Geraghtys/Cross Lake, Mullet Penin Mayo
Here's a reply I sent to Wm. Geraghty of Cleveland after he was kind enough to forward to me a list of Mayo landowners of the 19th (and early 20th?) century.
"Thanks for the data reproperty owners.I'm a little surprised at how few of them seem to be from places whose names I recognize.Indeed, only one (Drum, where my first cousin just built a 5-bedroom house)is recognizable as coming from the Mullet Peninsula, where my dad grew up.Dad used to tell me that his own GGF (or GF?) had seen the various coffin ships off at Blacksod Point (far southern end of the peninsula) and purchased what little land (or lease rights) the emigrants had for just a few pence.The biggest landowner in the parish was the English Protestant Bingham family, but Dad and his brothers had reasonably fond memories of old Mr. Bingham who was VERY lenient on the locals when they violated the laws against poaching.This may be one reason the local town, where another first cousin of mine owns the "shop," is still called Binghamstown."
My dad, Patrick J. Geraghty, was born at Cross Lake on 11/16/02 and died in Evanston IL on April 11, 1988, eleven months after my mom (Bridget Costello Geraghty,b. 12/15/07 at Derry Park, Tourmakeady, Mayo to Martin Costello and Agnes Coyne Costello) died.
Dad's father, Michael Geraghty (b. 1875) died at Cross Lake in 1961.Michael's wife, Margaret Kennedy Geraghty, had died in 1955.Dad was the only one of Michael and Margaret's six (of eight) surviving children to emigrate permanentlyto the US, so I (b. 3/4/45) grew up hearing about, but never meeting my uncles, aunts and first cousins.In 1977 I traveled with Mom and Dad to both their birthplaces.I regret that I lack one of those characteristic Irish memories that would permit me to recount all the details they both must have shared with me then about this cousin and that great grandfather.Nevertheless, I met and remain in touch with a number of my first cousins.The one who just built the house above (Michael Joe, son of my uncle and co-namesake, Martin Geraghty, b 1913) was, for years, the publican at Elly Bay on the peninsula.His brother George lives in a new house next to the old cottage where his mother (Mary Jo Wilson Geraghty) still lives, a cottage that my dad recalled helping to expand and "remodel" as a youth.Other siblings and first cousins can be found in Nottingham and London England and on the peninsula.One first cousin, Patrick ("Bobby") Healy, is an MD in Castlebar.
If you have Geraghty relatives on the Mullet Peninsula, you are probably related to me and my sister, Margaret (10/7/41) a BVM nun, and my brother Mike (1/29/47), a Chicago cop and the father of two sons, Michael and Matthew.My cousins Jim Geraghty, a lawyer in Glen Ellyn IL and his brother Mike (a retired math professor at Iowa City, IA) are two of the four children of James Anthony Geraghty, my dad's first cousin who sponsored Dad's emigration in 1925.JA Geraghty's father, Anthony,and my grandfather were half-brothers, the sons of Patrick Geraghty, but by different wives.The first of his wives was a Barrett (mother of Anthony and someone who became known as "Red Kate").When Ms. Barrett died, leaving Patrick a widower and single dad, he married Catherine "Kitty" Geraghty (not consanguineously related, I assume, or at least I hope!) of Stonefield.Kitty Geraghty Geraghty (sic) bore Patrick 8 more children, among them my grandfather, Michael, in 1875.Kitty, like her predecessor, died and left Patrick a widower, and he buried her next to his first wife.Before Patrick himself died, he left instructions that he wished to be buried in a different cemetery.And he was!
Incidentally, thanks to my sister, I learned that James Anthony Geraghty's middle name was probably not really Anthony!The Irish of the day limited themselves to just a few first names for both their sons and daughters.The result was that there were many folks in each village with the same baptismal names and surnames.The solution was to denominate each child by his or her own first name and then to add some form of the first name of the child's father.Thus my Dad's full name was Patrick James Geraghty, but he was known to all his fellow villagers as "Patsy Mickey," because his own father's name was Michael.("Patsy" has a decidedly feminine sound to contemporary American ears, but no such connotation attached to it in the early days of the last century.)I asked my cousin Jim about this and he had almost forgotten that he had once seen his dad's immigration papers and, indeed, his father's real name was James John, not James Anthony.For those of you doing genealogical research, remember that your Irish ancestor's commonly used compound name may, therefore, be different from what you find in the local birth or even death records.
An interesting footnote to this naming system is that the dad's name did not always survive intact when carried over as a son or daughter's second name.This was most amusingly true when the father's name was Patrick.In such a case, the child was known by his own first name, and then "Faddy" was attached as the second half of his common name.There is still a delightful old lady (she vividly remembers the day my dad left for America in 1925!) living up the road from my Cross Lake family.She is known to everyone as Annie Faddy ..her dad's name was Patrick.Thank God for me and my siblings, this charming custom did not survive trans-Atlantic importation to America.
