Hi Jaunita, Thank you again for all the information. The letter of 1876 was
particularly moving. The name Sarah Jane jumped out immediately to me, and I
have once again sent a copy of this e mail to my first cousin, Sara
Jane(Sheridan) Dost. This is a family name.Sara Jane Sheridan(married Don
Dost lives on the Sheridan family farm that has been in the family now for
over 150 years.)She is the daughter of my Uncle Tim Sheridan who looked
enough like my father to be his twin. He was my father's youngest brother.
The Sheridan family farm is in Fairgrove, Michigan which is on a direct line
across huge Lake Huron from Chepstow, Greenock township, Bruce Coutny,
Ontario, Canada. Lake Huron is and inland ocean, as are all the Great Lakes.
I would like to know more information about the 1817 arrival of the
Keyes(anything-any clue could be critical for me) into Quebec. Do you know
the name of the ship?, exact date etc.What would occur in Canada was the
family"groups" came together. They had to be 'sponsored" or "recommended" so
that the British authorities would allow them into enter the country. Often
groups of relatives came in the same group-forming extended families. These
extended families would often hometstead together or near each other. If one
found out about better land, or more available land, then other members of
group, which kept widening by marriage to new members- would tell the rest
of group about it. Land requirments in Canada had certain restrictions on
ownership. Most common for land grants from the government, was a "loan"
sort of arrangement where the homesteader, with small downpayment, promised
to make yearly payments on the land, and not sell it for ten years. After
this he could sell the land. Ontario was not opened up for settlement at
first to anyone who was Catholic, as the government was trying to keep
French Canadians out of the area. They were already there, but priests at
the first were not allow in. After the War of 1812-1814 with the United
States, the English authorities began to worry about losing Ontario and the
rest of Canada to the U.S. and began changing their attitudes toward
settlement. In 1817, for Catholics, of Irish descent, Ontario was generally
out of the question. New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were 'fair game', so
this is why I beleive that John Coumans and Thomas Coumans who were
Catholics went to this area first. Quebec was pretty well settled by other
branches of my family(I descend from Louis Hebert, arrived in 1604, settled
with his wife and three children in Quebec City in 1617) a ship's doctor on
the DuMonts expedition who founded Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, Nova
Scotia).The river Hebert in Nova Scotia is named after him, and there is a
great monument to him and the family in Quebec City. That your Keyes-Coumans
family were Road contractors really interests me. The Toohey side of my
Coumans-Toohey family worked on construction projects in New York(Bridges)
in the 1820's. They were from Crossmolina, County Mayo, Ireland, and there
were several brothers who worked in New York. Some went back to Ireland,
while others went north and worked on the Welland Canal between Canada and
the United States. One brother, John Toohey started work on the Rideau Canal
at "Bytown", whose name was changed to Ottawa after the Odawa Indians, and
is now the capital of Canada.He settled on a farm near Ottawa in Leeds
County, Ontario and convinced the entire Toohey family to leave Crossmolina,
County Mayo in 1840 and come to Canada. He obviously sponsored them. His
parents, Parick Toohey Sr. and his wife, Mary Hughes, were actually quite
old by the time they emigrated, but brought their two youngest sons, Patrick
JrToohey,born in 1832 and Thomas Toohey born in 1838. Patrick Toohey Jr.
would marry Elizabeth Coumans in September 1856 at St. Mary Immacualte,
Guelph, Ontario(this was the diocese center for Chepstow,Bruce, County, as
the wooden church of St. John's in Chepstow did not have a parish status or
a permanent parish priest for some time). These are my great
grandparents.Elizabeth Coumans' brother, Simon Coumans married Mary
O'Farrell in a double ceremony on the same day at the same church. Mary
O'Farrell was the daughter of Christina Inglesby and Louis
O'Farrel.(Christina was the sister of Thomas Inglesby who married Mary
Coumans(born in 1826 in New Brunswick). So although related by marriage,
they were not related by blood. This would often happen in family groups.
