The Prolificacy of Eugene

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic church was constructed in Aghacommon from 1829 to 1832, following Catholic Emancipation, and registers from 1836 onward recorded baptisms, marriages, and burials.

Like many young couples of their time, Eugene McAtamney and his wife Betty (née Hennan) were frequent visitors to the chapel.

Catherine 1842

There's no record of Eugene's and Betty's marriage. It was common for couples to marry at the bride's home parish, and Betty may have come from elsewhere. It's also possible that they married prior to the start of Seagoe marriage registration.

Over the years, Eugene and Betty baptised ten children:

1. William 1837
2. Henry 1839
3. Catherine 1842
4. Elisa 1844*
5. Thomas 1846
6. Eleanor 1849
7. James 1851
8. Elisabeth 1854
9. Eugene 1856
10. Francis 1858

Betty died in 1864, shortly after civil registration was introduced in Ireland. Her death record indicates that she died of a fever at 50 years old (born about 1814). Her Rank or Profession was "Wife of Eugene McAtaminy" and present at her death was their daughter Catherine.

Eugene remarried in 1868. The civil record of his marriage to Mary Ann Walsh describes him as aged 50 (born about 1818), a widower and a farmer. His father was William, also a farmer. The father of the bride, Arthur Walsh, was a long-term neigbour at Aghacommon. Eugene's daughter Catherine made her mark as a witness.

Over the years, Eugene and Mary Ann registered and/or baptised another ten children:

1. Arthur 1869*
2. John 1870*
3. John 1872
4. Mary Ann 1875
5. Patrick 1878-1878
6. Margaret 1879
7. Charlotte 1882
8. Alice 1885
9. Arthur 1887-1889
10. Ellen 1891

When Ellen was born in 1891, her eldest brother William was aged about 54.

Eugene died in 1892 of Bronchitis and Apolexy. His age was recorded as 58, although he was probably about 74.

Mary Ann remarried about a year later, but died of Bronchitis herself in 1895. This 1901 census shows her youngest children scattered amongst their older siblings and other relatives.

It goes without saying that Eugene wins the McAtamney Prize for Most Prolific.

The children marked with an asterisk (*) in both these lists did not appear in later parish or civil records (marriages, deaths, burials, or births of their own children). And of course, the reuse of a name means that a child had died.

It was not customary to hold funerals for children - they were simply buried in the family plot at the cemetery - so burial records typically don't exist for them, even into the 20th century.

And in the early days of the start of civil registration, it was not uncommon for parents to skip civil registration of children who died, although baptism was of the utmost importance. Registration of children who lived was frequently delayed, and the records are full of children who were ostensibly baptised days before they were born.

Granny Sheridan

Every once in while, Ancestry sends an email proclaiming Possible Record Matches. Most often, it shows records that are already added, but recently, one such email included a photo of Mary McAtamney, titled Granny Sheridan.

Clicking on the link, we learned that the picture was of Mary Sheridan (née McAtamney) on the occasion of her 100th birthday at Struan Lodge, Dunoon, Argyll.

Granny Sheridan

The linked tree said Mary was born in Glasgow on the 4th of December, 1882, and died in Dundoon on the 26th of March, 1983. It had no details of her marriage to Denis Sheridan. Unfortunately, the poster of the photograph has not logged in to Ancestry for over ten years and we were unable to make contact.

When I visited Lurgan in May, 2019, I found a grave at St. Patrick's in Aghacommon that is marked simply "McAtamney and Martin". This led to the 1901 marriage of Elizabeth McAtamney and Thomas Martin in Seagoe Parish.

Looking at the scan of the 1911 census return for Thomas Martin in Knockramer Townland, we noticed that his wife Elizabeth was listed as having been born in Govan, Scotland.

This led to a thorough search of the Scottish records by the intrepid Pamela N, who discovered a trove of McAtamney records in Govan. We learned that James McAtamney, a son of Eugene McAtamney and Betty Hennan, had moved to Govan and, there in late 1879, had married Susannah Lennon. They had four children: Elizabeth, Teresa, Mary, and Henry.

Henry died of Pneumonia in  1885, shortly after his 1st birthday, and a few weeks later, his mother Susannah died of Phthisis (Tuberculosis).

James remarried in 1886, and the following year, he and his new wife, Margaret (née Harkins), moved to America. The US census of 1900 shows that they lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but had a daughter enroute in Birmingham, Alabama.

