Fedamore

 

       For ten years I've been searching for the birthplace of my great-great-great grandfather, John Hartigan, and his wife, Ellen. My only clues were Ireland and Limerick but I wasn't even sure if the Limerick meant county and/or city. Records are always being added to online databases and recently I found a death notice for John that listed his place of birth as Feclima. Not finding a trace of this place convinced me to look closer at the original record, instead of the text version, and sure enough, the fine old handwriting disclosed another clue - the cl was a d. A thick Irish accent probably also confused the writer, hence I deduced that the place was Fedamore, originally Fiadamair, a small townsland in Limerick County. Researching the area online proved fruitful and I was thoroughly delighted to find pictures, history and even a graveyard map with designated plots!

   

     

      John Hartigan immigrated to St. John's, New Brunswick in the early 1800s. It was cheaper to dock there than in Boston or New York so numerous immigrants disembarked in that Canadian harbor. Whether John and Ellen chose to stay in St. John's or lacked the funds to travel any further may never be known, but from 1834-1848 they had seven children while in residence there: James, John, Jane, Ann, Michael, Thomas and Lena (Leah?). The family was living in West Boylston, Massachusetts in 1850, however, when John died of consumption (tuberculosis) at the age of fifty-five, five months before the birth of his eighth child, William. The widowed Ellen remained in the Worcester County town with her children. Jane would become my grandmother's grandmother.

     The photo above left is Rockstown Castle in Fedamore, a four story tower house built in the 1500's. Photo on right is Kilpeacon Church, present nave built in 1690.