The McGinnis Family in Sligo, Ireland

On 28 March 2017, my husband Monte and I met in person with a genealogist who conducted research on the McGinnis and Munns families. This meeting took place at the Sligo Genealogy Center in Sligo, Ireland. I covered a bit of the Munns/Monds side in another blog; however, this account covers findings on the McGinnis side.

How I’m Tied to the McGinnises

Growing up in Rock Rapids, IA, I was close to my maternal grandma, Isabelle Antoinette Kellihan Munns. I got to know her mother and my great-grandmother, Frances Mae Sample Kellihan, when I was in my early elementary years. She was a competitive little lady who didn’t like to lose. I distinctly remember her frustration when I beat her at the card game of gin rummy once. When I was in third grade, she passed away in 1986 at the ripe old age of 100 – or was it 99? 😊 That’s an interesting story for a future blog.

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Grandma Kellihan’s parents were George Franklin Sample (1852-1921) and Anna Rose McGinnis Sample (1859-1908). While Anna lived most of her life in southeast Minnesota in Houston County, near the Wisconsin and Iowa borders, her father Patrick McGinnnis, his parents and siblings lived in Riverstown, Co. Sligo, Ireland before nearly all of them emigrated. So, in short, my 3GGF Patrick McGinnis came from Co. Sligo.

I had provided the genealogist what little information I knew or suspected about the McGinnis family in advance of our meeting. I had read on a family history message board that perhaps they came from the Tanaugh parish near Riverstown – and the McGinnises were Catholic.

Genealogist Findings

The following is information the Co. Sligo genealogist Theresa provided during my in-person consultation.

“There are several ways of spelling this surname. The following are the versions: Gennis, Guinness, Guiness, Mac Guinness, McGennis, McGinnis, McGinnis, McGinniss, McInnis, etc. To capture all of these variants, the genealogist linked them to the most popular spelling, which in this case is Mac Guinness. When this surname was entered into their database, all versions appeared. We began by searching the surviving baptismal registers for Co. Sligo for details pertaining to the family of Thomas McGinnis and Anna Kennedy.”

Baptismal Records

• “We have located more than 260 baptismal entries with versions of the surname McGinnis in the surviving church registers of Co. Sligo. These records date from 1804 to 1905.
• Sixteen of these children had a mother’s maiden name recorded as Kennedy. We believe 11 of these records related to the children of these ancestors. Their names and baptism years are as follows.”

Name	Baptism Date	Denom	Parish	Father	Mother	Sponsors	Record
Bridget Mcgennis	7 Jan 1809	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Mcgennis	Anna Kennedy	Bartholomew Kennedy & Catherina McCabbe	Register B1, Page 047, Entry 1123
Michael Maginnes	7 Oct 1810	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maginnes	Bridget Kennedy	Farrell Gray & Anna Feeny	Register B1, Page 061, Entry 1490
Charles Maginnes	18 Nov 1812	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maginnes	Anna Kennedy	Patrick Maginnes & Eleanora Maginnes	Register B1, Page 079, Entry 2030
Anna Maginnes	25 Oct 1814	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maginnes	Anna Kennedy	Patrick Kennedy & Maria Walsh	Register B1, Page 090, Entry 2368
Maria Magennis	3 Oct 1816	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maginnes	Anna Kennedy	Peter McCabbe & Anna Feeny	Register B1, Page 104, Entry 2853
Eleanora Maginnes	4 Oct 1818	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maginnes	Anna Kennedy	Peter McCabbe & Bridget Kennedy	Register B1, Page 111, Entry 2375
Eleanora Mginnes	14 Nov 1819	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Mginnes	Anna Kennedy	Peter McCabbe & Catherina McCabble	Register B1, Page 115, Entry 3553
James Maginness	15 Sep 1821	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maginnes	Anna Kennedy	James Maginness & Eleanora Maginnes	Register B1, Page 123, Entry 4016
Matthew Magenis	01 Feb 1825	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Magenis	Anna Kennedy	John Lynch & Anna Caney	Register B1, Page 140, Entry 4856
Patrick Maguines	27 Feb 1828	RC	Riverstown	Thomas Maguines	Anna Kennedy	James Maguines & Judith Lynch	Register B1, Page 159, Entry 5685
Catherina McGinnes	14 May 1831	RC	Riverstown	Thomas MaGuinnes	Anna Kennedy	Thomas Fly & Bridget MaGuines	Register B1, Page 178, Entry 6546

RC = Roman Catholic

Note from Erin: Essentially, this couple had 11 children come into this world over a 22-year span!

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“All of the named children had a father listed as Thomas and all but Michael’s mother’s first name was recorded as Anna Kennedy. (Michael’s mother’s name was recorded as Bridget Kennedy.)

“Regarding the two girls’ names of Eleanora – baptismal records indicated they had different sponsors/godparents, which leads us to believe the first child with this name died shortly after birth. The next female child born to this couple was given the same name, which was a common practice at this time.

“While these 11 baptismal records were recorded in the Catholic parish of Riverstown, unfortunately, none of them recorded a townland address.

