father James Beatty the farmer/swimmer continues annoyingly elusive. Clutching at straws, I decided to investigate the Archibald Beatty, merchant, “Late of Lisnaskea” who appeared on the record in Ballina in 1861, about the same time as James is first mentioned there. With that name, and also from Fermanagh could he be a relation? It wasn’t hard to find out a lot about Archibald, mainly because he tended to put notices in newspapers, including his marriage to Eudora Tucker (though they misspelled her name)

Archibald Beatty, merchant of Lisnaskea. Marriage 17 June 1858

Archibald Beatty, merchant of Lisnaskea. Marriage 17 June 1858

Another thing that made him easy to track was his move to Liverpool in 1874 after about 15 years as a “well to do merchant” in Ballina. He and Eudora and their son Edward John (born in Lisnaskea c1859 and obviously named after his maternal grandfather) appear in the 1881 and 1891 census in Liverpool, though I don’t know what happened to the daughter whose birth was announced in Ballina in 1861. Archibald and Eudora evidently both returned to Fermanagh from Liverpool in the 1890s as they both died there, he aged 61 in 1897. Archibald left his estate to his son also a merchant. Here’s his will:

Archibald Beatty death, 1897 from Index of Wills

Archibald Beatty death, 1897 from Index of Wills

Archibald was about 6 years older than draper James, and his father was also a James Beatty. Could they be brothers? I even lashed out $40 to get Archibald’s marriage details as that would give the profession of his father. Now you’d think that someone who was a “merchant” by age 22 was probably the son of a merchant right? Well no. His father James Beatty was a farmer! Another coincidence?
A few months after Archibald died, his bacon factory in Enniskillen (near Lisnaskea) was broken into:

Archibald's nephew is a Joseph Beatty - Belfast Newsletter 9 July 1897

Archibald’s nephew is a Joseph Beatty – Belfast Newsletter 9 July 1897

According to this news article he had a nephew Joseph Beatty. Joseph is another name that has occurred in our family – Alfred Joseph was the youngest son of James the draper. I think this is too many coincidences. I’m going to track down Joseph now, in case he eventually leads back to the mysterious farmer James.

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Things you’d have preferred not to find out! The perils of family history research.

Posted in Archibald Beatty (c1836-1897), Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Co. Sligo, Ireland, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland, Hannah Dempsey, James Beatty 1842-1903, Kinard Lodge, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, Ireland, tagged , on December 4, 2013| 2 Comments »

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Kinard at Landed estates Court from Belfast News-Letter, 27 June 1874

Oh Dear! No wonder the Pagets and Beattys emigrated in 1878. I have found James Paget’s will. He made our gg grandmother Hannah Dempsey (note use of her maiden name) the sole executor. Subsequently she sold all his remaining land in Ireland at the Landed Estates Court in 1874 to one of James’s second cousins John Paget Bourke for £6,225. Hannah continued living at Kinard Lodge with the children until they emigrated 3 years later. It’s pretty clear now that James and Hannah were not technically married.

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From Freeman’s Journal – Dublin, 16 February 1877

Also, I had wondered why James Beatty didn’t set up as a Draper in Melbourne and instead worked in clerical or travelling salesman jobs. Well he evidently wasn’t such a great businessman since his Ballina drapery business went broke! This fire sale was just a couple of months before Archie’s birth. I wondered why Archie was born at Kinard Lodge and not in Arran street, Ballina like his siblings James and Emma.

Anyway, on the far side of the world nobody knew  (until now!) about illegitimate births or bankruptcies. Hannah was the widowed Mrs. Paget for the rest of her life and she and her eldest son James Paget both bought farms at Baddaginnie in Victoria while James Beatty and Marcella (nee Paget) were friends of the bishop in South Yarra, Victoria and all highly respectable.

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From Belfast News-Letter late July 1861

I did find out something that might be a good lead on the elusive Beatty ancestors though. At about the same time as our g grandfather James Beatty the draper (who was born somewhere in county Fermanagh) appeared on the record in Ballina, Mayo, an Archibald Beatty, merchant, appeared there too. Of course his name (Archibald) made me wonder if they were related even apart from their sudden appearance in Ballina at about the same time. The earliest mention of this Archibald in any source I’ve found so far was 1861 and he isn’t mentioned in connection with Ballina after 1871 and I don’t know where he went. [Update Apr 2015: He moved to Liverpool in 1874]. Anyway, look at this notice about the birth of his daughter in 1861. It would have been more useful if it had named either his wife or daughter, but it does have three VERY interesting words “late of Lisnaskea”. Where is Lisnaskea I wondered? Have you already guessed? It’s in County Fermanagh 🙂 The plot thickens!

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Who was James Beatty senior and did he “swim with Captain Webb”?

Posted in Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Ireland, James Beatty (1797-1873), tagged on December 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Records are so sparse for nineteenth century Ireland that we may never know much about our Beatty ancestors before the emigration to Melbourne in 1878.

