Patrick and Michael McIntyre, Uncle and Nephew?

For several years, the descendants of Patrick McIntyre (c1831-1902) and I, a descendant of Michael McIntyre (c1805-1891), felt we were related, but couldn't prove it. Since that time, we have learned that Patrick McIntyre's father is Edward McIntyre (c1806-1881) AND several of Patrick and Michael's descendants have taken DNA tests.  First the article I wrote for my genealogy society last year.

Not Proven on Paper –

At Least Not Yet – But Proven

By Elaine McIntyre Beaudoin

When I was a teenager, I remember hearing stories from my Dad about the grand summer of 1923 when he visited his grandparents’ farm in the little townland of Lislea, County Sligo, Ireland.  He told of how he would tease the bull in the pasture and then run for the fence when it started to charge at him; of the donkey he relished riding and how he shadowed him wherever my Dad walked; and, of how annoyed his older sister, Mary, was by lack of modern conveniences and the absence of in-house running water. He thought it was all great fun as any six year old child might. Later I learned the townland of Lislea was barely more than half a square mile in size and had less than 20 families living there in the mid-1800s and early 1900s.

In 1982 I vacationed in Ireland and decided it would be interesting to see if I could find this little patch of land known to me as the “McIntyre Family Farm.” I had no interest in genealogy at the time; I just thought it would be an exciting adventure to find the land about which I had heard my Dad reminisce. Stopping at the local Irish post office, I asked the postmaster if he could direct me to the McIntyre farm. Receiving a blank stare, I searched my memory for other family names and remembered a McIntyre daughter had married a Haran. Once I offered this name, I was swiftly directed to the homestead. We were warmly welcomed by my widowed third cousin who was living in the cottage, as well as her sister who was visiting, after I worked through my relationship with them, that is. It was about 10:00 a.m. and they offered me tea and my husband “a wee glass of whiskey” – so Irish.

Bridie Haran Heffernan, Elaine McIntyre Beaudoin, Tessie Haran Cafferty in front of the McIntyre Farm House, Lislea, County Sligo, Ireland, 1982

Fast forward more than 20 years and I have now become an avid genealogist. While researching at the Salt Lake City Family History Library in 2003 I checked my email and found a rootsweb listserv message (the social media of the early part of this century!) entitled “[Sligo] McIntyre Family of Lislea, Kilmacteigue, Sligo, Ireland.”  It listed a Patrick and Bridget (Stevens) McIntyre along with their 10 children all of whom I had never heard of but felt must somehow be related because they were from the same tiny Lislea townland and bore the same surname.

The author of the web post and I communicated on and off for several years about her Patrick McIntyres. We learned members of each of our families had been sponsors and witnesses for the other’s baptisms and weddings. I dutifully researched this other McIntyre family, learning more about them than my own. Since Patrick McIntyre and his family had come to the US in 1863, settling in San Francisco, and my grandfather had not come to the U.S. and Chicago until 1904, I had much more luck finding records and documents on Patrick and his descendants than on my own ancestors.

I dutifully recorded the information I discovered and eventually created a website including all of my genealogy work. The website contained Patrick and his family as well as all of his known descendants because I “just knew” we must be related. Then in 2012 I was contacted by a 3^rd great-grandson of Patrick McIntyre, Sal Bigone. He told me he had photos of many of the individuals I had recorded on my website and informed me about many more descendants of Patrick. Together we discovered additional McIntyre offspring in Canada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Great Britain and Germany as well as Ireland and the US. We became Internet friends and later that year, when I was in the San Francisco area for a wedding, we met and spent the day together with his Mom.

Then in late 2013 I learned one of these Patrick McIntyre “cousins” was going to be traveling between Canada and El Salvador stopping in San Francisco. One thing led to another and suddenly a first McIntyre Family reunion was being planned. With the exception of me, all the other attendees, 13 in total, descended from Patrick and I had the detailed paper trail to prove it.

McIntyre/McIntire Family Reunion, Hayward, California home of Joanie Zandona, January 2014.

