James (1844)& Mary (1840)

The 1970 version of the Rhubarb Leaf states: "James Crowley (1844-1909)of Dunmanway married Mary Crowley (1840-1924) of Ballymacoda, East Cork? James fled to America for five years because of his Fenian activities. Mary was related to Peter O' Neill Crowley, the Fenian rebel leader. Mam was an Irish speaker who bossed her grown family low sized. James and Mary had eight children: Florence, Margaret married Murphy, John, Jer, Daniel, Minnie, Christie and Timmy".

The Great Famine took place between 1846-1850. Both James & Mary were young children then .The Fenian rising took place in Cork during February and March 1867. James would have been 23 years old then. He came back in 1872 (5 years later). That was the year that Daniel Stephen was born. From the records though it would seem that Daniel Stephen was the fifth of eight children. This would mean that James had to leave his wife and children behind when he fled to America. The reason James may have been able to come back was that in 1871 many Fenian leaders were released from prison (including Devoy, Rossa, O'Leary and Luby*). James & Mary settled in Cork city though they may have lived in the county before James fled to America. Daniel Stephen was born at Desmond Square just off Barrack Street. Both Mary & James had very hard lives. James lived to be sixty-five years old and Mary reached the age of eighty-three or eighty-four.

Also I have found an incomplete list from the parish registry of Dunmanway for the 19th century at the following site : Margaret Grogan's Dumanway pages (baptisms and marriages). There is though no mention of James Crowley. According to our records James oldest son was called Florence (in Cork that was a male name). My educated guess is that James father was also called Florence as the Crowley are notorious for calling their first son after the Grandfather on the male side. I think it will be very difficult to trace back Mary nee Crowleys' lineage, though if I could find something on Peter O' Neill Crowley, who knows? Also the fact that James does not appear on the parish records might not be that significant. He may have lived in the 'next' parish. What does seem to me the case is that the names of his sons (Florence, John, Jer, Daniel, Christie and Timmy)and his own name were very common among the Dunmanway clans.

In August 2004 I was given a copy of The Land of the Finest Drop by Richard Henchion**. On page 137, there is a census record from 1901, which I have tried and failed to find. Two very interesting things can be see in this record. 1/. Four Murphy grandchildren all under 16 also resided in the house. Margaret, James (1844) and Marys daughter married an unknown Murphy. What happened to Margaret and her husband we do not yet know. 2/. Daniel Stephan and brother Jeremiah were next door neighbours. But in the 1901 census another Jeremiah Crowley lived next to or near James Crowley (1844). This Jeremiah is two years younger. I have a feeling, though no proof yet that James and Jerimiah were brothers. A second reason for this impression is that Jeremiah also has sons Daniel and Timy (Timothy was James son). Our clan are notorious for reusing names. James (1844) had four grandsons called James. One of those grandchildren was my Grandfather. And he had three grandchildren with the name James as well. So I will be keeping an eye out for more information on this front.

I also found both the 1901 and 1911 census records for Florence, including the names of his wife and children. Florences records and those of his sister Margaret have been added to the James (1844) family tree

*p. 432, The Course of Irish History, edited by T.W. Moody & F.X. Martin. Edition: September 1984. Mercier Press in association with RTE. ISBN 0-85342-715-1.

**p137, The Land of the Finest Drop by Richard Henchion, Dalahore Publications 2003. ISBN 0-9541293-1-8.
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