While awaiting the outcome of an upgrade from 37 to 67 markers on our DNA test which may or may not help find out more, I’ve been pondering the usefulness of the only surviving family anecdote about the first known James Beatty. HAP was told that his Great Grandfather James Beatty, father of the James Beatty who came to Australia, was a strong swimmer who “used to swim with Captain Webb”. HAP will have been told this by his father Archie because HAP himself was a strong swimmer and the school breaststroke champion. His proud father probably saw it as an hereditary trait. Sadly HAP was told (or remembered) nothing else about his Great Grandfather.  Archie has a credibility issue as he was the source of the (since debunked) rumour of our close relationship to Admiral Beatty. However I think the Captain Webb thing may have a grain of truth. Why would Archie have known otherwise that there was a west coast of Ireland connection to Captain Webb? At least one whole book (“The Crossing” by Kathy Watson) has been written about the famous Channel swimmer which doesn’t mention that he ever went to Ireland at all. David Elderwick in “Captain Webb : Channel swimmer” says “A trip to the Faroe Islands as Chief Officer of the ‘Ballina’ and a six-month spell as captain of the steamship ‘Emerald’ preceded Webb’s departure for new pastures … His employers were sorry to see him go. The rapid passages he had made between Liverpool and Ballina on the west coast of Ireland had boosted the company’s trade considerably.” Terry Reilly in “Ballina : a storied place…” says “Captain Matthew Webb became the first man to swim Killala Bay in 1874, from the Enniscrone (Sligo) side to the Kilcummin (Mayo) side. He boasted to fellow drinkers in McDonnells Pub on Bridge Street (now the Bolg Bui) that he would buy them all a drink after successfully completing his Channel challenge.” http://www.everytrail.com describing the “Yeats country drive” claims that “Captain Matthew Webb used the lake [Lough Gill] as part of his training for the feat [his Channel swim]. He was a friend of W.B. Yeats grandfather who lived in the area”. Lough Gill is close to Sligo town and it turns out that Yeats’ grandfather was William Pollexfen of Sligo town, one of the largest ship-owners in Sligo and the grateful employer of Captain Matthew Webb as mentioned above.

Anyway, for the lack of much other evidence I’m going to explore the possibility that our gg grandfather did know Captain Matthew Webb. It doesn’t matter whether he swam with him or was just a fellow drinker at the pub, this would mean that he was still alive in 1874 and lived a short buggy ride from either Lough Gill and Sligo town or (more likely) Ballina. Have a look at County Sligo in google maps to see what I mean. We know (from the marriage certificate of his son James who was born in county Fermanagh in 1842) that he was a farmer. By the dob of his (eldest?) son, he must have been in his 50s when he “swam with Captain Webb” who was much younger. HAP was a formidably strong swimmer into late middle age too though.

So James and his family evidently left county Fermanagh (in the 1840s or 1850s?) to farm near either Ballina or Sligo town. This probably isn’t surprising either as a lot of people moved around during and after the potato famine. HAP said the swim was “across Sligo Bay”, but, never having been to Ireland he may have meant Killala Bay. Whichever bay it was, that’s a smaller haystack to examine for our elusive ancestors. At the moment I think Ballina more likely. That’s where James’ son James set up his drapery business and his brother (or another son?) Archibald was a storekeeper/auctioneer in the 1870s. Also, Peg Beatty went to Enniscrone and Ballina in the 1950s expecting to find Beatty relations there. Surely this was because her father had lead her to believe they would be there?

What do you think? I think I feel another trip to Ireland coming on.

[Update 10 Sept 2024: It is now clear that this is a complete myth as we now know a lot about James Beatty snr who lived at Aghavoory in Fermanagh and died there in 1873 aged 76, a year before Captain Webb was the first person to swim Killala Bay in 1874. Both James Jnr and his older brother Archibald were in Ballina at the time though and very likely drank with Captain Webb at McDonnells Pub on Bridge Street. Maybe Archibald swam with him – though probably not across the Bay! HAP was clear that it was not his grandfather James Beatty (1842-1903) who emigrated to Australia in 1878 who was the swimmer]

 

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DNA testing

Posted in Beatty family, tagged on October 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Well it’s official. We have genuine Beatty DNA going back (almost certainly) to an ancestor from the River Esk region of South-West Scotland in the 15th century. No wonder we’re a rowdy lot as ours was one of the notorious border reiver families. Several other Beattys who’ve been tested are very closely related (meaning we almost certainly have common ancestors within the last 8 generations) and some of those have ancestors known to have lived in Sligo or Fermanagh.
As suspected, we don’t seem to be all that closely related to the famous Admiral, but I’m waiting for my email to work again so I can talk to the experts.
At some stage ours should be added to the data in the BeattyDNA project though it’s not easy reading. Ours is Lineage 560.
Watch this space!

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Mystery man in Marcella’s locket!

Posted in James Beatty 1842-1903, Marcella Constance Paget, tagged , , on January 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This is a bit weird. After much fiddling I worked out how to get the photo out of Marcella’s locket. Naturally it contains a photo of her husband James Beatty which you can now see under “Image gallery– Beatty, James and family”. The tiny photo may have been taken the same day as our earliest photo of him (around 1873?) as he appears to be wearing the same suit. The locket itself is decorated with the intertwined letters AEI (Amity, Eternity and Infinity) in decorative red and white enamel, the enamel now much damaged. It has a case which was obviously made to fit it, which is labelled “Waterhouse & Compy, The Queen’s Jewellers, Dublin”. Presumably it came from Ireland with the family in 1878. I wonder if it was an engagement or wedding present from James to Marcella? The weird thing is this photo (here very much enlarged) of a very young man – a boy perhaps – which was hidden underneath James in the locket. Who the heck is this?Image

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