By now, I was well invested in these two McIntyre families and had recently begun DNA testing. Unfortunately, among these new “cousins,” there were no males with the McIntyre surname to compare against my paternal uncle’s Y-DNA test results. Since my autosomal DNA was already tested through FamilyTreeDNA, I thought, why not ask the oldest member of this group, Sal’s Mom, to also take an autosomal test.  We guessed we were third or fourth cousins, perhaps once removed. Close enough, we felt, to find some shared chromosomes. The results from the DNA test were returned in June and, alas, our chromosomes did not show a match.  When I received the results, I was extremely disappointed. I really thought we shared the same blood, but my confidence was now waning.  However, I also knew there was about a 50% chance that even if the results didn’t show a relationship, due to the distance of our common ancestor, we still could be related. In the meantime, Sal had decided to have his Mom’s brother tested. And, in late July, the results arrived showing we shared a chromosome segment large enough to suggest our relationship as 4^th or 5^th cousins.  Indeed, we WERE all cousins!

Matching traditional paper research with DNA testing can be very powerful. We were able to “prove” a family relationship that we may never be skilled enough to demonstrate with documents. Also, posting ancestral information on the Internet, where others can find it, is key to making connections with unknown kinsfolk. Now I understand why they call genealogical websites “cousin bait!”

Having proof we are related will spur us on to continue the paper trail in Ireland.  Knowing the approximate time frame of our common ancestor gives us a focus for the next steps in our research. However, for now, I am just thrilled we have proof we ARE all cousins. Since we have more work to do with Irish records, perhaps our second McIntyre Family Reunion should be held near the sliver of land in Lislea I visited 32 years ago. I will have to suggest this to MY cousins!  But, for the record, I will not propose we include bull pestering, donkey equestrian activities or staying in a facility without modern amenities.

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The DNA results for three descendants of Patrick McIntyre and one descendant of Michael McIntyre show the following in the Family Tree DNA chromosome browser.

 

We are most likely fourth cousins, once or twice removed if Edward and Patrick are brothers. Given the tiny pieces of DNA we share, these relationships sound just about right

The little bits of black, orange, blue and green colors above are proof that DNA from our ancestors born in the very early 19th century are inside of us in the 21st century.

Now, we just need to find the names of the parents of Edward and Michael McIntyre and, hopefully, we will have proven the relationship on paper too!

Lislea, County Sligo, in 1825

The Tithe Applotment Books record the results of a unique land survey taken to determine the amount of tax payable by landholders to the Church of Ireland. This data set represents a virtual census for pre-Famine Ireland. 

The image below is from a microfilm of the original hand written book viewed at the Montreal Public Library in 1998. The front page from the section for Kilmacteige Parish is dated November 1, 1825. Note there are three McIntyres on the list for Leslea (Lislea). 

• Patrick McEntire occupied 14 Irish acres and the land was taxed at 14 shillings
• James McIntire occupied 1 Irish acre, 2 perches and the land was taxed at 1 shilling, 6 pence
• John McEntire occupied 11 Irish acres, 3 rods and the land was taxed at 11 shillings

The note to the right of all the land in Lislea reads:

"Eleven Pounds seven shillings and nine pence the sum applotted on two hundred and eight acres and three perches in the Townland of Lislea as annexed."

From this document, it appears there were 26 heads of household/land occupiers living in Lislea in 1825. They are listed on lines 302 - 327 below. If you double click on the image it will enlarge.

Edward McIntyre (c1806-1881), father of Patrick (1831-1901), would have been approximately 19 years old in 1825 and not very likely to be the occupier of a parcel of land. Could one of these individuals, Patrick, James or John, be the father of Edward?  

Irish Mile vs Statute Mile

1. An Irish acre is a unit of area historically used in Ireland, Yorkshire, and regions bordering the Solway Firth. One Irish acre is equal to about .66 hectares (1.6 acres) (196⁄121) acre, 6600 square meters, or 70,560 square feet. Source: Wikipedia, accessed August 30, 2014.
2. Table of Constants
   1 Statute Mile = 1760 Yards
   1 Irish Mile = 2240 Yards
   11 Irish Miles = 14 Statute Miles
   1 Statute Acre = 4840 SQ. Yards
   1 Irish Acre = 7840 SQ. Yards
   121 Irish Acres = 196 Statute Acres

Source: Ordinance Survey Ireland, http://www.osi.ie/Education/Secondary-Schools/Teacher-Resources/Conversions-(1).aspx, accessed August 30, 2014

British Pound, Shilling vs American Dollar

In 1825, one British pound was equivalent to 93 British pounds in 2013. Source: http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/

There were 20 shillings to a pound, so one 1825 shilling would be worth 93/20 or $4.65 today. As an example in the above, Patrick paid 14 shillings or the equivalent of 14x4.65 = $65.10 in taxes for his 14 Irish acres.

