James Lardner from the townland of Cloonlaheen West, Clare

...Last time... There was a possible ancestor spotting found in the records of Griffith's Evaluation of County Clare ...

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Separate from my own research, relatives of mine were also on a mission to find our family in Ireland and commissioned a genealogical report from the Clare Heritage & Genealogical Research Centre in Corofin.

Through the Heritage Centre's work, they were able to find seven separate baptismal entries for children who were born to a James Lardner and Bridget (O)Sullivan in Cloonlaheen West (Roman Catholic parish of Kilmurry Ibrickane, Diocese of Killaloe):

• James, baptized on 2 January, 1840 
• John, baptized on 17 April, 1841
• William, baptized on 4 February, 1843
• Anne, baptized on 7 December, 1844
• Michael, baptized on 19 July, 1846
• Patrick, baptized on 23 July, 1848
• Ellen, baptized on 1 July, 1850

Comparing the birth information gathered for the two known siblings, the above baptism dates in bold appear to correspond with my 2x great grandfather and aunt’s birth dates given as 1 January, 1840 and 1 July, 1850 respectively.  These individuals could be my family!  If I could, I would hug the person who put this report together. 

Also included in the Centre's report was a copy of James Lardner Sr's 1883 death register record for the civil district of Cragaknock,Union of Kilrush.  According to this document, James died on 13 July, 1883 in Clonlaheen at the age of 80 which would place his year of birth around 1803.  His wife, who is listed as the informant of his death, was a woman by the name of Kate Lardner.  

Per the Centre's report, Bridget (Sullivan) Lardner died sometime after 1850 and James married again, this time to a Catherine "Kate" (Breen) O'Halloran.  Marriage records were not included for the couple in the research, so I'm not sure where Catherine's information comes from, but apparently decedents of Catherine and her first husband, Thomas O'Halloran, still own the family property today.

As a result of this report, my next tasks will be to track down a microfilm copy of the church registers for Kilmurry Ibrickane in order to gather images of the baptism entries, while locating records for Bridget's death and James' subsequent marriage to Catherine.

Until later...

All the Best,

Jessica

James Lardner and Griffith's Valuation of County Clare

In my last POST I listed a number of leads gathered from my 2nd great-grandfather, James Lardner, that could be followed in order to expand the family search to the shores of Ireland.

Taking note of the birth information of the two Lardner children that came to the U.S., the first stop for my research was to go to the records for Griffith's Valuation to see how common the surname was in 19th century Ireland.  These records are accessible for free on the Ask About Ireland website.  In doing a quick search on the Lardner name, I found out something rather surprising...there were only eleven results and among those entries there was only one James Lardner.

I went back to did additional searches on variations of the Lardner name I had come across in my genealogical quest...and still the original search was the only one that pulled up any information.  So the question became, is the James listed my direct relative? and are the others listed also related to me?

Of course, the entry for James Lardner doesn't show any direct lineage information because of the type of record the land valuation was.  It does, however, give a clue to the living environment this particular James Lardner was surrounded with in about 1855 (when this valuation was published).

The record shows James Lardner as a tenant of Captain Francis Casey, living in the townland of Cloonlaheen West, parish of Kilmurry in County Clare.  With his leased property consisting of a house, offices, and land (approx. 14 acres), which had an estimated value of £3 5s. and was located west of the town of Mullagh and just north of Doolough.  

If this was my great-great-great grandfather, I had just found the home place of my Lardner family! ... But, the local church records for the area needed to be searched in order to confirm that a certain James Larder (Jr) had been born there in and around the first day of January, 1840 to a couple by the names of James Lardner (Sr) and Bridget Sullivan.

Until next time...

All the Best,

Jessica

The Starting Point - The Lardner family of Jefferson County, Nebraska, USA

The starting point for my family's research on the Lardner surname in Ireland comes from my 2nd great-great-grandparents, James Lardner and Mary Ann Cashman of Jefferson County, Nebraska.

James was the first Lardner in my family to come to the United States from County Clare, having arrived in the country in April of 1862. By 1867, he had made his way from the East coast of the U.S. to the state of Iowa, where he married Mary Ann Cashman (Mary Ann had been born in Illinois and was the daughter of William and Mary Cashman of County Cork).

Eventually James and Mary made their way to Nebraska due to his work on the Burlington Railroad and in 1870 James applied for citizenship and had filed for a piece of farm land with the help of Homestead Act of 1862.  By March of 1871, the family had settled on what would be their permanent home in the precinct of Antelope in Jefferson County, Nebraska.  Together the couple raised a total of thirteen children and in 1909, James passed away at the age of 69 while attending mass at St. Michael's church in Fairbury, Nebraska.

So goes an extremely brief summary of some of the information gathered on James Lardner, the impetus for this particular blog.  As with all genealogy research, the quest for information that may help to expand the understanding of a distant relative's life is never ending. Some questions may have answers that are accessible...Where what the individual born?, Who are their parents?, Did they have siblings?  While others could be completely out of reach...What were they like? Were they funny? Serious? What kind of relationship did they have with their family?  But for some reason, for those who have caught the 'genealogy bug', the questions only push us to explore more and to expand the search.

I count myself among these individuals, which is the catalyst for my collection of blog entries and for this blog in particular because I have a number of facts that can be used to push my Lardner search forward:

1. James's birth date is recorded as 1 January, 1840.  This date is not necessarily set in stone, as people who engage in Irish genealogy can attest, but it is a good point from which to work.
2. James Lardner's parents are listed as James Lardner and Bridget Sullivan on his death certificate.
3. Family tradition and various other sources list James' country/county of origin as County Clare, Ireland.
4. James has one younger sister who is known to have also come to the United States, Ellen Lardner, wife of Michael (Mike) Hickey, who settled in Ottumwa, Iowa with her family.

With this information, a couple of cousins and I were able to move from conducting research on our family in the U.S. to those that can be discovered in Ireland.

Until later...

All the Best,

Jessica

N.B.

Please reference the following POST if you would like further detail on the location of my family in Nebraska and the Nebraska Land Act.