Granny Sheridan's date of birth matched that of Mary McAtamney, born in Govan to James and Susannah. The problem was that Mary was listed along with her father and his new family in the 1900 census in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was 18 years old, and employed as a "Cracker Packer."

Sadly, the 1890 US census was lost in a fire, and the remaining fragments offer no clue as to the whereabouts of Elizabeth and Teresa. It's possible that they accompanied their father to America, as Mary did, or that they went to live with relatives in Scotland or Ireland.

We know that Elizabeth married Thomas Martin at St. Patrick's Aghacommon in 1901, and we found a record of Teresa McAtamney (an uncommon name) having married Duncan John McCallum at the Pro-cathedral, Oban, Argyll, in 1914.

There's no record of Mary McAtamney having married Denis Sheridan in America, or in Scotland for that matter. It began to seem unlikely that Granny Sheridan was related. Yet the date of birth was an exact match, and there was only one Mary McAtamney born in Scotland around that time.

Not to be deterred, we decided to add Denis Sheridan to the tree and try to investigate further. We immediately got a warning that he was possibly a duplicate person. It turned out we'd already added him from the trove of "unknown" McAtamney marriages in Lurgan that were gathered from the newly available civil records at the irishgenealogy.ie web site.

Denis Sherian and Mary McAtamney married on the 16th of July, 1906, at St. Patrick's Church Aghacommon.

Her father was James McAtamney. Of course, with Mary having last been seen in Pittsburgh, we had not made the connection, although we might have had we looked closer and noticed that one of the witnesses was Teresa McAtamney!

Denis occupation was Riveter, and his residence was Aghacommon. His father was James Sheridan. We were unable to locate a record of his birth in Ireland, and instead found him in Glasgow. One wonders what a Scottish riveter was doing in Aghacommon in 1906.

It seems that Mary gave up her career as a Cracker Packer in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and returned to Lurgan, or perhaps Glasgow.

Following their marriage in Lurgan, Mary and Denis moved to Barrow-in-Furness, England, where Denis Jr. was born, from there to Glasgow, where three more children were born, and finally to Dunoon, Argyll, where they had two more children.

It also seems safe to conclude that it was Mary's sister Teresa who married Duncan McCallum, and lived out her life nearby in Oban, Argyll.

It's gratifying when a single clue, in this case the photo of Granny Sheridan, unlocks a mystery and allows a whole story to unravel.

Familiar Lurgan Addresses

During my trip to Lurgan in May, 2019, I searched for some of the addresses I'd seen in the genealogical records. Most were gone - Black's Court and May's Court are no more - but I was able to visit a couple, and took some pictures. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Church Walk

77 Church Walk, Lurgan, was the residence of my great grandparents, Patrick McAtamney and his wife Mary (Sinnamon), and their children, in the 1911 census.

My grandfather Francis Edmund was three years old in 1911, and lived here with four brothers and three sisters. The family had already lost a girl to an infected foot, and a boy to scarlet fever.

The following year, another brother was born in Lurgan, and a few years later, the family moved to Glasgow, Scotland where, in 1916, another brother came along.

Ulster Street

My great grandmother Mary died in Glasgow in 1922, and a few years later, Patrick returned to Lurgan, leaving his youngest children in the care of their sisters.

Patrick died in 1938 at 26 Ulster Street, Lurgan, the home of his son William. The house was now for sale, and badly in need of renovation.

Patrick's sister Elizabeth McDonald died a few months before him, at her home, around the corner at 4 Clara Street.

Aghacommon 2019

I visited Lurgan in May, 2019, and took a few pictures whilst wandering around Aghacommon. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The Corner House Bar stands at the intersection of Ballynamoney, Derrymacash, and Kilvergan Roads.

It looks old, and I wondered if it was there when our ancestors made their way to church. I stopped in for a cup of tea, and asked the waitress how long the building had been there. She estimated it was at least 25 years.

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery, on Derrymacash Road. I took more pictures in and around the church.

The road to Kilvergan Townland cuts through the countryside. Now open fields, this land was once filled with homesteads.

Looking west from Kilvergan Road, a view of Aghacommon that Griffith says would have been plots 13 and 22a in 1864.

And in the distance to the left, perhaps plot 14, the homestead of the prolific Eugene McAtamney and his 20 children.

Aghacommon with Griffith's 1864 Map References

At the corner of Kilvergan Road and Tannaghmore Gardens.

The Griffith map says this is the northern corner of Aghacommon Plot 9, which was George Ruddell's farm in 1864.

Looking south across Aghacommon Plot 9.

This is likely the same view that George Ruddell had in 1864.