It was either Patrick or Patrick's father who stayed on the peninsula through the famine, witnessing, and profiting from, the departure of many of his neighbors on the coffin ships from Blacksod Point.He purchased their land for whatever he could as they were leaving, and became something of a small landholder on the peninsula.
Patrick (he of the two wives) had a brother who is one of the more intriguing parts of the family tree that I'm familiar with.The brother emigrated to Montana in the mid to late 19th century, and stayed in touch with the folks at Cross Lake.I assume that, like my dad later, he sent a monthly remittance back for the support of his family.This Geraghty was later killed in a train accident in Montana, and his widow, it was said, married someone who either witnessed or was somehow involved, accidentally or not, in his death.For all I know the Geraghty children (if there were any) assumed their new "father's" name and were unaware of their heritage.If there's anyone out there with a "train accident" in his family lore, we're probably cousins several times removed.
Another pair of lost Cross Lake Geraghtys are sisters of my grandfather, Lena and Ann Geraghty.My dad often spoke of the day his two aunts left together for North America (Canada?USA?).He wanted to go with them, but he was only three or four years old at the time (1905,1906,1907?).He sneaked up onto the trap they were to ride to the train, and was devastated when he was discovered and returned to his mother's arms, kicking and screaming.That incident may be the event that settled for Dad where he would eventually lay down roots and raise his own family.If so, my sister thanks the two Geraghty girls, my brother thanks them, and I thank them.
Lena and Ann, like their brother, Patrick Geraghty, who had left earlier for Canada, are lost to the family today, so if that little scrap of info sparks any genealogical memories in anyone, I can introduce you to a whole slew of intelligent, delightful, hard-working, loving second and third cousins on the Mullet Peninsula.One possible clue you may have is that an island (Inish Glora) less than a mile off the coast of the Mullet is where the legendary Children of Lyr are said to have found their final resting place.My guess is that my missing great-aunts and uncle would have known and re-told that legend frequently to their little North American heirs.
You, especially you orthographically correct Geraghtys, might find this final recollection edifying.Dad was a delightful old Irishman, truly possessed of the "gift of the gab." He could hardly offend you, even if he did something offensive!He explained the presence of "Garritys" and "Geritys," etc., in America by retelling the story of his own arrival at Ellis Island.When he pronounced his surname, the "APA" doing the paperwork behind the desk wrote it down as "Garrity."Dad, proud owner of an 8th-grade education, and highly literate even then, detected the error and insisted that it be corrected.He always suspected that most of his less intellectually gifted fellow-Geraghtys simply picked up the immigration agent's written handiwork and were not sufficiently astute to know their name had just been changed for them. He often used that story to spur his three kids on to academic excellence, since genius was, obviously, in our blood. Because he was who he was, I never saw anyone, even a "Garrity," who did not enjoy Dad's gleeful rendition of that tale.
I'm married to Maureen Ganey Geraghty.She has Mayo roots (e.g., Moran from Ballintubber and O'Malley from Clare Island) so I inadvertently (perhaps atavistically?) married right back into County Mayo.We have six children (Patrick James-1971Mary-1973Ann (Sepersky)-1976Nora-1979Joe-1982and Bridget-1985)Two other sons died--- Timmy lived for 8 days and died on St. Patrick's Day in 1981, and Denis was stillborn in October, 1983.My son, Patrick ("PJ") is married to Diana Stanton Geraghty and lives in Richmond VA with their two daughters, Katie and Colleen.PJ's an organ-transplant co-ordinator, and maintains a nifty web-page for those of you interested in, inter alia, pix of my darling granddaughters.I am a commercial real estate broker in Chicago and a frequent panelist on the nationally syndicated radio call-in show, Beyond The Beltway, Sunday evenings, 6-8 PM, central time.It's broadcast on about seventy stations around the country (check out www.beyondthebeltway.com for a station in your area.)
I do not know whether the rubric for these pages encourages so much detail, especially about current generations, so if this offends anyone, please forgive a tyro.Just think how interesting it will be 100 years from now!
My e-mail address is [email protected].
More Replies:
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Re: Geraghtys/Cross Lake, Mullet Penin Mayo
Joseph Garvey 6/12/04
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Re: Geraghtys/Cross Lake, Mullet Penin Mayo
Joseph Garvey 6/12/04
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Re: Geraghtys/Cross Lake, Mullet Penin Mayo
Margaret Geraghty 7/03/11
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Re: Geraghtys/Cross Lake, Mullet Penin Mayo
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Re: Geraghtys/Cross Lake, Mullet Penin Mayo
8/16/01