Fitz-Henry Family History and other random stuff

Legacies of British Slave Ownership project

2013-02-28T21:03:00.002Z

Yesterday, the University of Central London in England unveiled the results of a mighty project - The Legacies of British Slave Ownership. The website is an amazing piece of work and well worth a look. The Encyclopedia of British Slave Ownership is part of the project

Slave owners could apply for compensation for loss of their "assets" when slavery was finally abolished in the British West Indies in 1833. The encyclopedia is made up from the applications to the Slave Compensation Commission from anyone who owned slaves (from a single slave to hundreds). Twenty million pounds was allocated by the British Government, all of which went to the owners rather than to the slaves themselves. The "freed" slaves were often tied to their former masters as indentured servants or "apprentices" for a period of years until they obtained their full freedom.

In the online search for the UCL website, I have found a William Fitzhenry, who owned 3 slaves in the parish Port Royal, Jamaica. He was awarded £63 16s 1d, and this claim was uncontested.
At present I know nothing more about this man, or the slaves.

I am indebted to Mr Ernest Wiltshire who has transcribed information from this book:

"The West Indies in 1837; being the Journal of a Visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the negro population of those islands" by Joseph Sturge & Thomas Harvey, London, Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1838.

and posted it on this webpage. At the bottom of the page, is an entry for the parish St Thomas in the East, where Sir Henry Fitzhenry owned an estate named Grange Hill near Manchineal Bay. It suggests that there were at least 2 apprentices on the estate (4 years after slavery was abolished), a James Purton and a Louisa Burton, a cotton picker.

If anyone has any more information about William and Henry Fitzhenry (were they related?), please drop me an email here at the blog.

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In memoriam: Evelyn Fitzhenry of Fleet, Hampshire

2013-02-26T21:12:00.001Z

We send our sympathies to Jim Fitzhenry of Fleet in Hampshire, an old friend of the Blog, on the recent death of his dear wife Evelyn. Jim and Evelyn were married in South Africa 62 years ago, and returned to England 14 years ago. Their daughter Helen and her family still live in South Africa.

Jim would also like to thank the staff of the nursing home who took such good care of Evelyn in her last years.

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Fitzhenry family from County Mayo

2013-02-19T09:30:00.002Z

After the publication of my article on the Ancestry blog, I was dead chuffed to get an email from Peter Fitzhenry who lives in Somerset, but whose family came originally from County Mayo via Wigan and Staffordshire.

I already had Peter's family in the database as family group number 73, and was delighted when he then volunteered to participate in the Fitzhenry/Fitzharris DNA study.*

Although we haven't positively identified the family back in Ireland, we know that they came from "County Mayho" from their entry in the 1881 census when James Fitzhenry (aged 33, a coalminer) and his wife Bridget (aged 32) were living at 9 Walsh's Yard, Scholes Street, Wigan.
They had 7 children that we know of Martin (born 1870) Bridget (1873), James (1875), Mary Ellen (1876), Edward (1878), Thomas (1880) and Joseph (1882).
There may also be an eighth child, a daughter called May. In the 1881 census she is listed as May Kenny, daughter, aged 19, married, cotton operative. However May does not appear with James and Bridget in the 1871 census, and May's age in 1881 would mean that Bridget was only 13 when May was born. I suspect May was a boarder and the census enumerator mistook the word "boarder" for "daughter".

Peter would be delighted to hear from anyone descended from this family, and you can send him an email through the Blog.

* Peter's is the third DNA test we have done over this winter. We would also like to welcome Jim Fitzharris from County Carlow (our first Fitzharris man to test!) and another Peter Fitzhenry from Australia, who is a descendent of Lesley Champion's Fitzhenry family. We welcome all of them, and are looking forward to the results over the next couple of months.

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Fitzhenry surname article for the Ancestry blog

2013-01-31T20:03:00.001Z

Some while back, I wrote an article for the Ancestry.co.uk blog, describing the derivation and migration of the surname Fitzhenry, Fitzharris and Fitzsenry.

