Collincy, County of Sligo???.....

[Anne H]

I've uploaded an 1838 OPR MC for John Russell and Catherine Ferguson for Admin approval.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1025

Could someone please tell me if I'm reading it correctly?

"John Russell, Miller at Collincy, County of Sligo and Catherine Ferguson residing in Glasgow married 31 July by ___ William Black, Minister of Barony".

At first glance it looked like County of Iligo but I can't find such a county in Scotland...is there one?

If it is County Sligo in Ireland, does anyone have any ideas of why he might have been a miller so far from home in the period possibly between 1834 and 1838...did they have a need for grain millers there at that time?

Any help appreciated.

Regards,
Anne H

Gallery url added by Marilyn

[AndrewP]

Hi Anne,

The first point to note is that this is not John Miller. Miller is his occupation, he is John Russell. I agree with County of Sligo (no known place as County of Iligo).

I read the text as:
John Russell, Miller at Colloney County of Sligo and Catherine Ferguson residing in Glasgow married 31 July by Dr William Black Minister of Barony.

On doing a Google search, the most likely place name is Collooney, Sligo.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Anne H]

Hi Andrew,

Many thanks, and you're right...it's John Russell I meant to type...senior moment!

I'm just puzzled as to what he would be doing in Ireland!

Regards,
Anne H

[David Douglas]

I wonder if there was the same pattern as Denmark, where I live. Millers there did tend to move quite long distances to buy a windmill. Often only the miller and the minister would have come from any distance.

I suppose there were not that often windmills on the market, so when one was up for sale, or lease, you went for it. In Denmark millers also tended to marry into other miller families rather than marrying locally. I suppose it was an advantage marrying a miller's daughter, so she could help run the business. And sometimes he would then inherit her father's windmill.

[DavidWW]

"Collincy" is near certain to be the Irish townland involved.

The townland is a peculiarly Irish concept which has survived to the present day.

Basically, it's an administrative unit at the level below the parish.

Think of the many Scottish placenames ending in "ton" or "toun", - Fermtoun [of], Millton [of], and many, many other such Scottish placenames of the form "....ton" and ".....toun". These are the precise equivalent of the Irish townlands, but never gained the same recognition in terms of local government as was the case with the townland in Ireland.

There are many, many websites that a Google will produce that list the 1,000s of Irish townlands.

The ever present problem is the spelling of the townland name, so that you may need to use your imagination to recognise that a certain townland in Co. Sligo, given the historial Erse (Irish Gaelic) spellings that will indubitally occur, compared to the "Collincy" spelling that you have come across , - so think in phonetic terms (and ask a mate who understands Irish Gaelic pronunciations, as the spoken quite often is quite difficult to relate to the written!).

Incidentally, given the need for a miller or even millers in every townland, - it was impractical to consider transporting the grain over more then local distances, - I'd be surprised if a miller moved very far, unless there were very strong reasons to do so, - and these could well be family related.....

David

[Anne H]

Hello David Douglas,

In Denmark millers also tended to marry into other miller families rather than marrying locally. I suppose it was an advantage marrying a miller's daughter, so she could help run the business. And sometimes he would then inherit her father's windmill.

Many thanks for your interesting response and a good way of building up (or holding on to the business) but in my John “the miller’s” case he went back to Scotland and married the daughter of the inspector of the gas company, so no building up of a mill business there.

Regards,
Anne Harty

[Anne H]

Hello DavidWW

Many thanks for your lesson on the townships…I’ll see if I can find someone from Ireland who might shed some light on it. I also Googled for townships and ended up seeing wee coloured zigzags and losing part of my vision for an hour or so before ending up with a sickening headache so I’m giving that a break…too sore on the eyes.

Anyway, I enlarged the OPR image a bit more and I’m inclined to think that it might just be the Collooney mentioned by Andrew P (only it’s missing an “o”, and what I originally thought was a “c” could very well be an “e”. I found this nice coloured map http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlmahs/map11a.gif which shows Sligo and Collooney, so for the time being, I’ll file that with a note that “Collooney” might be the place…or maybe not.

Now that Ireland has entered into the picture, I wonder if his father, who was a corn/grain miller went there also since I can’t find his parents anywhere. I wonder if they had a mill in both Scotland and Ireland…then again, probably not, unlike like his brother, the spirit dealer, neither John nor his father John left a Will or anything.

Anybody know where I might look for owners of mills in Dumbarton, Larbert or Glasgow areas – I won’t even ask about Ireland…I’ve Googled and haven’t come up with anything?

Regards,
Anne H

[JustJean]

Hi Anne

Just reading through the posts and wasn't certain if you were familiar with the IreAtlas database for searching for Irish Townland names? It's the best tool in the world! You'll also quickly note that when searching on "Col" as the beginning of the word anywhere in County Sligo there are only these results:

Colgagh 490 Sligo Carbury Calry Sligo Connaught
Collinsford 244 Sligo Carbury Drumcliff Sligo Connaught
Collooney 257 Sligo Tirerrill Ballysadare Sligo Connaught


http://www.seanruad.com/

Best wishes
Jean

(Admin Note: site address modified so that it works.)

[Anne H]

Hi Jean,

http://www.seanruad.com/

That was the website I was looking at yesterday when my eyes went all funny, but many thanks. I'm still leaning towards Collooney as the place.

Regards,
Anne H

[SuperTrouper]

Heres a link to nice map of Sligo from 1891. Collooney is just below the O in Sligo. http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlsli/sligomap2.html