The Toohey's as construction people may have met the Keyes family in this
manner. Farming in Canada was a spring-summer-fall job, but most men got
another job in the long winter or took a whole season working on different
projects to bring in steady income.Construction jobs were a great source of
this.Thomas Toohey(brother of Patrick Toohey Jr,went into the lumber
business and became quite wealthy, purchasing large tracts of forest for
cutting, with his partner, John J. Valentine. Later he settled in Bay City,
Michigan,( ten miles from where I was born in Auburn, Michigan) and where I
was raised. I just purchased my family home at 409 North Henry Street, Bay
City on Sept 1,2004. Thomas Toohey built the "Toohey House"(Hotel and
Saloon)(now gone) on South Henry Street, Bay City, Michigan, and also the
Arlington House(still standing and in use) in Bay City, Michigan.He became
mayor of West Bay City, Michigan and his life story(and that of his family's
arrival in South Burgess, Leeds County in 1840) can be found in the book
published in 1883, History of Bay County, Michigan.Simon Coumans(brother of
Eilizabeth and Carissa's great great gradfather, lived one block away with
his wife and family in the 600 block of North Henry Street. The John Coumans
family decided to leave New Brunswick just after the birth of my great
grandmother, Elizabeth Coumans(May 1836). They may have made an arrangement
to sell their farm in New Brusnwick to a member of the Sargeant family,(his
wife's family). I do not know for sure, but they moved next to a Sargeant's
family farm on 100 acres in Huron County(now Perth County),North Easthope,
Ontario. This is just outisde Stratford, Ontario, which had been founded as
I wrote earlier, in 1832 by a John Sargeant and his wife. They were
Anglicans(Church of England).We say Anglicans in the United States,since
after the American Revolution of 1776, anything mentioning "England" was bad
news. The C of E changed their name to "Anglicans" in the US to hide this.
The Sargeants in North Easthope, Huron County, Ontario(at least one son,
Thomas Sargeant, became a Catholic and were attending a Catholic church, St.
Peter's in Goderich, Ontario. It was a good thirty plus miles(over 50
kilometers) from the farm, but they went to mass there and all the baptisms,
marriages etc, took place there. On line one can find records for this
church.This is where the two youngest children of John Coumans and Jane
Sargeant were baptised. The present parish is still there with a fine stone
church erected about 1900.Thomas Inglesby and his wife, Mary Coumans bought
a farm, 100 acres, near their parents farm in North Easthope, Huron County,
Ontario when they married(see Carissa Thomas's web site on this family).
Bruce County was not opened up for settlement by the English authorities
until the early 1850's. You can see on line at Carissa Thomas' web site the
story of the founding of Chepstow by our cousin, Oliver Coumans. Written in
the 1930's, it is a great account of the founding of the county and the
opening up of the place.The Toohey's decided to leave South Burgess, Leeds
County, Ontario(their ten years were up and they owned the land out right!),
and move to Chepstow. Further, The John Coumans family did the same,
securing 100 acres for each of the seven children, plus one hundred for
themselves. Now if you consider that in Ireland at this time it was still
illegal for a Catholic family to own more the 2 and one quarter acre of
land, and nothing worth more than 5 pounds--you can see why the
Keyes-Coumans family and theToohey's and others who were Catholic were so
eager to sell all in Ireland and"go to America".After all, Canada is still
North America, and calling it America(as Anne Healy does) is quite
correct.The Chepstow area, which is good farm land, much like the rich soil
surrounding Dalby, Queensland,had to be "de-forested" by the home steader.
It was tremendously hard work, and families worked in groups to help each
other clear the land ,and stumps etc. Catholic churches opened in Stratford,
Perth County, and a mission of St. John in Chepstow. Finally the long
distances could be cut in half to attend mass etc. Irishtown(now called
Dublin, Ontario) opened up outside of Stratford with it's own Catholic
church. We had family marriages(John II Coumans) there. The large diocese
church for Chepstow was Mary Immaculate in Guelph, Ontario(a good 75 miles
of bad roads etc.) Marriages for the parish had to take place there.
Patrick Toohey Sr. and his wife moved to Chepstow early on, as did John and
Jane Coumans and all their children. All four of them are buried at the
catholic church there(formerely St. John's, but since 1876 called the parish
of Mary Immaculate, Chepstow, Ontario with the present church being built
about 1900.) When I said " in boonies" or "in the boonies", it is like
saying,"beyond Burke" or"in the land of Never Never" in Australian "strine".