Today it was published as part of Ancestry's "What's in a name?" series, which has also included the surnames Cumberbatch, Braund, Owston and Hardisty to name a few.

Ancestry are the sponsors of the "Who Do You Think You Are? Live" exhibition at Olympia in London from 22-24 February, and I will be attending all three days. So if any regular (or occasional) readers are in the vicinity, drop me an email.

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Last call for the FamilyTreeDNA sale prices

2012-12-26T19:40:00.002Z

Just a quick reminder that if you now have Christmas present money burning a hole in your pocket, the FamilyTreeDNA price reduction finishes on 31st December.
So if you are a Fitzhenry or Fitzharris or Fitzsenry, now is the time to get ordering your festive DNA test to see where you fit into the great Fitz family.

The price of a 37-marker is currently US$119 through the Fitzhenry surname study.

Only 5 more days to go...

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FamilySearch Indexing - New Year's resolutions and forums

2012-12-26T19:27:00.001Z

FamilySearch.org is a great resource for we genealogy researchers. And many of those who use the resources at FamilySearch make some repayment by joining the legion of indexers, making more genealogical information available to everyone.
Try your hand at indexing sometime, it's extremely satisfying.
You don't have to be a member of the Church of the LDS to do it
You could even make it a New Year's resolution.

Up until now, all those indexers had a place where they could turn to for help and advice from other indexers. It was well hidden deep within the layers of the FamilySearch website, but it was there, and I for one found it very useful.

Very quietly, FamilySearch have whispered that they are closing down the forums.
As from 31st December.
Many thanks to the Ancestry Insider who published it on his blog.
Familysearch haven't really put anything new in place which will be up and running by the time the forums are switched off apart from a Facebook option, but thankfully a senior indexer called April already has started up a replacement forum which can be found here.

So if you have tried indexing, and need a little help, try April's forum.

And the Fitzhenry / Fitzharris blog wishes you all a Happy New Year, and promises to be a bit more prolific next year...

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Lest We Forget - Private Edward Fitzhenry of the Worcestershire Regiment

2012-11-11T00:00:00.000Z

Private Edward Fitzhenry 10285 of the 4th Battalion of the Worcester Regiment died 28 April 1915 at Gallipoli and is commemorated at the Helles Memorial, Turkey

Edward was the second child born to Edward Miles Fitzhenry and Maud Mary Dallaway in 1889 in the Aston area of Birmingham. He had an older sister Maud Matilda, and a younger brother William Dallaway.
Edward Miles died in early 1891, around the time his youngest son was born, and Maud found herself as a 24 year old widow with three children under four years old to support. The family initially moved in with Maud's mother and her extended family in Old Cross Street, Birmingham [1891 census], but in 1893 Maud married again to Frederick Robson, a carter for the City corporation and they had two more children Ethel and Frank. In the 1901 census, the whole family was living back in Aston.

Unfortunately Edward's military records have been lost, but we do know that at some time between 1905 and 1911 Edward joined the British Army, as in 1911, the census showed that he was stationed with his regiment, the 4th Worcestershire in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. [Wikipedia] The census return states he was aged 22, single and born in Birmingham Warwickshire.
Back home, his siblings were still living all together in a house in Kings Norton, Worcester, along with a Dallaway cousin and all the men were in the bicycle manufacturing trade.

I'm indebted to the excellent website of the Worcestershire Regiment for the story of what happened next. Click here for a fuller account.
The 4th Worcestershire regiment transferred to Burma in 1912, and in early 1915 was summoned back to England to regroup for the battles now taking place in France. The regiment billeted at Leamington Spa, so it was very likely that Edward was able to see his family again after several years. Along with several other regiments, the 4th Worcestershire became part of the 29th Division which was sent out to support the operations in progress in the Dardanelles.

