Hi Peter

Hope you are well.  It has been about two years since I was in touch with you regarding finding Manley ancestors in County Mayo .  I wanted to include you in a message I sent to several others looking into Manley history. I have found the answers to many of the  questions I had two years ago and which your posted on your web site.  My Anthony Manley is still a mystery but he lived in Derby in the 1860’s and then vanished only to reappear living in Nazareth House – a home for elderly Catholic poor in Oxford where he died in 1917.  He left 3 three living daughters.  My grandfather’s brother Jim Manley who was in the Boer War, WWI, WWII and the Mau Mau emergency and a white hunter in colonial Kenay died in his sleep in 1969 and lies buried with his wife in the Langata Cemetery in Nairobi.  I found two lines of second-cousins in England and a third one in Stockholm who remains a British citizen.   She has many of the older family photos

I had found a link to a specific street in Ballina.  Another Australian who visited there this month and I may be distant relatives.  Working with others we sorted out the Munnelly lines in Crossmolina.  I think I have hit the limit on research at this point and can’t really justify much more time in this project.  For this reason I wanted to update you before my memory bank starts failing.

Oh, I seems very very likely that the Manleys or Munnellys were a branch of the O’Doherty clan who migrated to County Mayo at the time of O’Doherty’s Revolt in 1609.  Many O’Dohertys and others were forced to leave Ulster after the revolt failed and migrated to the western part of County Mayo .  That’s the summary of what is known.

Peter, take a look at the end of what follows.  There are records for several  Hanrahans in Bradford – they must be your bunch.

Dear Manley Researchers:

Greetings to all. I want to bring to your attention a few developments.  Marybeth Van Winkle of Scranton , PA has worked very hard transcribing the birth, marriage and death records from the LDS microfilm of the parishes of County Mayo .  Over the past year she has forwarded me findings regarding the Munnelly – Monnelly – Manley group.  Recently, she began putting her transcriptions on-line at this location http://irishhereandthere.yolasite.com/  For now, she has parts of Kilmoremoy  - Ballina and Crossmolina . She plans to put up more parishes in the future.  By looking at the data some patterns emerge.  There seems to be a pattern of sponsors being a brother or sister of the bride or groom.  I read in one book that generally a marriage took place at the bride’s parish or townland.  I not am  not an expert, so take it for what it is worth.

The second item concerns the beta site for Civil Registration beginning in 1864 which is now available here

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start

I believe obtaining birth marriage and death certificates or copies of them is now possible through Dublin using the indexes on the site.  I recommend giving it a look.  It is interesting to see that Monnelly is used mainly in Ballina registrations but not found in Bellmullet.  Who knows why?

Another interesting find is research on the McGinley clan.  Particularly interesting is the migration of some of the McGinleys from their homeland in Donegal to County Meath and County Mayo .  The migration to western County Mayo took place around the same time as an off-shoot of the O’Doherty clan is believed to have also moved and became known as Munnellys.  I find it interesting that the author thinks there may have been two migrations to County Mayo . I wonder if there were two Munnelly migrations, one before O’Doherty’s Rebellion and one afterwards.  The McGinley homeland in Donegal is just west of the O’Doherty lands on the Inishowen peninsula. It is the anvil shaped piece of land directly above “ Londonderry ” in the map below.  The McGinley lands are directly west. (..map missing..)

Below is a key piece of the history of the McGinleys.  I have looked at the pardon list following O’Doherty’s Rebellion.  O’Doherty was only 19 when he rebelled but his uncle Philem was on the pardon list and many others.

Many Co. Donegal clans such as the Clerys, Devannys, Divers, Gallaghers, McDaids, McLoughlins, McNultys, O’Donnells, Sweeneys, and McGinnellys (the usual spelling there) are to be found in the Burrishoole and Achill Island areas in the west of Co. Mayo. It is recorded that these Donegal clans settled there under the leadership of Ruairí Ó Domhnaill/Rory O’Donnell from Lifford in Co. Donegal. This was just after the time of the Battle of Kinsale (1601), part of the Nine Years War. He was pardoned by the English, along with his followers, for rebellious acts against the English Crown. The first of the Donegal clans arrived there in 1602 (see Edward McLysaght). It would seem therefore that members of the McGinley clan returned home first before being 'moved on' to Connacht . Some folklore says that they stopped in the area on the way to or just returning from Kinsale, but this seems unlikely. It is also recorded that these Donegal names settled there during the Cromwell evictions when thousands of families were forced to leave Donegal. This was between 1654 and 1660. It looks like a two wave migration into the area. Like the case with the McGinnells of Westmeath, it seems likely that many McGinleys settled in Burrishoole and Achil because of the previous settlement in those parts by McGinleys.

