Genealogy of the Naughtons
[Extract from "An Investigation into the Ancestry of Bill Naughton and P.D. Kenny" by Paul Waldron who spoke at the Kenny/Naughton Autumn School in 1994.]
There are similarities in the ancestry of Bill and P.D.: (1). His mother's home-place was in Tubber, Aghamore, within a few miles of Lismagansion; (2). Bill's grandmother was Flatley: she belonged to one of a group of five-Flatley families in Lassany, and so, like the Kennys they are difficult to disentangle because of the recurrence of a small selection of Christian names.
In his writings, Bill gives little away about his father's background. He says he came from Carrowkeel, near Ballyhaunis; indeed he did come from Carrowkeel, or what would generally be called Carrowkeel by locals and outsiders alike; but, any local will tell you that the Naughton house and holding was in the townland of Knockroe, which adjoins the townland of Carrowkeel. The land records, census, and other official documentation bear this out. For the purpose of this talk I shall use Knockroe throughout. The decrease in the use of a townland name, and its replacement with that of a neighbouring, better known townland name is quite a common occurrence in rural Ireland.
Whereas for P.D. Kenny we had to use the 1911 census as a starting point, simply because his name occurs in no available Irish record before this, for Bill Naughton, the starting point has been his parents' marriage certificate. The biographical information on his siblings as given in "On The Pig's Back" indicates that his oldest brother Edward was born in 1906, and a search of the civil records of marriage for the years immediately previous to this uncovered the following: Thomas Naughton of Carrowkeel, Ballyhaunis, son of Thomas Naughton married Maria Fleming of Tubber, Aghamore, daughter of Thomas Fleming on 17th May 1904. The next step was to check the 1901 census for Carrowkeel to see who was in the Naughton household then. Carrowkeel showed up no Naughton household whatsoever, but a search of the surrounding townlands revealed them in Knockroe. The return for this household reveals, as expected, a young Thomas Naughton, Bill's father, then aged 21 years, living with his sister Kate, aged 25 years, and their parents Thomas and Sibina Naughton, aged 65 and 64 years respectively.
Now, the next step was to get Thomas's birth record in order to discover Sibina's
maiden name. Not only was Thomas's baptismal record uncovered, but those of
a number of his siblings, and these reveal his mother, Bill's paternal grandmother,
to have been Sibina Flatley (more of the Flatleys later). Thomas Naughton senior
married Sibina Flatley in Bekan church 23rd March 1855. Unfortunately, the marriage
record (from Bekan parish registers) does not give their father's names, nor
their addresses.
Now, Thomas's father Thomas senior (Bill's grandfather) would have been born
c.1836, though the fact that he married in 1855 would suggest his true year
of birth was a few years earlier, perhaps around 1830 (and in the 1911 census
his age was given as 84 years, giving him an approximate year of birth of 1827).
In the General Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland (1856), Thomas Naughten
and Patrick Naughten are listed as tenants of Philip Taaffe in Knockroe. As
Thomas was married in 1855 it is reasonable to assume that he had a house and
holding at that time, so it is reasonable to assume that Thomas listed in The
Valuation is Bill's grandfather, and not a possible great-grandfather or other
relative.
It is not known how Thomas and Patrick were related to each other; Patrick died 27th Oct. 1891 aged 80 years, so he was either a much older brother of Thomas's, a very young uncle of his, or perhaps a cousin. We know, from Katie and Paddy Joe Tighe that Katie's grandfather Michael Naughton, who settled in Mannin, was a brother of Thomas; Michael died 18th Oct. 1889 aged 60 years, giving him an approximate year of birth of 1829. The land holding as shown in the printed General Valuation shows each tenant with his/her own self contained holding; the manuscript valuation books, however, show the previous rundale land holding set-up, and from this it is apparent that Thomas and Patrick Naughten were in co-operation with four others, holding almost forty acres in common. The other co-tenants with the Naughtons were Martin Doogan, Patrick Walsh, Thomas Caulfield and James Caulfield. The Valuation Office revision books contain an interesting note about Knockroe dated Feb. 1889 - "This townland was striped about twelve months ago, the fences are not made and the marks are nearly defaced in some places." So, the Griffith's Valuation seems to be at variance with the land holding situation on the ground as it remained until the early years of this century and the townland's acquisition by the G.D.B. in 1905.
These revision books show Thomas's holding remaining in his tenancy, and eventually his ownership, until 1917 when the title went to Michael Lyons, husband of Kate Naughton, Bill's aunt (they got married in Ballyhaunis church 4th Feb. 1911, witnesses: Willie Comer and Maggie Costello). Bill's grandmother, Sibina Flatley-Naughton, died 19th April 1903 aged 72 years, giving her an approximate year of birth of 1831. His grandfather Thomas died 22nd Feb. 1915 supposedly aged 71 years*. In 1946 the land went to Delia Waldron, and in 1949 to John Brennan, the present owner. The other Naughton holding went, upon Patrick's death in 1891 to his daughter Bridget and her husband Martin Coyne, a native of Bargarriff. Martin and Bridget had a family, but I cannot elaborate on these further, except a Martin Coyne and his sister, both unmarried, lived in Knockroe within living memory.
*The informant of his death was Mary O'Malley, Aghamore, cousin. She was probably one of the Melias of Tubber.