I know I can never go down Cunningham Street again in Dalby without thinking
of the Keyes/ Coumans family there. I remember when I first saw the Dalby
farming area with my brother Peter ten years ago when I bought my first
property, sight unseen, from photographs. I remarked to him that I had come
10,000 miles only to end up Fairgrove, Michigan!(Chesptow is very similar
also). I realize now that I was not the only one who thought this! Of
course, the winters in Dalby are down right tropical compared to Cheptow,
Ontario, and Fairgrove, Michigan.I am sure that the Coumans family was very
gald to be in Chepstow when the Civil War broke out in the adjoining United
States in 1861. The United States was very tempting to Irish Catholics
because there was still quite a lot of prejudice in Canada against Catholics
outside of Quebec. We tended to stick together in groups, and the Chepstow
area became a "Catholic" area with extended families all around from
Ireland.Later, New Brunswick, especially an area settled by Sue Snerish's
family, through the efforts of a Catholic priest, brought over many Irish
catholic families including Coumans'. These are the Simon Coumans family of
Sue's family. Thomas Coumans in Nova Scotia was involved in Ship building
through the Pride families connections and was involved in Methodism. John
Coumans and his family had gone to Ontario with the Sargeant family
connections, and I bet for quite a long time neither communicated with their
respective families back in Ireland(or families in Australia) etc. I am
still quite fascinated with these two brothers, "John and Thomas Coumans"
sons of Peter Cummins(Coumans) of Myshall being described as dead.Sue
Snerish points out quite correctly that I should take"dead as dead" because
leaseing land by Catholics in Ireland, even for a life estate, was very
serious business! I am going to research again and see where in County Cork
the John Sargeant family originated. Carissa Thomas may have this
information on her web site, as John Sargeant's family story along with
Stratford, Ontario, is on line. It mentions where in County Cork his family
lived. This may be the key to where your Anne Coumans( and where John
Coumans and Jane Sargeant met and married, and for that matter where Jane
Sargeant was born). I will let you know what I discover. Perhaps if you find
your family there, I will find my family there, and Carol Thomas and Carol
Robocker her family in that village in County Cork. I know I have come
across that information. Carissa may have it on the tip of her tongue, or I
am sure in files on the Sargeants. More later, Gabe
Hello Gabe
Sue and Carissa have got in touch so I am including them in case any of this info helps their search. I've also included our Keyes research group.
To start answering your questions I have decided to write out Ann's letter for you. But first I'll explain that it was written on a quarto size paper divided in half to make 4 pages. One side of one of these halves has been torn off which makes about 2 lines of text missing on one side and about 1.5cm missing down the length of the other page. (Ann wrote every which way on her paper)
My dear Sister and Brother
It is with extreme pleasure I sit down to reply to your kind and welcome letter which I received and was happy to hear that you and your husband were quite well as it leaves us all at present. Dear Sister and brother I do not give up the thought of ever seeing you as I have my family reared and I am (lines missing)...only I was waiting for Sarah Jane to be confined she has got a young daughter 1 month old today she came home and is going away in a few days. The baby's name is Bridget. Thomas Keays wrote to me and told me my father was dead. I never got a letter from brother William or any one in America and I wrote several times and got no answer and nothing would ... getting pleasure that hearing ...(?news that) my friends send me these/there ... if you have any. Dear brother and sister this country is not as good as it was I would not advise anyone to come to it now. I got a good chance of ... only if I had the sense ... We had a Hotel for 9 years and ... built am Hotel that cost ... now Denis Byrne and his wife are living here she has got 5 children and is doing well.
My husband and family join in sending there love to you and Michael and
I remain, Your devoted sister, Ann Healy. I will never be as long without writing so write soon and may God bless you. Direct
John Healy, Scarlet Street, Dalby, Queensland, Australia.
This tells us that:
1 though the date was missing on the letter, one month after Bridget was born was 3 Feb 1876.
2 they call Canada "America" and no one there had written when Robert Keyes died probably in Greenock, Bruce Co, Ont.
3. so Thomas Keays probably was still in Leinster - whichever County and that both sides of the oceans must have kept in touch with family back in Ireland. Thomas sounds more like cousin than Uncle.