Information on the Tithe Applotment

Background

The money so raised was for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland, the established church until 1869. The word tithe comes from the Latin for a tenth part, and refers to the custom of paying a tenth of one's earnings to the church. Originally this offering was in kind, but as money increasingly became the determinant of social and economic dealings, the tithe came to be paid similarly. Following the Composition Act of 1823, which decreed that tithes be paid in money, a valuation survey was carried out of each civil parish in Ireland to determine how much each landholder should pay. Over the next fifteen years this survey listed all landholders in a parish.

Assessing the Tithe
The survey was conducted by those who stood to gain from tithes, namely personnel of the Church of Ireland, usually members of the select vestry or apploters appointed by them 'to regulate and sub-divide'. The applotment enumerated each landholder in a parish, with details such as name of townland, size of holding, land-quality and types of crops. The amount of tithe payable by each landholder was based on all of these factors and calculated by a formula using the average price of wheat and oats from 1816-23. Most parishes had at least one tithe survey during from 1820-38 while some had two. Some parts of the country were exempt from paying tithe, among them glebe lands (land occupied by established clergymen), granges (land which in pre-Reformation times had belonged to a monastery) and all towns.

Opposition to Tithes
All this was eminently logical and scientific except for one rather serious snag; the tithe was to be paid by everyone, not just members of the Church of Ireland. Therefore, it was deeply unpopular with Catholics and Presbyterians who had their own clergy and who resented having to support a rival denomination whose members enjoyed more social and economic privileges than they. Furthermore, Catholics and Presbyterians between them outnumbered the established church, the latter being the preserve of those with social and political power. Not surprisingly there were instances of violent resistance, and numerous outbreaks of agrarian unrest in the 1830s were dubbed the 'tithe war'.

The End of Tithes
Tithes were payable directly to the Protestant minister, but collection was often difficult as people held out against the indignity and the financial burden. It should be remembered that all landholders had to pay tithe, and the majority of these were impoverished tenants already faced with heavy rents payable to their landlord. From 1838 on, the tithe was amalgamated with the land-rent and collected by landlords, who then passed on the church's share. This had the double effect of removing the trouble of collection from ministers and also of making payment more likely, given that non-payment of dues to the landlord could lead to eviction. Resentment against tithes festered as one of the ills associated with Ireland's ramshackle landlord system until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869. Thereafter this denomination had to raise its own finance in the manner of other churches.

Exceptions
In total the Tithe Applotment Books comprise some 2,000 hand-written volumes of varying degrees of legibility. Even allowing for the exemption of town-dwellers and landless labourers from the survey, it still constitutes the nearest to a census of pre-Famine Ireland that we have - especially in light of the absence of formal census data from this period. As mentioned above, however, it is not comprehensive and some parts of the country were not surveyed. It should not be assumed that these 'exceptions' from the tithe survey were due to parishes being overlooked since there are usually explanations as to why they were tithe-free. In some cases there are no tithe books because a certain parish did not exist, or was part of another parish, at the time of the survey. There were also some parishes outside parochial jurisdiction, such as the above-mentioned granges, while glebe lands and all towns were also exempt. Details of exceptions are provided below. (1)

Source: The Tithe Applotment Books of Ireland, 1823-1838: www.genealogy.com accessed August 29, 2014.

Note: I have copied this blog to the www.mcintyreginty.blogspot.com site as either Patrick, James or John should be Michael McIntyre's father as well.

Mary McIntyre Baptismal Record 1856

Mary McIntyre, third child of Patrick McIntyre and Bridget Stevens, was baptized at Tourlestrane Parish (St. Attracta) in Tourlestrane, County Sligo on October 18, 1856.  Her godparents were John and Mary Hegarty.  The McIntyre family are listed as living in the Townland of Lislea.

Baptismal Entry - #1585

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Godparents - Third Entry

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Source: Tourlestrane Parish Baptismal Record, County Sligo, Ireland; Page 44, entry 1585; Mary McIntyre entry. Accessed Ancestry.com; March 14, 2014.

Patrick McIntyre, Lislea Farm, early 1860s

Patrick McIntyre is listed in the Griffith's Valuation living on a parcel of land which is adjacent to the land that Michael McIntyre lived on and eventually owned.  In an earlier post, it is noted that Patrick McIntyre left the property sometime around 1863.

This video was taken in the summer of 2011 by Elaine McIntyre Beaudoin.