The Flatleys
Knockroe adjoins the townland of Lassany, in Bekan parish, where there were
a number of Flatley families in the nineteenth century. I suspected that Bill's
Grandmother Sibina Flatley belonged to one of these, especially since it was
so near Knockroe, and people in the last century did not travel very far to
find marriage partners. I had nothing else to go on: the Flatley sponsors at
the baptisms of Bill's father and his siblings bore names which did not tie
them to any particular family, so I searched the baptisms of the children of
all the Flatley families in Bekan, a big job. An Andrew Flatley had shown up
as sponsor at the baptism of Bill's sister Kate in 1859, and a William Flatley
had occurred as sponsor for two of his uncles, and so I had hoped to uncover
some details on these, and maybe evidence to prove a connection with Sibina,
Bill's mother. Now, William seems to have been a popular name among all the
Flatleys, but only one Andrew was located who could be the sponsor in question.
So, in searching through records of Flatley baptisms I was not too surprised
to find that there was an Andrew Flatley, a native of Lassany, married in Turlough,
Greenwood to a Catherine Lyons; their first born child had as her baptismal
sponsor Thomas Naughton and Sibby Flatley, Bill's grandparents. Now, what was
most significant here is that it was their first-born child, and was born some
three miles away from where the Naughtons lived, so it was not because they
were neighbours they acted as sponsors, more likely that Andrew was Sibina's
brother, certainly, his age in the 1901 census at 60 would mean he was contemporary
with her; then again, if this was the case then its a wonder none of the Naughton
children were called Andrew. Anyway, this Andrew Flatley was a son of John Flatley
and Sarah Cribbin, and it may be significant that one of Bill's father's baptismal
sponsors was a Pat Cribbin, a possible relation of Sarah's. The names of the
sponsors for the other children of John Flatley and Sarah Cribbin would suggest
that she was one of the Cribbins of Cloontumper. Now, in 1901 there were two
Flatley houses in Lassany and another with a Flatley connection: they were headed
by William Flatley, contemporary with Sibina, Thomas, who was some twenty years
younger. The baptismal sponsors for Bill's uncle Thomas, who died young, were
William Flatley and Bridget Grogan, well, this couple were in Lassany, and Thomas,
John and Bridget Naughton occur amongst the baptismal sponsors for their children
born in the 1830s and 40s. Now, just to show how complicated this all is, there
was another couple bearing the same names William Flatley and Bridget Grogan,
who were having children in the 1850s, 60s and 70s.
Something I should have included in the Naughton section of t~ris talk, but indeed it won't be out of place here as it concerns a Flatley too, was the fact that Bill's father had a sister Sarah who married Patrick Flatley, a weaver in Carrowkeel. She died in 1900 and left two young children Mary and Patrick. Sarah's death was registered by a John Biesty of Carrowkeel who told the registrar he was her first cousin, however I have been unable to establish this connection.
Bill's mother's people
Of all the people talked about here tonight I feel least qualified to talk about
Bill's mother's people. His closeness and particular affection for her has resulted
in many references to her family and background in his writings. Also, he has
many relations on this side who kept in touch with him through the years, so
I hope you bear with me while as I run through what has been found concerning
your ancestors. I am indebted to Joe Byrne, Catherine Muldowney and the Tighes
for providing the framework of the following; I am sure they, and Bill's other
relatives will be able to add to what I say:
Bill's Great-grandfather James Fleming of Tubber is listed in the General Valuation, 1856, as holding, in co-operation with one Patrick Lohan, a small holding in that townland from Margaret M. Beytagh. His wife's surname is not known but her first name was Bridget and she died 18th Jan. 1889 aged 74 years, giving an approximate year of birth as 1815. They had at least two sons and two daughters: Thomas, or "Clayton" Fleming, who married Mary Joyce from County Galway, Martin, who married Margaret Conway of Raith, Una who married William Loghan of Tubber, and Mary who died unmarried in 1883 aged 38 years. The Above mentioned Thomas or "Clayton" Fleming and his wife Mary were the parents of Maria Fleming who married Thomas Naughton of Knockroe, Carrowkeel, Ballyhaunis, who were the parents of Bill Naughton.
Conclusion
Because so few genealogical sources exist for Mayo, use has to be made of less
obvious and less particularly genealogical sources. As illustrated by the use
of baptismal sponsors earlier, those sources which do exist have to be made
the most of. The late starting date of Parochial registers, the incompleteness
of the Tithe Applotment books of the 1830s, the lack of pre-190 censuses all
compound to make Family history research in Mayo difficult. In the absence of
enough useful sources genealogy or Family History Research is tied closely to
the study of local history, land holding, settlement, marriage and inheritance
patterns etc. One has to adopt a holistic approach when dealing with tenant
farmer's families in the nineteenth century. The 1901 census and the General
Valuation can be used as "jumping-off points". For most tenant farmer
families the best one can hope for usually is to bridge the gap between the
head of households as recorded in these two sources., and only seldom can the
names of earlier generations be found. Also, though the names of older individuals
of a particular surname may be found, say in death records, it is often impossible,
using written records alone, to link them to known families.
Without a doubt, the greatest source to genealogists working on tenant farmer's families is oral history. This is still largely untapped and is in danger of being forgotten or left unrecorded. These oral genealogies can often bring families back to the mid-eighteenth century, can account for a families placement in an area, and can preserve notions of more distant relationships with other families. Where the records are available, I have frequently found oral accounts to be quite accurate and verifiable.
So, if anything is to come out of this talk it should be this: Think of how
much genealogical lore is being lost every year, as the older generations pass
away; think of how much more complete our genealogical store would be had the
recollections and insights of previous generations been recorded. Let us not
let the opportunities still available to us slip by; make a not of what the
older generations know, at least about your own family: the written records
will always (hopefully) be there, available to future generations who won't
have access to the oral lore available to us.