Thursday 31 December 2009

CONDR*N News - 1871

As one of an occasional series, today I look at coverage of CONDR*Ns in the newspapers for the year 1871 in the British Library 19th century newspapers on-line collection. This collection comprises full runs of 48 national and regional papers from the UK, including at that time Ireland.

Charge of manslaughter
The most sensational CONDR*N story of the year was the trial of Mary Condron of Henry Street, Manchester. Mary Condron, aged 26, was charged with having caused the death of her husband Joseph Condron. On Christmas Day, 1870, Joseph, who had been drinking, quarrelled with his wife regarding the quality of his dinner and kicked over the table. His wife told him he couldn't expect to have better food, considering he had not been working for 5 months. Joseph hit his wife, who was stirring the fire with a poker. He was about to hit her again when she turned around and struck him on the temple with the poker. Early in January 1871, Joseph went to Newton-le-Willows in search of work. He got wet through in the rain and soon after fell ill. He was admitted to the workhouse hospital, where he died on 17 Mar 1871. The workhouse doctor declared that he had died from erysipalas caused by a fracture to the skull, which induced one abscess above the eye and another beneath it. The jury acquitted Mary Condron.
[Manchester Times, 25 Mar, 29 Jul 1871; The Preston Guardian, 22 Jul; Liverpool Mercury, 28 Jul]

Other court trials
In a Dublin court, Samuel Condron and fellow defendants Patrick Pidgeon and Michael Toole were cleared by the jury of a charge of having stolen on 17 Dec 1870 a large quantity of barley and flour, the property of the Barrow Navigation Company, from the Dublin Canal stores. During the proceedings, James Murphy, a maltster of Clanbrassil Street, attested that Condron had been delivering corn at his place for many years and that he know Condron a long time as an honest man, whom he believed in these proceedings to have merely been acting as a carrier, as he had been accustomed.
[Freeman's Journal (Dublin), 12 Jan 1871]

A police court in Kingstown and Bray (Co. Wicklow) found one Esther Condron guilty of using abusive language and she was fined 40 shillings, or in default one month's imprisonment. She and fellow defendants John Hosey and wife were summoned in the matter by one Ellen Troy.
[Freeman's Journal, 3 Jul 1871]

Diverse announcements
Several CONDRONs made donations to Irish-French causes: Laurence Condron of Co. Wexford made a donation to aid for the wounded of the French army; Michael Condron of Little Strand Street, Dublin, made a donation to the Irish-France Ambulance Committee; and a Mr Condron won 9th prize - a lady's gold chain and cross - at the Kell's Bazaar for the French peasantry. Also in this same year, Thomas Condron of Arklow donated to the Peter's Pence Collection for the Pope.
[Freeman's Journal, 27 Feb, 4 Mar, 18 Mar, 2 May, 8 Aug 1871]

The Castlebridge Fair was held on St Stephen's Day (26 December). The principal buyers of livestock included a Mr Condron of Wexford.
[Freeman's Journal, 27 Dec 1871]

A mysterious marriage announcement
The final item is a small mystery. The following announcement of a Liverpool marriage between James CONDRON and Augusta KIDD appeared on 30 December:
Condron-Kidd - Dec. 26, at St. Mary's, Walton-on-the Hill, by the Rev. J. Lambeth, James, son of Mr. Thomas Condron, banker, Southampton, to Augusta, youngest daughter of the late Mr. William Kidd, of Cawthorne, Barnsley.
[Liverpool Mercury, 30 Dec 1871]
The mystery is that I can find no other record of this marriage, nor can I identify the banker Thomas Condron or a likely James son of Thomas. The named bride is probably Augusta Maria Kidd whose birth was registered in the first quarter of 1853 in the Wortley registration district. Perhaps the marriage did not in fact take place, though the notice had been sent to the newspaper, or the bridegroom was not in fact who he said he was? It would be good to inspect the parish register of St Mary's, Walton-on-the-Hill, to see whether the marriage actually took place.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Ireland 1911 census complete

The Ireland 1911 census (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie) is now online for all counties.

