Owen McCrossan (1861-1905) will

Getting sight of this will was the first indication I had that the reason I was struggling to find my father's grandparents in Ireland was because they had emigrated to the USA, to Philadelphia...

I Owen McCrossan of Glassmullagh in the County of Tyrone hereby revoke all former wills made by me and declare this to be my last will and testament.

I bequeath the Licensed House and premises in Dublin Street, Newtownstewart, at present occupied by my brother Robert McCrossan as a yearly tenant, to my sister Catherine McCrossan of Glassmullagh.

I bequeath my three houses in Dublin Street, Newtownstewart, one of which is at present occupied by William Barton, another by a woman named Mubrine and one is at present vacant, to Catherine O’Connor, at present residing with me in Glassmullagh.

I give, devise and bequeath my farm in Dunteague, known as McNally’s farm, to my sister Catherine McCrossan. 

I give, devise and bequeath my farm in Dunteague known as McTaggart’s farm or the Upper Farm, to my brother Robert McCrossan of Newtownstewart.

I have my life insured in the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited for the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty Pounds and out of this sum I bequeath

      ·    Fifty pounds to my sister Jane Magee, wife of Hugh Magee of Dunteague

·       Ten pounds to the Rev C McFaul CC Invaugh, said sum of Ten pounds to be applied by him in purchasing a statue or statues for the altar at Dregish Roman Catholic Chapel.

·       Five pounds to the Rev C McFaul CC for masses to be celebrated in public and in Ireland for the repose of the suffering souls in Purgatory (3/6 each mass).

·       Five pounds to the Rev C. O’Brien of Gortnacrea for masses to be celebrated in public and in Ireland for the repose of my soul and those of my relations (3/6 each mass).

·       Seventy five pounds to my sister Catherine McCrossan.

·       Fifty pounds to my brother Robert McCrossan.

·       Fifty pounds to my sister Anne O’Connor, wife of Arthur O’Connor, at present residing in Philadelphia.

I direct my brother Robert and my sister Catherine to defray the costs of taking out Probate to this my will and also my funeral and testamentary expenses in equal shares. I appoint William Porter of Gortnacrea and Patrick McCrossan of Glassmullagh to be executors of this my will. In witness whereof I have hereinto subscribed my name this 27^th day of April 1905.

Signed: Owen McCrossan

Witnesses present: Robert Quinn, James Roche

Finding the farm

Cassie O’Connor (1883-1951) was brought up with her maternal grandparents – Francis McCrossan (1826-1907) and Anne McCrossan (ne Mullan) (1826-1895).

c1860, when Griffith’s Valuation was carried out in our area, Francis (my g-g-grandfather) was already a householder in Glassmullagh.  

Using the Ask about Ireland website http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/#

I entered as much as I knew about Francis and found his details in a scan of the original document:

Here’s the (readable) detail:

The website then links you to the original map. I was looking for 2A / 2B, Francis' farm.

The map is great – you can zoom in to find what you’re after and there’s a slider where you can merge the map with its Google Earth image…

I struck gold!

Next step was to go out there to have a look…

Still standing…but it has gone downhill a bit since Google took their snap. Maybe with a lick of paint...?

Cassie O'Connor's farm, Glassmullagh

I struggle to find living relatives in Ireland who can help me with any family history detective work. I was aware that my father had been left a farm by his mother – Cassie O’Connor - and that he had sold it not very long after her death but all I knew was it was in Glassmullagh, a townland a few miles outside Newtownstewart.

Glassmullagh is on this map of townlands, right at the bottom, sandwiched between Dunteige and Lisnacreight.

Cassie died on 14 December 1951 in Strabane and the farm was first advertised in the Ulster Herald on Sat Jan 5^th 1952

It looks like Frank didn’t sell it first time round because it was advertised again in the Derry Journal two years later, on Fri 26^th Feb 1954

I eventually found the farm by going back a lot further in the family tree and with the help of Griffith's Valuation and the internet. In my next post I’ll run through how I did that, if I write it down I hopefully will remember it myself next time I need to do this!