Clare Past Forum

Sharon, I haven't time right now to work through all that wonderful detail, but I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

Margaret, I met John Daly at the Famine Commemoration.

\pw

It's impossible to get away from all the Brews! My computer just decided to play back Paddy Nolan's speech at Cammoge on May 6th from
http://www.mixcloud.com/moc/loop-show-r ... e-kilrush/
which I happened to have left in an open browser tab. In the course of his speech, Paddy mentioned his own article:
My Dear Doherty..., on pp.48-50 of The Other Clare, Volume 27 (2003).
In that article, he quotes Rev. P. White's 1893 History of Clare (p.364) in which he writes of those most active in 1848 in effecting the escape of the Young Irelanders O'Gorman, O'Donnell and Doyle that `Two others still live, Garrett Doherty and Dick Brew'.
The latter may be Richard Collins Brew who d. 12 Mar 1904 aged 92, although Ignatius Murphy is quoted as describing the 1848 man as `a Protestant farmer' while the 1901 census says that Richard C. Brew was Roman Catholic.
The Clare Champion of 19 Mar 1904 reported `The death took place on Saturday last at his residence in Vandeleur Street, Kilrush of Mr. Richard Brew an old veteran of the Nationalist cause.'

There is a brief discussion of the 1848 event at the end of Laurence Fenton's Old Limerick Journal Article at
http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/richar ... 20limk.pdf

The American with a real handle on Brew immigrants appears to be Patricia Corbett, who has made hundreds of contributions to the FindAGrave site, with the Brew ones packed with details and photos. Her statement on that site is:
"I am very interested in family geneology. My reseach are for the names, Corbett, Davis, Clancy in Mass. Also Brew, Keane, Gibbons, Walsh, Fitzgibbons, Cassidy, Mills and others in New York."
Patricia Corbett pcorbett11@aol.com

I didn't try to see her entire inventory of Brew graves but I saw several involving those named Michael, three of which are shown here. She may have them all organized already, so I suggest contacting her for further details on the ones that I have briefly described.

Of the individuals whom I could not pursue for lack of time, I should mention that Burton Brew settled in the mid-1800s in Orange County NY, which is the county where the land of the Hudson Valley rises into the Catskill Mountains (on the way to Binghamton and Elmira) and where there was a definite although fairly small cluster of Clare immigrants. I didn't check to see anything by Patricia on his family but she may well have that.

S.C.

Thanks to Sharon's sleuthing above, I've been able to make a little more sense of the various Brew-Crowley marriages:

There appear to have been three marriages between Brew men and Crowley cousins in the late 1800s. All three couples are recorded in west Clare in the Census of 1901, but only one of the three marriages is recorded in Ireland, Civil Registration Marriages Index, 1845-1958 and only one of the three Brew men's deaths is recorded in Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864-1958. Only two of these marriages are included in the Feb 1971 version of `The Kilmihil Crowleys Co. Clare' at
https://www.facebook.com/download/15243 ... r1%202.pdf
All of these omissions, along with a further omission from the index to the Kilrush baptismal register, an error in the Crowley pedigree and further similarities between the children of the Brew-Crowley couples (see below), combine to make it easy to confuse the second and third couples below:

1. Johanna Crowley (1858-1926) and Richard Brew of Carrowncalla South (farmer, 55 in 1901, d. 12 Mar 1909 according to Calendar of Wills and Administrations, d. 28 Mar 1906 according to Kilrush Churchyard transcriptions at clarelibrary.ie, death registered in second quarter of 1909 aged 64) had seven children baptised in Kilrush between 1888 and 1900. The Crowley pedigree has `Johanna (Mrs. Brew, Connacalla [sic]).'

2. Bridget Crowley (b. 30 Nov 1865), half-sister of Johanna, and Michael Brew of Clooneylissaun (farmer, 45 in 1901, 56 in 1911, d. 8 Dec 1912 according to Calendar of Wills and Administrations) were married 12 years before the 1911 census. The 1971 version of the Crowley pedigree has `Mrs. Brew' and `Mrs. Brew, Farmer, Killimer' on page (1) under Michael. The 1979 version of the Crowley pedigree expands this to `Bridget Crowley: Married George [sic] Brew, Farmer, Killimer. Children: George (U.S.A.); Joe, Teresa (home farm).' Michael does not appear to be buried with his wife and her parents in Kilmihil.

3. Bridget Crowley (1867-1942), second cousin of Johanna and the older Bridget, and George Brew of Kilkee (grocer, 47 in 1901) were married in the first quarter of 1899. The 1971 version of the Crowley pedigree encompasses Bridget and several siblings in the statement `All others emigrated.' The 1979 version of the Crowley pedigree is probably the source of the statement `Bridget: Emigrated to America. Married Brew. Lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. one child Agnes who married Fitzgerald' at http://www.familyhistorians.net/genealo ... 156&tree=2. In their household in 1901 is Agnes Crowley (16, sister in law of George). Agnes appears on the Crowley pedigree, but not in the Kilrush baptismal index.

To further the potential for confusion, each of the two Bridget Brews née Crowley appears to have named her first child Mary, but later called the child by her middle name:

2. Michael of Clooneylissaun's daughter was apparently registered as Mary Teresa Brew in the last quarter of 1899 and in the 1901 census is described as Marina Teress, aged 1 year and 7 months.

3. George of Kilkee's daughter was apparently registered (late) as Mary Agnes Brew in the last quarter of 1901 and in the 1901 census is described as Mary, aged 2 months.

Finally, the first two Brew-Crowley couples each had a son George who went to New York, exactly 10 and a half years apart:

(I'm not sure how to get this forum to recognise the ellisisland.org URLs below containing backslashes, but anyone interested can copy and paste.)

1. George of Carrowncalla South (chr. 11 Jun 1889) sailed from Queenstown on 4 May 1910 aboard the Caronia and arrived at Ellis Island on 12 May 1910. The first half of the relevant manifest opening is here
but the second half is not anywhere close to it on the microfilm. George travelled with his Carnacalla neighbours Francis and Annie McMahon, children of Dan. George was destined for Brooklyn and the McMahons for New York City.

2. George of Clooneylissaun (born shortly after the 1901 census) sailed from Queenstown on 4 Nov 1920 aboard the Baltic and arrived at Ellis Island on 12 Nov 1920. The relevant manifest opening is at
http://www.ellisisland.org/cgi-bin/tif2 ... 55.tif&S=1
and
http://www.ellisisland.org/cgi-bin/tif2 ... 56.tif&S=1

Sharon quoted this inscription:

Martin Madigan, Clune House died 17th June 1954 (Marian Year) aged 57 years his wife Teresa died 30 July 1966 aged 67 Joseph Brew aged 60 died 29 April 1964 Erected by his wife Teresa MADIGAN

I suspect that this began as:

Martin Madigan, Clune House died 17th June 1954 (Marian Year) aged 57 years Erected by his wife Teresa MADIGAN

and that the other two names were inserted after Teresa's death in 1966.

Teresa and Joseph must be the children of Michael Brew and Bridget Crowley of Clooneylissaun.

Clune House must be the larger of the two Brew homes in Clooneylissaun, where there are two Brew households in Griffith in 1855 (George sen. and George jun.) and two Brew households in the censuses of 1901 and 1911.

I don't know which household the Patrick of Clooneylissaun (who also married a Madigan and emigrated shortly after the 1901 census) came from.