"Thousands of the civil population turned out to see the troops off and "a whole army of relations from Birmingham" came down to Leamington to bid the 4th Battalion Worcestershire farewell. In three trains (9.0 p.m., March 21st. 1.0 a.m. and 4.30 a.m., March 22nd) the Worcestershire companies left Leamington..."

Perhaps Edward's brothers and sisters were in the crowds.
The 29th Division was transported by sea via Malta and Alexandra to the Aegean Islands where they learned that their enterprise was to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The Gallipoli Campaign took place between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916 by which time it had degenerated into trench warfare. Many hundreds of Allied soldiers were killed landing on the beaches in the first day.
On the 28th April, the third day of the campaign, the 4th Worcestershires were part of the advance inland on the slopes of Achi Baba in the driving rain. Edward was killed in this offensive. He was 26 years old. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A moving contemporary account of the campaign written by Private Ben Ward can also be found on the Worcestershire Regiment's website.

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DNA study update - related Fitzhenry families in Maum and Cornamona, County Galway

2012-10-14T16:27:00.000+01:00

Within the past few days we have had the very exciting news that two of the Fitzhenry families originating in County Galway are related. The geographical origins are only 11 miles (18 km) apart but as parish records failed to show a connection, up to now we could only speculate.

Once again DNA testing has shown that there is a link between these families going through the male line. Analysis of the Y chromosome which is passed from father to son, has shown that a male descendent from each family share a very close DNA pattern with only 1 difference out of the 37 DNA markers tested.

So let's have a look at these two families, and perhaps someone out there will recognise a pattern from their Fitzhenry family and send in some more information. Our knowledge is hampered by these families not always registering their births, marriages and deaths with the authorities in Ireland!

The family of Edward (or Edmund) Fitzhenry of Maam (or Maum)
This is the more westerly of the two families. The mountains out here are beautiful but bleak. The farming life must have been very hard. Thanks to the family history information provided by Frank Fitzhenry and Lenard Baldy.
The earliest known male ancestor was Edward Fitzhenry (b 1830) who married Catherine Shaughanessy. In the Griffith's valuations of 1855 he is known as Edmund and is renting land in Maum East from the Earls of Leitrim and Charlesmont.

Edmund had at least 2 children, Mary born 1859, and William (1856 - 1915) who married Bridget Lydon (1869-1953). William and Bridget had at least 11 children:
Patrick ( b and d 1885)
Mary (b 1886) emigrated to Pittsburgh, married John Coyne
Bridget (1890 - 1971) emigrated to Pittsburgh, married Anthony Coyne
Martin (1892 - 1973) stayed in Maum on the farm, did not marry
Thomas (1893 - 1906)
Stephen (1895 - 1968) emigrated to Pittsburg, married Bridget
Sabina (1898 - 1995) emigrated to Pittsburgh, married James O'Donnell
John (1900 - 1982) emigrated to England, married Ethel Johnson
Edward (1902 - 1957) emigrated to Pittsburgh, married Nora Staunton
William Joseph (1904 - 1985) emigrated to Pittsburgh, married Bridget Joyce
Myles (1906 - 1989) emigrated to Pittsburgh, married Helen Theresa Lally and died in Fort Lauderdale

As far as I can tell, all the surviving descendents of William Fitzhenry and Bridget Lydon now live in the US.
The family of Thomas Fitzhenry of Cornamona
Cornamona is 11 miles east of Maum down the only winding road around the base of the mountains. I am indebted to the research done by Jim McDonough for most of this tree.

Thomas Fitzhenry (1776-1846) married Margaret Joyce (1790-1870) and they had at least 2 sons. We only know the name of one from Jim McDonough's research: Thomas (1808-1873) who married Caitlin Joyce and had at least one child that we know of, again called Thomas.
This Thomas (1841-1933) married Honora (Nora) Burke and had 8 recorded children
Mary (1875-1879)
Bridget (b 1873) who emigrated to Boston, Mass., and married Patrick McDonough
Myles (1875-1879)
Catherine (b and d 1879)
John (1882-1956) who married Mary Conroy
Catherine (b 1883)
William (b 1885) emigrated to Montana and was living there unmarried at the 1940 census
Patrick Joseph (b 1887) emigrated to New York and married Evelyn Stone.

