John Ward & Margaret O'Shea (HN:12)

The search for John Ward

Base information

We know from Michael Ward’s marriage certificate that his parents are listed as John Ward and Margaret Shea and that he was born in County Limerick. The Victorian unassisted immigrant shipping records reveal a Michael Ward, aged 20, arriving in 1857 aboard the Crimea, potentially with a relative, William Ward, aged 30. It has been surmised from sources like the marriage certificate, death certificate and the shipping record that Michael was born about 1836 give or take a year. This would mean that his father John was probably born prior to 1816. The potential relative, William, would have been born about 1826.

Irish land division

A little understanding of the land division system for Ireland is helpful in genealogical research. The smallest land division in Ireland is the Townland, of which there are over 60,000. They average about 300 acres each, but can vary from an acre to several thousand acres. Townlands then aggregate into Civil Parishes; Civil Parishes aggregate into Counties; and Counties aggregate into Provinces. Catholic Parishes and Dioceses are a completely different subdivision of Ireland to the Townland, Civil Parish, County division structure, which can make things very confusing.

Griffiths Valuation

There are no complete census records from the 1800s for Ireland, which would have been the first source to consult in order to find John Ward. A census substitute is the Griffiths Valuation, which recorded landowners and leaseholders from 1848. The Griffiths Valuation records the landowner and leaseholder for each plot of land within Townland across Ireland. The Valuation is organised by Civil Parish and County. Given John Ward was probably born a little while before 1816, it is therefore possible that he was a farmer during the time of the Griffiths Valuation. A search for John Ward within the Griffiths Valuation found eight instances within County Limerick and identifies the Civil Parish in which each resided.

The next step once possible Civil Parishes are identified is to research Church baptism records. These records are generally reliable from about 1820 onwards. Hence there is a reasonable chance that Michael Ward’s baptism record is somewhere to be found. This research often takes the form of commissioning a genealogy centre specialising in the particular area in question. Further investigation of the Griffiths Valuation provided some information about other Wards living in the same Civil Parish as each John Ward. Rathwood, Abington looked particularly interesting. Within this one Townland, there were a number of Wards: John, William, Michael and Thomas. These are all the names of Michael Ward’s sons, although they are some of the most common names in Ireland in general. Nevertheless, none of the other Civil Parishes in which a John Ward resided had this many hits of ‘family’ names. The possibility that the William, Michael and Thomas are relatives of John Ward was also explored.

The Wards of Rathwood, Abington therefore became the first investigation targets. It was assumed, albeit safely, that the Wards were Catholic and thus the starting point would be Catholic Church records. Rathwood is in the Catholic Parish of Murroe. Comparing the Catholic Parish map with the Civil Parish map indicates that Murroe Catholic Parish is essentially the Civil Parish of Abington, with potentially parts of some neighbouring Civil Parishes. The Griffiths Valuation reveals that there are no Wards in Civil Parishes neighbouring Abington. It would appear that the John, William, Michael and Thomas Ward listed in Abington were the only Wards in the Murroe Catholic Parish at the time of the Griffiths Valuation.

Commissioned research

The other feature of the Murroe Catholic Parish is that it was in the Emly Diocese. This is proving very useful as the records within the Cashel & Emly Archdiocese, as it is known today, are well organised and readily searchable by commission to the Tipperary Family History Research (TFHR) Centre. A research was commissioned into Michael Ward, born approximately 1836, with parents John Ward and Margaret Shea and likely to have been baptised in the Murroe Parish. If successful, this research would provide: the baptism record of the target ancestor, the marriage record of the target’s parents; and the baptism records for the target’s siblings. About a week after commissioning the research, the following email was received.

Greetings from Tipperary.

Thank you for commissioning research with us here at Tipperary Family History Research. You commissioned 1 x Secondary Search on Michael Ward.

Here is a breakdown of your research:

• Looked for the Baptism record of Michael Ward c1836 - found for 1835 with correct parents as per submission.
• Looked for the Baptism records of any siblings of Michael Ward - found 10.
• Looked for the Marriage record of Michael's Parents - found.

