Bits & Pieces
On this page you will find useful links as well as random jottings, updated from time to time, about Irish
genealogy, Irish art, Homan himself, and responses to this website. If you would like to post anything relevant here, contact Homan
What
ever happened to...?
...Henry, John and Susan Maud Potterton. These were the three children of Thomas VIII and his wife Margaret (nee
Morrin) of Moyrath and all three emigrated to America probably sometime in the 1890s. Henry was born in 1874, John in 1876 and Susan
Maud in 1880. A Henry Potterton (born in Ireland) passed through Ellis Island on 11 August 1897 (http://www.ellisisland.org/): he
may well have been Moyrath Henry. But what of his brother and sister? Susan Maud is supposed to have married a 'Mr Smith of
New York'. Are there any of their descendants out there?
...Found!
Laurie Westberg writes from Salt Lake City:
'Thomas Potterton
(a widower) and his 18-year-old son, John, arrived in Boston on 13 April 1896 having sailed on the Cephalonia from Queenstown (Cobh),
Ireland. Henry passed through Ellis Island the following year. The Census of 1900 records Henry and John on Tyler Street,
Boston. John must have returned to Ireland after that as he came back to Boston on the Commonwealth in June 1901. He was
accompanied by his 20-year-old sister, Susan. Susan later married a leather-machinest called Frank A Smith and is recorded with her
three children in Plymouth (Mass) in the Census of 1920.'
Calling Australia...
Alexander de Courcy Potterton, who was born in
Balatalion, emigrated to Australia when he was just 19. He arrived in Adelaide on the Canton on 2 May 1838. According to the 1841
Census of South Australia he worked as a labourer on the Survey of Adelaide. By 1867 he was in New Zealand (in the town of Thames)
when he saw 'action' as a Private in a Volunteer Defence Force. He is reputed to have married a woman from Mauritius called Madeleine
Selene Tournelle. He came back to Ireland about 1890. Can anyone find out anything about him in Australia or New Zealand?
Potterton
on the web
Finding your Irish Roots
Thinking of searching for your ancestry,
here are some useful websites to help you start.
The Irish Family History Foundation's website could be your first port-of-call as
there you will find links to the websites of all of the main repositories of available records. There are links to the National
Library of Ireland, the National Archives, the General Register Office, the county heritage centres, and much more.
An
interesting site which often leads to more out-of-the way information, such as gravestone inscriptions or newspaper extracts is a
private site managed by Jane Lyons in Dublin. It's called, appropriately enough, 'From Ireland'. Take a look....
A newcomer to websites which are helpful to the genealogist is
the Irish Newspaper Archive.
http://irishnewspaperarchives.com/
This is a pay-per-view site. So far, the number of Irish newspapers
covered is limited but it does include the Irish Independant, the Freeman's Journal, and the Meath Chronicle. Simply access the
site and search for your family name. Admitedly, this is more productive with an unusual family name like 'Potterton' where
it is possible to be sure that any Potterton will be part of the family. Once you find the reference, you click, and the relevant
newspaper page comes up. But Be Careful! It takes a few moments for the page to come up and the temptation is to click
again...and again. Don't! You pay for each click.
When I did a random 'Potterton' search I came up with the following (as well as other
interesting items):
From The Irish Independant, Wednesday 17 December 1930:
Call for Irishman at a Concert
'A dramatic announcement
was made at the Albert Hall concert given in London by the boy violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, when a gentleman came forward and requested
that Mr Robert Potterton should go to the front entrance. Mr Potterton, who had crossed over from Ireland the previous night, went
out and met his sister who had received a telephonic request from relatives in Dublin that Mr Potterton should return at once to his
home in Laracor, Trim as his brother, Mr Norman Potterton, was dangerously ill. Mr Potterton caught the night boat train and returned
home to find that his brother, though seriously ill, was progressing favourably.'
I was amused by this and all the more so as Robert
Potterton is the baby who features in the photograph of children on the front cover of my book, Potterton People and Places, and his
brother, Norman, is the little boy on the right of the photo. Norman recovered his illness and lived for another fifty years!
Irish
Roots magazine
Edited by Tony McCarthy and published from Cork four times a year, Irish Roots is always full of information (and useful
advertisements) that is very valuable to anyone researching their Irish ancestors. http://www.irishrootsmagazine.com
Irish Art
Vera Ryan, who
teaches Art History at the Crawford College in Cork, has just brought out a second volume of interviews with people (artists, writers,
and administrators) who have been active in the world of Irish art since the 1940s. It is published by Collins Press: http://www.collinspress.ie
Homan is one of the interviewees (talking mainly about his time at the National Gallery of Ireland) and
there are also conversations with the important collector, Gordon Lambert, the doyen of Irish artists, Pat Scott, and the painters
Barrie Cooke and Brian Maguire among others. Oral history at its most useful.
The Tong Family
Homan's mother's maiden name was
Tong. Her grandfather, Robert Tong, had come to Charleville, Co Offaly from Keelby in Lincolnshire sometime in the 1850s. He had five
sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, Franklin and Robert Dawson, emigrated to New Zealand in the 1880s and had families there.
Homan has included a genealogy of the Irish Tongs in his book, Potterton People & Places and one of Franklin's descendants, Pam
Tong, has a Tong family history website. It is http://cust.idl.com.au/pt39/
Longford Ancestry
Created by Simon de Montfort, it contains an enormous amount of material on Longford
landed families and is very easy to use. Rev Frederic Potterton (1826-1912) passed his entire ministry in Longford (and was ultimately
Dean of Ardagh) so his biography (and that of his son, de Courcy Switzer Potterton) is on the site. Then there are notes and pedigrees
of the Hinds family of Abbeylara. Two Hinds daughters married two Potterton sons of Balatalion in the 1860's and longfordancestry.com
publishes the notices of both marriages from the Longford Journal. Click 'Genealogy'; search 'Potterton'; then click 'view notes'
for 'Archives: newspapers'.