The other unknown son of the original Thomas Fitzhenry may have been called Patrick or John, as these are are the two male Fitzhenry tenants in Cornamona in the Griffith's valuations. The son with the unknown name had a son Martin Fitzhenry (1849-1944) who married Mary Welch and had 5 known children:
Catherine (b 1883 and still alive at the 1901 census of Ireland)
Mary (b 1886) emigrated to Boston Mass.
Bridget (1888-1911) died in Cornamona
Patrick (1890 - 1981) went to the US for a spell, fought in WW1 in the US army, came home to Ireland and had a large family. He is buried in the Rosshill cemetery in Clonbur in the family grave but with an additional US army headstone.
John (b1893 and still living with his widowed father Martin in the 1911 census)

Now we have other Fitzhenry branches which came originally from County Galway, and it would be great to know if they are linked to these two families. More about these other Galway Fitzhenry families in the next post.

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The 2012 London Olympic Games - how was it for you?

2012-08-12T21:00:00.000+01:00

From a British perspective, it was bloody brilliant. As much as I was in the "Bah humbug" camp of naysayers originally, I enjoyed it immensely, especially the cycling.

Fitzhenrys and Fitzharrises of any spelling haven't appeared the the Olympic games.

However, we do have Mount Fitzhenry in the Olympic Range in Clallam County, Washington State. And that has to be worth a medal!

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Congratulations to Kristen Fitzhenry, award winner at UCSF

2012-07-21T12:08:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to Kristen Fitzhenry of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine Dean’s Office. She was a 2012 Sustainability Award Winner in the staff category.
You can read more about Kristens award here.

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Update on the DNA study.. and the FamilyTreeDNA summer price reduction

2012-07-09T20:07:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I updated you on the progress of the DNA study, so here goes....

You may find it helpful to have the chart with all the results open in another tab, and here's the link:
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Fitz-Henry/default.aspx?section=yresults

The study has been going for 4 years now, and we have had 14 men join it. Last year (2011) was our best year with 5 project joins, and we have had 2 joins in 2012 so far.

Here's the science...
The process tests the Y chromosome, which only men have, and the Y chromosome passes from father to son with the father's surname. The Y chromosome doesn't change ("mutate") very often which makes it ideal for studying its inheritance over a very long time - many centuries.

The tests look at specific parts of the chromosome (markers) which have a tendency to show a repeat pattern. The number of pattern repeats are counted which gives the numbers that you see in the results chart. So when someone has a number 13 in the first column (all our men do) then it means that they have 13 repeats of the DNA pattern at a certain point. In our study we ask for 37 places on the Y chromosome to be tested. The more individual places which match up on different men's Y chromosomes, the more likely they are to be related. However we also know that over the centuries, the DNA changes slightly so this is when we see differences when we know people are related. More on that below.

The tests carried out on the Y chromosome are done in 3 batches or "panels".
The first 12 markers tested mutate very slowly indeed, so it gives a general feel that two men's distant common ancestor had been many centuries before. A perfect match of 12 can be encouraging but we have had 2 occasions where we have had a perfect match in the first 12, and then many mismatches in the rest of the markers, which show no calculated link for the last 24 generations, or the era when surnames were used in a familial way.
The next batch of markers 13-25 mutate more readily than the first 12, so this starts to show whether there really is a link between the two men tested.
The third batch 26-37 markers mutate more readily still and this can be useful to show who is a member of a particular family line of the same surname in near history (the last few hundred years!).