“As the commencement of civil registration (county/state records) started here in Ireland in 1864, none of the above-mentioned children will have a civil birth record.

“In an attempt to find further information on this family, we searched the church marriage registers for the union of their parents, Thomas Mac Guinness and Anne Kennedy.”

Marriage Records

• “There are 53 grooms with versions of the surname Mac Guinness listed in the church marriage registers of Co. Sligo.
• Eight of these men were named Thomas.
• Only one Mac Guinness groom married a bride with a maiden name of Kennedy. This marriage related to a Thomas Maginnes and a Bridget Kennedy, who were married in the Catholic parish of Riverstown in 1808. Unfortunately, the information regarding this marriage, recorded in the church registers was very sparse – no parents’ names or addresses were noted.”

Note from Erin: Even though this marriage record shows Bridget rather than Anne or Mary, records for this family reflect a variety of all three of these first names for my 4GGM.

Church Marriage Record

• Groom: Thomas Maginnes
• Bride: Bridget Kennedy
• Addresses, Ages & Parents: Not recorded
• Denomination for both: RC
• Witness 1: Charles Kennedy
• Witness 2: James Maginnes
• Date: 19 January 1808
• Parish: Riverstown
• Register: M1, Page: 9, Entry: 179

“Given this marriage took place only a year prior to the birth of Bridget Mcgennis, the elsdest of the 11 children born to Thomas Maginnes and Anna Kennedy, it is quite possible this marriage record relates to this family.”

Death Records

“There were only three death records located in the surviving church death registers of Riverstown with versions of the surname McGuinness.

• The first of these death records mentioned the wife of a Thomas McGuinness (no first name recorded) who died in 1838 at age 49. This record may related to the death details of Anna (Bridget) Kennedy. If this is the case, Anna (Bridget) Kennedy was 19 years old when she married Thomas McGuinness.
• The second of the entries relates to a Thomas McGuinness, who also died in 1838. Could these deaths relate to your ancestor?
• The third of these related to a Patrick McGuinness, who died in 1839. Perhaps this man was the husband of Sara Derig.”

Name	Location	Date of Death	Age	Additional Details
? McGuinniss	Baldween	9 April 1838	49 years	Notation recording this entry reads “wife of Thomas.” Source: Riverstown, deaths, vol D1, p. 005
Thomas Mc Genniss	Annaghan	23 Jul 1838	78 years	Source: Riverstown, deaths, vol D1, p. 005
Patrick McGuinness	Drumderry	13 Sep 1839	64 years	Source: Riverstown, deaths, vol D1, p. 007

Note from Erin: Thomas died just three short months after his wife Anne passed away.

Gravestone Inscriptions

“While there are several headstones with the surname McGuinness and versions of that surname, we were unable to link any to your ancestors.”

Tithe Applotments in 1824

“The Tithe Applotment Books of the 1820s/1830s are records for each parish containing a list of land tenants, all of who were liable for payment of Tithes to the Established Protestant Church, regardless of their religion. Besides the tenants’ name, the records list the townland, farm acreage, valuation and yearly tithe for which he was liable.

“Using the National Archives of Ireland site, we have located two tenants, Thomas and Patt McGuinness, residing the townland of Drumderry in 1824.”

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Drumderry is located south of Riverstown and slightly north of Castlebaldwin.

Griffith’s Valuations

“The Griffith Valuations were undertaken by government order after the act of 1838 to determine the amount of tax per year each tenant should pay toward the poor and destitute within his poor law union. In addition to recording the name of each occupier or tenant, it lists the name of the townland or city location, the area of the holding, and the valuation assessment. The valuations for Co. Sligo were conducted in 1858.”

(See Ask About Ireland and the National Library of Ireland for more details on Griffith’s Valuations.)

“The surname McGuinness was not listed in the townland of Drumderry when these valuations were taken.

“However, one tenant listed in this townland was of interest – Bryan Tighe. During the course of this research, we came across the marriage details of a Bernard Tighe and a Catherine McGuinness, who were married in 1850. (The first names Bryan and Bernard are often intertwined.) While it would appear this couple had three children in the late 1850s/early 1860s, we were unable to locate them in the earliest census returns available to us in 1901. Perhaps this family also emigrated.”

Emigration

In a future blog, I’ll cover what discoveries I’ve made about the McGinnis family emigrating to the United States. However, the Co. Sligo genealogist did say this of the McGinnis family’s 10 children: “Nine of Thomas and Mary Ann’s children emigrated to America.”

Visit to Riverstown Area

Monte and I visited Riverstown, home to the Tanaugh/Tawnagh parish today (Church of Ireland).

We also stopped by some (more) rural abandoned church ruins/cemeteries to find McGinnis connections. Several cemeteries had gravestones with the Tighe surname.

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Riverstown is a lovely little town in the south of Co. Sligo, but I think what Monte will remember most from our visit to this area – was all of the narrow, low-maintenance roads I made him drive on to get us to the rural cemeteries and church ruins. Thanks, Monte! 😊

~ Slainte, EPJ