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Reaching Across the Penal Times McGrath and Long Families Michael F. McGraw, Ph.D. Published: June 30, 2020 Reaching Across the Penal Times - 1 - Copyright © 2020 Michael F. McGraw, Ph. D. 06-30-20 Cover description On the cover is a 2006 picture of Moyaliff Chapel looking through a side door on the south side of the ruin. Just inside the door are four gravestones standing in a row at the western end of the chapel. The two end stones belong to the McGraths of Coolkill. The third stone, the oldest of the four, belongs to the line of Michael McGrath of Moyaliff. The second stone, which is of a more recent vintage, hasn’t been associated with a particular McGrath family as yet. Erected by In Loving Memory Here lies the Body of Erected By Philip McGrath, Drombane Of Mary McGrath als Banan The Sorrowing Wife and In Memory of His Wife John McGrath Who died March the xx Children to the Sad and Fond Bridget McGrath (nee) Shanahan Knockanevin, Borrisoleigh 1792 Aged 49 Yrs may Memory of Died Nov 24 1924 Aged 68 yrs Late of Glebe Cross, Drombane She rest in peace. Amen Daniel McGrath , of Coolkill His Daughter Johanna Died 26-April 1969, Aged 42 Yrs Who Died Feb ?5th 1892 Aged 80 Yrs Died 1 Feb 1923, Aged 40 yrs His wife Pauline Erected by Joseph McGrath And His Father Thomas McGrath Died 20-Dec 1980 Aged 54 yrs. Also His Daughter Died 17 Feb 1893 Aged 87 yrs Winefred McGrath Also His Mother Ellen Died April 10th 1872 Aged 8 Years Died 30 July 1868 Aged 71 yrs And His 3 Children Died Young His Son Philip Died 25 Nov 1926 Aged 33 yrs Also The Above Philip McGrath Died 21 Sept 1931 Aged 88 yrs Reaching Across the Penal Times - 2 - Copyright © 2020 Michael F. McGraw, Ph. D. 06-30-20 Acknowledgements Nancy Long was the first person to make me aware of a Long-McGrath connection in the Pompey area of Onondaga County, NY. Later, she also discovered the participation of Richard Long and Margaret McGrath on Maple Ridge, Lewis Co., NY and their subsequent return to Pompey, NY. Candie Miller drew my attention to the Maple Ridge area of Lewis Co. with her posts about her Ryan and Gleeson ancestors from Moyaliff who had settled in Maple Ridge just prior to the Civil War. She was also sharing material from a paper on her family’s history authored by her uncle, Tom Buckley. Father Tom Buckley S. J. researched the Moyaliff connection of the Ryan, McGrath and Gleeson families of Maple Ridge. It was a footnote in his paper, The Ryan Family in Ireland and America, which allowed the Pompey - Maple Ridge connection to be made and the Maple Ridge Migration to be discovered. The late Richard Long of Syracuse provided detailed information on his family’s descendants (from Thomas Long and Catherine Fanning) early on in this project. He was always enthusiastic about this McGrath and Long research and his comments were always helpful and encouraging. The ancestors of Clare Tuohy of Dublin were from Grange, Holycross. Until some point in the last decade two of Clare’s uncles were still farming the old family farm in Grange. She was the first to find the church records that showed the Kennedy, Thomas and James Long families were from Raheen and Glenreagh, rather than Thurles. She was my co-author on The Neighbors in Ireland (second part of the trilogy) which described the land holdings of these families and their connections with other families in Moyaliff and Holycross. Stephen Long provided information on the successful search for the homestead of Thomas and Catherine Long in the town of Fabius (1860s thru 1880s) and a subsequent family reunion which was held on the site. Tom Long of Glenreagh is a descendant of James Long’s brother John who took over the Glenreagh farm when James and his family went to America in about 1852. Tom is still farming the same Glenreagh land today. His uncle now owns the former Maurice Magrath farm in Moyaliff while Tom and his brother farm it. Tom provided detailed information on the families of Glenreagh and the surrounding area and gracious hospitality during a 2015 trip to Ireland. Con Ryan of Dublin shared his gravestone inscriptions for the McGraths of Clonoulty Curragh from the graveyard in Clonoulty parish. These were very helpful in sorting out the many McGraths in Clonoulty and Clogher parishes. Marvin Minton contributed the McGrath-Fanning family papers. After acquiring the papers at a New Orleans estate sale in 1999 he published a summary around 2010. In 2017 he shared copies of the actual papers. Reaching Across the Penal Times - 3 - Copyright © 2020 Michael F. McGraw, Ph. D. 06-30-20 Reaching Across the Penal Times By Michael F. McGraw, Ph. D. Published: June 30, 2020 Introduction The McGrath and Long families, who were neighbors in