The most tested family we have is that of Enoch Fitzhenry (1752-1835). His descendants have been remarkably well documented due to a combination of well kept records in their family bibles and enthusiastic family historians in their family (a nod to Mrs Josephine Hodges here who did a lot of sterling work in the pre-computer age and who has been a friend to the Fitzhenry study since its start).
We have 3 men tested from Enoch's line which you can see together in the chart. Each one represents a line from a different one of Enoch's sons. Over the past 250 years mutations have crept in, even in the slowly changing first 12 markers.
The sample from individual known as 230345 has a 12 in the fourth column where the other two descendants have an 11. However, overall the results do not differ by more than 2 markers out of the 37 marker total, and so this means that indeed we can say that all these men are true descendants of Enoch.
There is also a fourth test in this group, which comes from the family of John Fitzhenry (born 1800) of Oulartwick, County Wexford. This family is now in Australia, but has a very good paper trail back to this one townland. The DNA tests match 36 out of 37 markers with Enoch descendant 130259.
We know that there has been no common ancestor between these 2 lines since before 1752, so to only have one marker difference over this timespan indicates a very close link between the two families, with perhaps a common ancestor only the generation or two before Enoch. We can also say with a fair degree of certainty that Enoch's family came from this east part of the county near Enniscorthy.

So far we have had no other close matches between any of the other men tested who are all from trees that so far we have been unable to connect in any other way. This indicates that there was more than one man who originally took the surname Fitzhenry and passed it on to his descendants. Or it may indicate somewhere in the tree what we genetic genealogists delicately call a "non-paternity event" (NPE).
An NPE may happen covertly when a child is born of an affair out of wedlock, but it is not acknowledged either to the husband or outside of the family if he knows.
Or it may be very apparent that the child is not the son of the man from who he takes his name. This happens with:

adoptees;

when a widow has married again and the children from her first marriage take the name (but obviously not the DNA!) of the new husband;

when the child is given the mother's surname;

when a man has changed his surname in adult life, either to inherit a fortune or escape the long arm of the law.

If you are a Fitzhenry, Fitzsenry or even Fitzharris (a variant of the Fitzhenry name in Wexford) man and you are interested in finding out about your deeper family connections, please consider taking the DNA test.
Now is a good time to do it, as FamilyTreeDNA who host our study are having another summer sale, so the 37 marker test is now US$129 ($20 off) until 15th July. And if you have any questions or comments, please add them below or drop me an email at the usual address.

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Bomber Command Memorial unveiled in Green Park, London 28 June 2012

2012-06-25T20:14:00.001+01:00

This Thursday the Queen will unveil a long overdue memorial to more than 55 thousand members of Bomber Command who lost their lives in the Second World War. The new memorial is sited in Green Park in London and more about it can be found here at the Bomber Command website: www.bombercommand.com
With fantastic photos of the construction of the memorial here:
www.bombercommandmemorial.co.uk
A programme about the memorial and unveiling ('Bomber Command: A Tribute') will be screened on BBC2 at 1700h BST on Thursday 28 June, with a repeat at 2320h.

Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry was born in 1919 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, the son of Herbert and Helen Fitzhenry. He enlisted for the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1942 aged 22.
After training, he came to England and after flying with 156 Squadron, he joined 405 Squadron (Canadian Air Force) in 1944 based at Gransden Lodge airfield, Cambridgeshire.

At 1545h on 2 January 1945, as one of a crew of 7, his Lancaster bomber took off for the last time from England for a bombing mission over Nuremberg, Germany. The plane crashed at Rohrau near Nufringen.There were only 2 survivors.
Pilot Officer Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry is buried at Durnbach Cemetery. Posthumously, he was awarded the Permanent Path Finder Force Badge, a high honour in Bomber Command. More about the P.F.F. can be found here.
On Thursday we will remember Stanley Fitzhenry as one of the lost airmen of Bomber Command.

On-line service records and photo from the National Archives of Australia
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx?series=A9300

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In memoriam: Lindsay Roberts FitzHenry of Oregon

2012-06-03T17:55:00.001+01:00

Teresa FitzHenry Hull has sent us an email to let us know of the recent death of Lindsay Roberts FitzHenry.

