This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Author: bcanavan_1
Surnames: Canavan (Longford, Ireland)
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.canavan/76.1.2.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Hi Maggie
They could be. I have done no family research so it is more likely that you will be able
to answer that question than I. However, I have a bits of family lore and old photographs,
some going back to the 1880, and the Canavans in Co Longford from my scant knowledge seem
to have just appeared in the last few decades of the nineteenth century, with no other
relations nearby - possibly they came to the area from elsewhere a bit like the Mayor of
Casterbridge. The gist of what I heard is this: in the generation before 1900 there were
several Canavan brothers and one sister: one of them lived on the estate of James Mackey,
the brother of Sir Henry Wilson, C in C during WWI, in Ballinalee, Co Longford (near
Killoe and Corneddan) and a sister had a bacon shop in Edgeworthstown, the next parish
about seven miles away, which according to family lore she (or her parent) moved into
after they were evicted (from where??? I don't know) probably during 'the land
war' of the 1880s. She can !
be identified in the 1901 census in Edgeworthsttown The Ballinalee Canavans bought out
their farm from the Wilsons as part of the British government tenant buyout scheme during
the same decades. The other Canavan brothers emigrated to the Argentine -as indeed a lot
of Longford and Westmeath men (and some women) did. returning home as old batchelors in
the late 1930s, where they died in Edgeworthstown. They were in the cattle business and a
photograph of all the brothers can be seen on the Ireland Argentine/website coming back
from south American in the 1890s. The Ballinalee Canavan family produced seven boys in the
1900-1920, most of whom whom emigrated to New York. There is no one of this branch of the
Canavan name now in County Longford. Don't know if this is any help to you in trying
to identity whether your branch is connected to them. There certainly were a few
'Jameses' in this branch. As I have said i have done no research myself.
Important Note:
The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply
to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.