These records may today be searched for and found online at the National Library of Ireland website.

Birth, marriage and family of John Ward and Margaret O’Shea

Marriage record for John Ward, Margaret O'Shea

John is almost certainly a son of William Ward who is the first confirmed Ward tenant of Rathwood from 1815. John is estimated to have been born about 1798 based on his age noted on his death certificate. There is no surviving record of his birth with the Catholic Parish birth register only in existence in Murroe from 1814. With marriage typically occurring in the bride's Parish, Margaret O'Shea was most likely also born in the Murroe Catholic Parish area. No birth record is available for Margaret.

John Ward and Margaret O'Shea were married on 7 Jan 1825. They had 13 children baptised in the Murroe Catholic Parish as follows:

1. William, baptised 1 Feb 1826
2. Patrick, 14 Jan 1828 (infant death)
3. Thomas, 25 Jan 1830
4. Patrick 15 Jun 1832
5. Michael, 5 Jul 1835
6. Bridget, Feb 1828
7. James, 13 May 1840
8. John, circa 1841 (no baptism record found but inferred from other data)
9. Thady, 1 Feb 1843
10. Margaret, 20 May 1844 (infant death)
11. Mary, Jun 1846
12. Margaret, 12 Jun 1848
13. Thadius, 7 Jul 1853

All were probably born in Rathwood, Abington, County Limerick.

The marriage record and all baptism records show the mother’s surname as O’Shea despite Michael’s marriage certificate listing her surname as simply Shea. In Gaelic, Ó was originally a prefix to indicate ‘grandson of’ but anglicised surnames often integrated an O’ with the actual surname. It is entirely reasonable to assume that Shea is interchangeable with O’Shea in this instance.

Michael Ward was the fifth (baptised) child. William, the eldest, is nine years and a few months older. It would therefore seem that the William Ward listed in the Victorian inward shipping passenger list for the Crimea in 1857 is the eldest brother of Michael.

The Irish have a traditional system for naming children: the first son is named after the father’s father and the second son after the mother’s father. The first daughter is named after the mother’s mother and the second daughter after the father’s mother. If there is an infant death, then quite often the name is given to the next child of the same gender. It would appear that the Wards of this era followed this tradition quite closely.

It is therefore reasonable to surmise that John’s father was William Ward. An earlier child, given the period of 13 months from marriage until the birth of their first child, would seem unlikely. Further evidence that John’s father was William would come later. Given the difficulties associated with going back further than 1800 in Irish ancestry, I decided to designate this William Ward as relative 1 in the Henry numbering system.

Patrick is therefore potentially named after Margaret O’Shea’s father. Given so many sons, it is hard to believe there was not a John amongst them. Evidence in the form of Victorian marriage and death certificates has now come to light that indicates that there was a indeed John in addition to the children identified in the baptism records.

The evidence that this is indeed the correct Michael Ward and family is as follows:

• the baptism record is for a Michael Ward born in Limerick in 1835;
• his parents were a John Ward and Margaret O’Shea;
• this Michael Ward had an elder brother, William, who was nine years and a few months older, which is consistent with the Victorian inward shipping passenger listing;
• there are potentially as few as eight farming John Wards in Limerick, which reduces the chances of there being a similar set of facts to those listed above applying to another Ward family; and
• a search of birth/christening records at brsgenealogy.com reveals seven (7) Michael Wards born in Limerick between 1831 and 1839 (1835 plus/minus 4 years) but only one has a father by the name of John.

Links

Children of John Ward and Margaret O'Shea

• William Ward (born in 1826)
• Patrick Ward (1828, infant death)
• Thomas Ward (1830)
• Patrick Ward (1832, infant death)
• Michael Ward (1835)
• Bridget Ward (1838)
• James Ward (1840)
• John Ward (1841)
• Thady Ward (1843)
• Margaret Ward (1844, infant death)
• Mary Ward (1846, infant death)
• Margaret Ward (1849)
• Thadius Ward (1853, infant death)

Parents of John Ward

• William Ward

Siblings of John Ward

• Patrick Ward
• Mary Ward
• William Ward
• Michael Ward
• Thomas Ward