Lindsay was born in Myrtle Point, Oregon in 1940 and he died on 6th May 2012.
Teresa says despite his medical problems " he put up a good long fight".

Our thoughts and sympathies go to his family and friends.

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Diamond Jubilee weekend...

2012-06-02T12:09:00.000+01:00

For our non-UK readers, this weekend marks the official celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee as 60 years as, amongst other things, the constitutional monarch of 16 independent Commonwealth countries and the British Crown Dependencies; head of the Commonwealth of 54 nations; Defender of the Faith (although when this title was bestowed upon Henry VIII, it was by the Pope as defender of the Roman Catholic Faith); and head of the Established Church of England.

To coincide with the Jubilee, the Royal Archives has released the papers documenting the names of people who were employed by the royal household from 1660 to 1901 (Royal Household Index series 1660-1901). These are available on Findmypast.co.uk.

There are no Fitz-Henrys or Fitzhenrys mentioned, but there are two Fitzharrises: Ann Fitzharris and Judith Fitzharris. Both are mentioned in Establishment Book 13 **.

Each received a pension from the royal estate.

Ann was granted £50 from 1702. What she did in the household is not recorded. This was the year that Queen Anne (1702-1714) came to the throne. So this may indicate that Ann was a servant of Anne's predecessor William III (William of Orange), and was being "let go" with a change in the monarch who would have already had an established household.

Judith received a pension of £20 from 1704. Again, her role is not recorded.

What was this worth to these women? This excellent article at the Old Bailey's website explains that a female house servant would only be earning £2 or £3 a year at this time, and a skilled housekeeper would be earning in the region of £15 p.a. so this indicates that both these women were not just ordinary house servants.
This website is unreferenced*** , but states that you could buy 1400 acres of farm land in North Carolina for about 50 pounds around 1700.

I don't know whether these two women were related, which of the royal houses they worked at, or any more details about their lives. All information gratefully received!

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II
**Royal Archives, Establishment Book of the Royal Household vol 13, RA/EB/EB/13
*** wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_was_50_pounds_in_the_1700's_compared_to_dollars_now

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Video tutorials from Rootstech 2012 now available on-line

2012-05-28T22:41:00.001+01:00

Rootstech is where genealogy meets geek. The annual Rootstech at Salt Lake City, sponsored by Familysearch (the website of the LDS church) unveils new advances in all sorts of technology to help us genealogists pursue our obsession.

Now Familysearch has put some of the keynote talks from the 2012 conference here on the Rootstech website. I found the video "Effective Database Search Techniques" particularly useful (it's in the top line of the available videos).

In a roundabout way, trying to view these videos taught me two other things - keep your device drivers up to date on your PC/Mac and use an up-to-date firewall which you have tweaked yourself so you know what you have allowed in and out. Worth checking every so often, as both of these factors were responsible for me initially not being able to play these videos at all ....

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One of the first mentions of a Fitzhenry in North America?

2012-05-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

The book "Maine Wills 1640-1760" by William Sargent was published in 1887 under the auspices of the Maine Historical Society. The aim of the book was to document all the wills of the old County of York (Maine and Massachusetts) in whichever archive or record office they resided.
This book recently been imaged and indexed on the Geneanet.org website, and contains a very early reference to a Fitz-Henry in North America.

Arundel August ye 28 1724.
The Deposition of William Huges & Ruth Huges of full
age Saith that they heard lames Fite Henry Say that he
Desired to make a wife of lennet McCulland and Some few
Days before he was killed by the Indians and he told us that
if he Should be taken away Suddenly it was his will and
that he gave unto his Girl lennet McCulland all the Estate
he had and that the above sd lames Fite Henry was at the
Same time in his Majesties Service and that this Deposition
was Comitted to writing within Six Days after it was known
he was Killed by the Indians.