Central New York, have been traced back to Moyaliff and Holycross parishes of Co. Tipperary in a previous paper, The Long and McGrath Families. They were also found to be neighbors to each other in Ireland and also neighbors to the Fanning and Tuohy families. A subsequent paper, The Neighbors in Ireland, studied these four families over a period of time that included the Great Famine. In The Neighbors in Ireland connections were established among these same families. The locations of the ancestral homesteads of these families were determined and several present day descendants of these families were identified. The “Neighbors” paper was an intensive research effort to identify and trace the land holdings of these families through the Famine years. The old manuscript records employed in that research effort were created in the late 1840s in the process of assembling the information that became known as the Griffith’s Valuation. The present document is focused on the McGrath and Long records (parish and civil records, GV records and census records) which were successfully used to document the connections among the families under study. The original goal of this paper has been expanded from just establishing connections among families in the early 19th century to finding connections across the Penal Times into the 17th century. The Penal Times occurred during the 18th century in Ireland when Irish Catholics were prevented from owning land and practicing their religion. There were many other practices and activities that were also forbidden if one was Catholic. The purpose of these laws was to punish the Catholics for their uprisings in the previous century and to also make a determined effort to eliminate the Irish Catholics from Ireland. Although they failed to remove the Catholics, the Penal Laws were successful in greatly reducing the paper trail that genealogists rely on to trace their ancestors. Trying to make connections across the Penal Times is very difficult but that is exactly what has been attempted in this document. Family networks on both sides of the Penal Times were examined for possible connections. In January 2017 I received copies of the entire collection of McGrath-Fanning family papers that had been purchased by Marvin Minton at an estate sale in New Orleans in the late 1990s. This Fanning family provides the connections with the Long, McGrath, Tuohy, Purcell and Ryan families in the townland of Grange, in Holycross civil parish. A summary of the information from the McGrath-Fanning family papers had been published earlier by Minton and have been referred to, in the “Neighbors” paper, as the Reaching Across the Penal Times - 4 - Copyright © 2020 Michael F. McGraw, Ph. D. 06-30-20 Minton Genealogies. That information was vital in understanding the genealogies of the families in Holycross who were described in The Neighbors in Ireland. However, the complete collection of papers contained even more information that provided insight into the life of the Patrick McGrath family in New Orleans during the Civil War and contained communications with Patrick’s relatives back in Ireland. Those papers also allowed Patrick McGrath’s family tree to be pushed back two more generations, and across the Penal Times. The entire collection of McGrath-Fanning family papers will be published on the mcgrathsearch.com website simultaneously with this document. The results of this research showed that the McGraths could be grouped into two families in Moyaliff and another McGrath family in neighboring Coolkill. It was possible to sort the Long families into a Raheen group and a Lisnagrough-Glenreagh group. The fact that these three townlands are contiguous suggests that the Long families have a common ancestor further back in time. The more recent commencement of the usual available records renders researching common ancestors dependent on more obscure records and family papers. The Civil Survey of 1654-56 is a source of possible ancestors for the people living in the Moyaliff and Coolkill areas in the mid-1850s. There were no Longs found in the Civil Survey for the northern part of Co. Tipperary. The analysis of the survey produced three groups of McGraths in Co. Tipperary in 1641. One group was in the barony of Owney and Arra, another was in Iffey and Offa barony and Miler Magrath’s family were located primarily in Upper Ormond barony. The descendants of Miler Magrath were selected as the most likely group to examine for possible McGrath ancestors. A number of individuals were selected from this group and were analyzed in detail as the most likely ancestor candidates. Reaching Across the Penal Times - 5 - Copyright © 2020 Michael F. McGraw, Ph. D.

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