4. Sister (married to Michael) wrote to her after a long period because for example the Denis Byrne probably from Castlecomer, had been sponsor at the young mother's baptism in Dalby 18 years previously.
5. This letter was found by a descendent of William in her grandmother's possessions (Mary Jane Keyes, daughter of William) by Denise after her funeral. We presume the letter was written to her sister remaining in Ireland who sent it out to William's family. Denise Millington, current owner of the letter, later moved to Sydney and refinding the letter, travelled to Dalby to find how she could have a Healy connection. The Dalby Family History gave me Denise's address some 10 years later. Like you, Denise had been told of a Catholic connection in her Keyes family and couldn't work it out . Robert Keyes was a Catholic but his brother James Keyes was CofI.
Now for Ann's history:
Ann lived at Aughamucky townland east of Castlecomer and now one of its acreage suburbs. There was a village of Keyes living there, up the Yellow Road that leads to Aughmucky, on the left going down to the river. This Keyes family seem landless and their father Robert was a Road Contractor and/or Inspector, so they probably lived with this group. Later Ann's eldest daughter said her mother had been born in Castlecomer. Though several of her siblings are listed in the Baptismal register of Castlecomer, at a later date than Ann's birth, we haven't found Ann's birth. There was never a mention of Myshall until our Carolyn found that connection some months ago.
Between the time of her parent's departure and Ann's marriage she must have had some safe harbour to safeguard her good name. Either she lived in service or lived with this married sister who I presume was already married and secure, so didn't immigrate with the others.
The RC of Castlecomer has her marriage to John Healy listed on 5 Feb 1855.
To Aust Immigration she claimed all her family had gone to 'America'. For years Aust researchers searched in USA for them.
In 1908 she and John applied for the Pension. This is the first time their ages are shown to be different. John says he is 78 and Ann says she is 82. This is the first time their ages are acknowledged as different. Up until then, at the registration of the births of their children, their ages have marched along like twin souls. I take this as the most correct statement we can get of her age. It says she was born c 1826.
Ann died longing to return to Castlecomer, so she must have had a happy family life there from a young age.
Your reference to being baptised one name and called another has me thinking. I believe William was baptised William John because he gets the full title in his story. William and Ann's name seem so linked, their ages are very close, I wonder if they were twins, born in Cork. We have found their siblings born in Myshall and Castlecomer, but not their records.
What does 'living in boonies' mean?
All those Coumans names are in our line except for the Simon,Peter ones.
You won't find anything about Coumans in Deep Roots and Tall Trees, that is the Keyes Family History of the group that lived around Greenock Swamp.
All the best,
Juanita
Hi Gabe, et al,Nope. Nope. Nope!! Not making sense yet from my point of view. I am not talking about two women with two lines. 1. I am talking about one woman with two different names: Mary Cummins (who probably became Coumans on disembarking in Canada if she survived the journey). As I see it, our Australian line calls her Mary and the Canadian line calls her Ann. I am forwarding the case that her name is Mary.The Australian line says her husband is Robert James Keyes and the Canadian line says her husband is William Keyes.
2. Then from "Mary" we have her daughter Ann who married John Healy and became Ann Healy nee Keyes. (We also have the registration of about 8 children baptised in Myshall and Castlecomer to Robert and Mary. Though we know nothing more about these children.) We also have this woman's son: William John Keyes who went to Canada. (We don't yet have Ann's nor William's baptismal notices and these are the only two of the children we do know about.)So how do we 'prove' that Mary's daughter Ann and William John in Canada ARE brother and sister? By the letter held by Denise Millington saying brother William never wrote and told me my father had died. This letter, though not written to William was held as an heirloom in William John's eldest daughter's possessions.To confirm our case, we have a)Ann's death certificate saying her parents were Mary Cummings and Robert James Keyes with information supplied by her adopted daughter (really her granddaughter) Minnie Healy who returned home to care for her after John had died. b) we also have William naming his three sons: Robert, James and lastly William John. If William's father was William, this traditionalist wouldn't call his firstborn Robert.c) we also have Ann's letter.You are doing really well wrapping your mind around this. I've been pouring over it for months and enjoy thinking it through and clarifying it in my mind as I explain it to you. Though I do see loop holes for the other side, I think our case is the most logical. (Though being logical doesn't satisfy me.)Juanita