William Huges W his mark

Sworn to 3 Nov. 1724, by William Huges, also 28 Jan. 1724-5, by Ruth Huges. Allowed
in Court and probated 28 Jan. 1724-5

According to the preface, the wills were copied "verbatim, literatim and punctuatim" so any variations from the King's English have been preserved in the writing! Huges was probably Hughes, and Iennet was Jennet, a common woman's name at the time.
The capital I was interchangeable for both I and J, and hence Iames Fite Henry is James Fite (or Fitz) Henry.
James Fitz-Henry was a soldier serving in the army of King George 1, the first Hanover King of Britain and its colonies. I know nothing more about James.
The County of York embraced the whole Province of Maine until 1760, when it was divided into separate counties. The chief executive of the province exercised all the powers of a supreme probate court in England. Arundel is still in York County, Maine and a history of the town written in 1886 can be found here
William Huges uses a W for his mark rather than the more common X.

Notice the years when the will was sworn and probated. This was during the period when the Julian calendar year started on the 1st January, but the British Civil and Legal year started on March 25th. Dates in this range showed both the "old style" and "new style" year dates (here 1724-5). This is often seen in old parish registers.
In 1752, the New Year was standardised as January 1st with the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar throughout the whole of the British Empire (including North America). The one remaining exception is the British Tax year which continued to start on April 5th (which was the new Gregorian equivalent of the old Julian March 25th) until 1800 when it changed to April 6th.

Will reference Probate Office, 3, 163.
Page 290, Maine wills : 1640-1760
Author : Sargent, William M. pub. Portland Maine, 1887

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2012-04-29T07:44:00.000+01:00

I've been contacted by Mr Bob Russell who writes

I came across your blog when looking for information about Samuel Foster (1818-1905) of Tonduff near Abbeyleix. I was very grateful to find the details of his marriage to Elizabeth FitzHenry in Waterford in 1867 on your FitzHenry Project website.
More especially, I was really pleased to discover that Richard Boate was a witness. You may be interested to know that Richard Foster Boate (1832-1916) was a first cousin of Samuel Foster.
Richard was the son of John Boate (1791-1840) and Mary Foster (1795-1875) of Noremount Farm, near Abbeyleix.
I am nearly certain that Mary Foster was the sister of William Foster, Samuel Foster's father.

My great-grandfather, Joseph Gibson of Durrow, Queen's County, Ireland, married Margaret Boate. She was a sister of Richard Foster Boate and, therefore, a first cousin of Samuel Foster of Tonduff. The Gibsons were Methodists. Richard Foster Boate's descendants were Methodists. It would seem that Samuel Foster's family were also Methodists. This will help me discover more about the Fosters of Tonduff.
From the 1901 Census in Ireland, Samuel and Elizabeth were still residing at Tonduff. Samuel was aged 80 years and Elizabeth was aged 62 years. Elizabeth Foster (née FitzHenry) was, therefore, born circa 1839 in County Wexford. Samuel Foster was a farmer and landowner in 1901.

If you have any further information about this family, or want to contact Mr Russell, please send an email to the blog and we will forward it to him.

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Pictures from the American Civil War

2012-04-21T18:55:00.001+01:00

On the website of The Atlantic is the first of three collections of photos taken 150 years ago. Amazing in their clarity and shocking in the frank way in which the conditions of the battlefields are shown.
Many of our Fitzhenry forebears were affected by the war, from the Irish emigrants who escaped poverty and famine to find themselves actually involved in the conflict, to the families they left behind in Ireland, to the cotton mill workers in the industrial north-east of England who lost their livelihoods when the raw cotton was not harvested during the war.
Well worth a look.

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Reduced prices on DNA testing at FamilyTreeDNA again

2012-04-20T21:14:00.000+01:00

Quick news flash - the 37 marker Y-DNA test has been reduced from $149 to $129 until midnight on Saturday 21 April (USA time).
The prices will automatically be adjusted on the site when applying through the Fitzhenry surname DNA project, so no need for a code.

