Newtownstewart Cycling Club 1908

This great photograph appears in the Billy Dunbar book and a booklet produced by Ardstraw East parish in the late 1980s. It shows the Newtownstewart Cycling Club c1908 – the club was founded 3 years before.

Left to right: JJ McAnulla, C Browne, E Muldoon, H O’Connor, H McBride, P Woods, J Lynch.
JJ McAnulla became Headmaster of the National School, Main Street in 1911 and remained in that post until 1941 when he retired. Hugh McBride was secretary of the Cycling Club, a local publican – father of Brian & John McBride.

Of most interest to me is Hugh O’Connor (b1866). Hugh was my g-g-uncle – circumstances dictated that I don’t have many photographs of the Newtownstewart O’Connors so this one is precious.

In the 1911 census Hugh was living with his mother Anne, brother Michael and niece Alice Donnelly in Dublin Street. He lists his occupation as Insurance Agent; he was unmarried

Hugh O’Connor bankrupt

Notification in the Newry Telegraph (7^th December 1852) that Hugh O’Connor (1829-1895) was due to face a bankruptcy hearing in Omagh on 5^th January 1853. Hugh was a grocer – his shop was the one on the far right in the picture above, in Main Street, Newtownstewart.

Hugh & James O'Connor - Newtownstewart 1852

The 1852 ‘Baird’ map of Newtownstewart has two O’Connors in the village itself, both on Main Street.

(115) Hugh O’Connor and (283 / 284) James O’Connor.
Earliest image I have seen of NTS (so far) is from 1871 (in ‘Newtownstewart Remembered’ by Billy Dunbar) but I thought I would try to figure out where Hugh and James and their families lived and get some idea on how old the houses currently standing on those sites are
In 1852 Hugh O’Connor (my g-g grandfather, father of Arthur) would have been 23 – I wonder if I’m correct in assuming that the Hugh at #115 is the same person?
Another map in the Baird book names T. Connor and J. Connor Sen. as tenants of land just outside the town
My current guess is that T. Connor was Hugh’s father and James Senior was his grandfather. Don’t ask me why I think that…

Hugh O'Connor

1890-1896 (Dunbar p127) Hugh's house is the last one on the right in all of the next three photos..

Moving right to left, first named shop is John Sweeney, Grocer & Fishmonger. Next door is Publican Joseph Duncan, then Andrew Walker, Publican, Grocer & Provision Dealer. Further up the street is a pavement billboard with the name DP Smith, Haberdasher / ladies fashions

1910 (Dunbar p104) last house on the right

Left to right: Church of Ireland; entrance to Model School; Miss Smith Dressmaker; Cresswell’s Home Bakery & Confectionary; Post Office. Close; McHugh’s General Draper; Bobby Patterson (manager of Co-op Creamery; George Tait Saddlery. Mrs Smyth’s millinery & mantle warehouse; Maggie Kane’s sweet shop; W Gallagher & J Lynch poultry & egg merchants. Close; Temperance Hotel; P Devine Publican; James Gallagher public house, name also on the next building (HOC’s old house)

Google image - 2017?

James O'Connor

1904 (Dunbar p102)

Directly opposite Hugh O’Connor’s house.

It’s a bit harder to make out where these buildings would have been. My guess is they are the two houses on the right-hand side of the picture. Looking left to right, Lyttle’s London House, a close, large house – JO’C properties are the next two buildings.

Buildings now occupied by Hood & Co? The view is a bit different because a building (buildings?) at the end of the street were knocked down to change the road lay-out from Omagh

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

The Manor of Newtownstewart - 1852 map

Last year, while on an Ulster Historical Foundation Genealogy course, I ‘found’ a wonderful book of bound maps of Newtownstewart & the surrounding area in PRONI.

‘Maps of the Manor of Newtownstewart, in the parish of Ardstraw and County of Tyrone, the estate of Daniel Baird, Esquire. Surveyed by R. H. Nolan & Co. 1852’

The maps are beautifully hand-drawn and coloured. Each house in the town is numbered, with an index that tells us who was living in each dwelling place in 1852.

Names of interest / potential interest in the town for my family tree are:

27	John McCrossan	177	James McGlinchy
80	E McGlinchy	207	Patrick Donnelly
111	Mark Mullan	249	Hugh Tolan
115	Hugh O’Connor	260	Catherine McCrossan
117	M McMullan	283	James O’Connor
168	William McGlinchy

Plots of land outside the town have T. Connor, Hugh Tolan & J. Connor Senior (2 plots) as tenants

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!