The counties with the highest numbers of CONDR*Ns (no. of individuals in parentheses) are:
Co. Dublin (213), Kings Co. (116), Co. Wicklow (94), Queens Co. (66), Co. Westmeath (50), Co. Kildare (34), Co. Carlow (30), Co. Cork (25), Co. Wexford (25).

The full list of numbers of CONDR*N individuals by county is as follows: Antrim (4), Armagh (0), Carlow (30), Cavan (11), Clare (0), Cork (25), Donegal (3), Down (0), Dublin (213), Fermanagh (0), Galway (4), Kerry (0), Kildare (34), Kilkenny (18), Kings (116), Leitrim (0), Limerick (9), Londonderry (0), Longford (11), Louth (0), Mayo (2), Meath (2), Monaghan (4), Queens (66), Roscommon (20), Sligo (7), Tipperary (2), Tyrone (0), Waterford (0), Westmeath (50), Wexford (25), Wicklow (94).


Friday 4 September 2009

A visit to Offaly

I recently had the pleasure of making a trip to Offaly. Offaly, known until 1922 as King's County, is perhaps where the CONDR*Ns originate. Certainly there is a relatively high density of CONDR*Ns in the county in the Griffiths evaluation (mid 19th century) and again in the 1911 Irish census.

The county town is Tullamore, and just opening a copy of the Tullamore Tribune I spotted several occurences of the name Condron, including one of the reporters! Also just outside the centre of town is the Condron Concrete factory.

One of the high spots of my brief stay in Offaly was to visit the historic holy site of Clonmacnoise which was often known in the 19th century as the Seven Churches (e.g. The Kings County Directory 1890 compiled by John Wright, see also wikipedia). There are some well preserved (and very well displayed) decorated High Crosses there, the oldest dating from c. 800AD.

Beyond the ancient remains lies a modern burial ground, and I spotted three Condron headstones there. Here are photos of them. (Click on any one of them to see a larger image.) I wonder if anyone reading this is related to these Condrons? It would be good to hear from you.










Tuesday 23 June 2009

More 1911 Ireland Census

The National Archives of Ireland have put online (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/) the transcribed and indexed entries from the 1911 Ireland Census for a further five counties. This brings to a total of nine the counties that can currently be searched online at this site.

I have of course extracted the CONDR*N entries. The statistics of numbers of individuals found by county are as follows:
Antrim - 4
Cork - 25
Donegal - 3
Down - 0
Dublin - 213
Galway - 4
Kerry - 0
Kings Co. - 116
Wexford - 25

It is a working hypothesis that the CONDR*Ns may be traced back to King's County, so it is welcome that this is one of the counties now online. For interest, the districts in King's Co. where there are CONDR*N households in 1911 are: Banagher, Birr (multiple), Broughal (multiple), Cappancar, Cloghan (multiple), Clonmacnoise (multiple), Derrinboy, Derryad, Derrycooley, Dromina (multiple), Dromoyle, Dunkerrin, Durrow (multiple), Eglish, Frankford, Gallen, Killeigh, Lumcloom, Rahan, Screggan (multiple), Shinrone, Srah (multiple), Tullamore (multiple).

Sunday 17 May 2009

CONDR*Ns on the map


There's a Condren's Lane in Arklow, Ireland (view on Google Maps here) and a Condron Lane in Passnic, New Jersey. There are Condron Roads in Liverpool UK and in Throckmorton, Texas, and a Condren Road in Newfane, New York. There's a Condron Hall (named after Christopher "Kip" and Margaret Condron) at the University of Scrafton, Scrafton PA, USA (pictured). There's a commune called Condren in Picardie, north-east of Paris (02700 Condren, France). There are Condron Streets in Valley, Nebraska and in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. There's a Condran Drive in Middletown, Pennsylvania, a Condren Avenue in Spartanburg, South Carolina and a Condron Circuit in Elderslie, New South Wales, Australia.