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The Sydney Harbour Bridge - another Fitzhenry connection

2012-03-19T08:47:00.000Z

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened 80 years ago today on 19th March 1932. The engineer responsible for the detailed design was Ralph (later Sir Ralph) Freeman, of the London engineering company Douglas Fox & Partners.

Ralph Freeman's wife was Mary Lines, the fourth child of Joseph Lines and Jane Fitzhenry (both of London, England, family group 004 in the database). They were married at St Olaves Church, Stoke Newington London on 14th July and had four children Ralph (1911) James (1914) Patrick (1919) and Diana (1924).

I have featured this family before, as three of Mary's brothers (Walter, William Joseph and George Edward) formed Triang Toys and Walter became chairman of Hamley's toy shop on Regents Street, London. (Link to the Triang toys story)

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"Fitzhenry clan set for Presidential honours"

2012-03-17T14:44:00.000Z

Published earlier this week (15th March) in the Gorey Echo (County Wexford, Ireland). Congratulations to the Fitzhenry brothers (Damien, Mark, Tom, Séamus, John, Martin, Gerard, Noel, Paddy and Fran) who represented their club and county at both hurling and Gaelic football

THE GREAT Fitzhenry clan of Duffry Rovers fame are set to be honoured by the GAA at the President’s Awards this Friday night in Croke Park.

The family have been synonymous with the club’s greatest successes, with the 10 brothers having campaigned in the green-white-and-gold in addition to also serving Wexford in both codes and at the highest levels with plenty of distinction.

The women didn’t sit back and admire their brothers’ exploits though, as the three sisters, Tina, Mary and Ann starred in camogie circles.

The President’s Awards have been in operation for quite some time.

But the Family Acknowledgement Award was only introduced last year, when the family of the late Dermot Earley of Roscommon and Kildare renown were honoured.

Indeed, this award is now known as the Dermot Earley Family Award, and the Fitzhenrys are very deserving to be the second-ever recipients after a lifetime of outstanding service to Gaelic games, from their talents on the playing fields, to management, club administration and even match-commentary, with the award being presented in acknowledgement of outstanding family contribution to the GAA.

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The Fitzhenrys of Macmine Castle

2012-03-09T20:25:00.001Z

Colm Moriarty emailed us to say that the Bree Heritage Site (County Wexford, Ireland) has just published a history of the Fitzhenrys of Macmine castle.
It's a jolly good read, and many thanks Colm for letting us know about it.

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How others see us....

2012-02-14T18:48:00.000Z

Dr Jim Owston who runs the Owston One Name study has give me permission to republish these "How others see us " postcards which he has put together.

My favourite caption is from the "Genealogists" card - How society sees us - my Significant Other refers to my hobby as "bone bothering"....

And for those still considering doing the DNA test, no, we don't want any of your blood - whether extracted by a vampire or any other means!

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In memoriam Vera (Catherine Veronica) Green nee Fitz-Henry 1935-2011

2012-01-30T18:22:00.000Z

Clarinda Sheehan (nee Fitz-Henry) from Dublin, an old friend of the Blog, has written to tell us of the death of her sister Vera on the 24th December 2011.
Clarinda and Vera are from the line of Samuel Fitz-Henry and Mary Ann Banks, and his son Robert Fitz-Henry and Catherine Laird (Family Group 75). This old Irish Methodist family now has branches in England, South Africa and Australia.
Our thoughts are with her family and friends.

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In memoriam Jack Fitzhenry 1938-2012

2012-01-06T21:27:00.000Z

The Blog would like to send our condolences to the family of Jack Fitzhenry of North Arlington, New Jersey, who had died at the age of 74.
You can read his obituary here and to quote from it:
"Jack was a retired Toll Collector and also owned the Cedar Bar in North Arlington. He was a member of the Queen of Peace Council Knights of Columbas #3428 and was a Eucharist Minister at Queen of Peace Church. He was a CYO volunteer and football coach. He also coached football for Boystown in Kearny. Jack loved his Irish heritage and was a member of The Ironbound Irish American Club"

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