tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6796453294242204514.post1123156994873516141..comments2024-03-28T18:12:05.958-07:00Comments on The Family Connection: Cootes and LundysUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6796453294242204514.post-33367827307966044832012-03-19T15:51:53.535-07:002012-03-19T15:51:53.535-07:00Hi Jeanie. I love the stuff you do and feel guilt...Hi Jeanie. I love the stuff you do and feel guilty that I havent been more help. <br />Your Mum can tell you a lot more about Cloonrawer(a more local spelling, also Cloonraver) than I can. There were no house numbers and #49 would have been a designation given by the Census Taker. Although it is a very rural area, your grandparents house was one of three in the same "street" which is not like a town street but simply a shared yard. This was common at the time - my mother's home was the same sort of setup. They were small, typically three roomed cottages with no running water, electricity or sanitation although electricity came in the late 1950's. They typically housed three generations and the familys were large. 8 to 10 children being common. <br />As far as I know, your grandparents came back because they were given the farm about 25 acres I think, although they aquired some more while they lived there. Land wasnt worth much at that time in Ireland and I doubt if its sale would have done any more than cover the price of the journey to the US for a large adult family, if that. Again, your Mum is a better source.<br />There really arent any photo's any further back than our mothers time and the one of our Great Grand parents Tom and Mary Lundy is a very rare one taken at that time. <br />Tom Lundy was born just after the Famine in Ireland at a time when official records of the native population are very poor and a time which marked a mass exodus from rural Ireland which was quiet heavily populated. Remember Dublin was the second City in the British Empire at the end of the 18th Century. <br />The population of Ireland in 1841, just before teh famine was some 8.2 million, however the most conservative estimates say this should be 8.5 million and some estimating as high as 11 million. The combined population of Great Britian and Ireland in the 1841 census was about 27 million. <br />The best records from that time are found in baptismal, marriage and some death records kept by the catholic church. I know your Aunt's Clare and Vera spent a few hours going through the records on their last visit.<br />The town of Charlestown was also built at that time. There was an existing village at Bellaghy (which still exists and adjoins the current Charlestown) but it was in County Sligo and part of the Knox estate. There was a weighbridge there for weighing farm produce for export but the farmers of the neighbouring Dillon estate in Mayo had to wait until all the Sligo farmenrs were dealt with. The Dillons decided to build a new town with their own weighbridge and their agent Charles Strickland, for whom the town is named, was given charge of the project. This started in 1845, just before the famine and by the end of the famine in 1850 it had about 60 houses. <br />I know I need to go through my mothers pictures again to see if I can find any of your grandparents. <br />There are certainly Lundy cousins still living in the Boston area.Martin Stensonnoreply@blogger.com