During the Ulster rebellions under the leadership of the renowned Cathaoir Ó Dochartaigh, the leader of the O’Doherty clan, the McGinleys did their bit in the war against the English. When the Irish side was finally defeated, the English Government issued a ‘1609 Pardon List’. The compilers prepared the list in a very haphazard way, showing little understanding of the Irish language. They translated names into English as it sounded to them at the time. The list contained a substantial number of warriors who fought under Cathaoir Ó Dochartaigh, many on the list being ‘the chief of their name’, in other words, clan leaders or at least ‘influential members of their clans’. All the usual Donegal clans are represented including McGinley. On the list we find Tirloe McGinelik, the original Irish form would be Toirealach Mag Fhionnghaile. What happened to him we do not know. The Pardon List of 1609 was used by the English for the selection of those they wished to get rid of. The ‘pardons’ were offered as a bribe to leave the country. Those on the list were considered to be dangerous rebels at the very least. What followed after the 1609 Pardons, was very often transportation to Sweden or further afield. Sweden was a friend of England at the time and needed new recruits in their wars with Denmark, Poland and Russia . So, many of Irelands finest young warriors and rebels were ‘shipped off’ to serve a foreign army! Did our Toirealach go too?

There were several Munnelly or varients in the area around Ardagh which Cecilia is believe to have came from.  Unfortunately, it is a parish were we have no records until 1870.

 The 1796 Flax producers in Mayo lists these people.  About the only thing I can add is that flax processing required a lot of water and I believe the Deel River which runs through Crossmolina to the area around Ardagh is the reason why we see so many in that area.  Also, Lough Conn was in the area. Flax and linen  went into a decline from 1800 to 1830   The area could not compete against linen from Germany or the mills that developed in Belfast and Leeds .  Apparantly, the Irish hawkers in the mid 19^th Century England were selling linen almost exclusively because of the well known association to Ireland .  Eventually, cotton replaced linen  and hawkers when into deline around the same time – as the section below indicates.  For awhile I though the reason so many in my group were hawkers was because of an earlier connection to flax growing but I have discarded that idea. 

Michael Hanrahan, the third son of Thomas & Cecilia is remembered by the family as working as a chauffeur, for Septimus Miller at his property, "Cantala", in Caulfield. Leo Andrews recalls Uncle Mick organizing a family gathering at the property.

 The children of John & Mary Hanrahan ....

Mary-Anne sometimes used the name May-Anne. Nothing is known of her childhood, she married Albert Andrews in 1910.

Seven children Lance, Kathleen, John (Jack), Eleanor (Nellie or Nin) Jean, Leo, and William (Bill) followed. Leo Andrews vaguely remembers, aged about four, living in Ripponlea. Then he remembers living in Hurstbridge, then two different houses in Diamond Creek, and then back to New St. Brighton. Mary-Ann was struggling with her health and the young children. From time to time she could not look after all the children and the older ones were put into care for a year or so. Lance & Jack went to St Vincent de Paul’s orphanage and the girls, Kathleen, Nelly & Jean, to the Abbotsford Convent.

The following is from conversations with Leo Andrews in 1994.

After the initial move to the Hurstbridge area we moved back to Brighton. Although a year older, Bill and I were enrolled together in school at St James, (Gardenvale). Then the family moved to St Kilda, and then to Punt Road, Windsor, and then to rooms in Greville St. Auntie Ann (Maguire) Hanrahan possibly owned this. There we attended the local schools.

Subsequent moves were to Greensborough, Eltham, back to Greensborough, then Highett St. Richmond. Next back to Greensborough, into four different places including a place in Flintoff Street.

In 1935, after our mother had died we shifted down to a boarding house in South Yarra. This was not successful and then we rented a house in Trinian St. We stayed here until Lance married. He stayed on at Trinian St and the rest of us moved to board with Mrs Tomasetti in Northcote Road Armidale, moving out as we got married. Mrs Tom was a very nice person, putting up with us boys and our motor bikes without a complaint.

We had two horses when we lived in Greensborough, one was a very old horse and the other, an ex race horse, we got from Uncle Jack (Hanrahan). We did not have a saddle when we used to ride the ex racehorse. It would go hard and then you couldn't stop it. It would go like mad and you were not strong enough to stop it. One day we fell off and the horse went home without us. When we moved back to town the horses went up to Eltham; we must have given them to someone.

Mum would travel from Eltham to Brighton where she worked as a domestic. There was no social security in those days. One day she did not have enough money for a train fare to go to work. We collected wild flowers from the bush and sold them by the road to St Helena. We collected 2/- and the fare was only 1/3. Mum was most upset, she did not know we were doing it. We would pick mushrooms and later on Bill & I would make a little money picking blackberries on a Saturday.

We lived in six different houses altogether in Greensborough. They were going to open a new school at Briar Hill. And we went there on the very first day it opened. Bill and I went there, Lance and Jack were still in the home and came up there later. This was the first time I can remember we were all together as a family. With all the moves we went to Briar Hill school three times altogether. From there we went on to Collingwood Tech travelling daily by train.

In 1934 Mary-Ann passed away at home in Flintoff St. Greensborough. She had a long term heart condition. Albert attended the funeral did not stay in contact with the family.  The older children, Lance and Kathleen, became the guardians of the younger ones. Lance, the oldest would have been about 22 and Bill, the youngest about 12. Support came from their mother's younger sister Alice.