Do you know which individual CONDR*Ns these streets were named after, and when? Do you know of any other places or streets named CONDR*N? Could you send me a photo of the street sign or similar for any of these places? If so, do please get in touch!

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Irish BMD extractions completed to 1958

Just a brief post to say that my data extraction of CONDR*N Births/Marriages/Deaths civil registration records have now been completed to 1958. Including an estimated 70 births for 1864-9 whichI already had in my database from the IGI, I reckon that the numbers of CONDR*N births, marriages and deaths registered in Ireland in the period 1864-1958 are:
Births 1848
Marriages 911
Deaths 1397.

By comparison, for the same period in England and Wales the corresponding numbers are
Births 960
Marriages 667
Deaths 556.

Monday 23 February 2009

Charles CONDRON silk manufacturer

One of the more well-to-do CONDRONs I have found in 19th century England was Charles CONDRON, silk manufacturer of Macclesfield, Cheshire. Charles CONDRON was born in about 1805 in Macclesfield, a town renowned for its silk manufacture. He appears in the 1841 census as a clerk, and in 1851 as a silk manufacturer. With his wife, Ann, he had five daughters and one son, all born in Macclesfield: Emma (born c. 1825), Anne (born c. 1830), Elizabeth (born c. 1833), Mary (born c. 1835), Harriette (born 1841/2) and Henry Ainsworth CONDRON (born 1838). Emma married John TURNER in 1846/7; Ann married John Gerhard TIARKS, sometime rector of Loxton, Somerset, in 1862/3; Harriette married William Lawrence KENT in 1868. Harriette was evidently musical: she was "specially commended" in the first competition for the Potter Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Music, according to a report in the Daily News (London) of 22 December 1860.

On 23 January 1866 at St. Saviours, South Hampstead, Henry Ainsworth CONDRON married Johanna Louisa Augusta BISHOP, daughter of Sir Henry R. BISHOP, professor of music at the University of Oxford: they were married by Henry's brother-in-law the Rev. J. Gerhard TIARKS. Johanna died on 25 September 1875 "after a short illness", but not before the couple had had two sons and two daughters: Henry Bishop (b. 1866/7), Charles Percy (b. 1868), Emma Louise (b. 1872) and Alice Riviere (b. 1874). Captain Henry Ainsworth CONDRON, by then of Blundellsands near Liverpool, subsequently married Jane Lawrence KENT in 1880: he died in 1889. His widow Jane died on 9 March 1900. Henry Bishop CONDRON died in Santos, Brazil, of the yellow fever in April 1893, aged 26 years, as reported in the Liverpool Mercury of 15 April of that year. The other son, Charles Percy CONDRON, married Florence Alice E. HUNT, made his living as a ship store dealer, and died in 1946 in Liverpool.

Charles CONDRON was declared bankrupt in 1855: in 1861 he is described as a "manager in a silk mill". He died on 19 Feb 1869. His widow Ann outlived him by 14 years and died in 1882/3.

As always, I would be delighted to hear from any descendants.

Wednesday 4 February 2009

CONDR*N update

Its been a while since I posted, though the CONDR*N one-name study has not been inactive! New records of births for County Wicklow have been put online by the Irish Family History Federation (IFHF - see the blog entry for 5 April 2008), which is an important county for CONDR*Ns with over 250 entries, particularly in Arklow. Also I'm happy to have had contact with a couple of people decended from the Condron brushmakers featured in the posting of 12 October 2008. And I discovered recently two more Facebook Groups devoted to Condrons: "Condron Family Tree" and "Condrons" - it's great to see some younger(!) Condr*ns also interested in tracing family roots.

In the UK the 1911 census for much - not yet all - of England has been released online. To date I have traced 231 CONDR*Ns, and no doubt this number will increase particularly when County Durham goes online, as well as the Welsh counties.

Another important development has been the pilot-version release of Irish civil births, marriages and deaths indices for 1845-1958 at the Family Search Record Search. Previously these were only available as far as I know by visiting the records office in Ireland. Of course I am extracting all the CONDR*Ns and so should be able to help if anyone is looking for a CONDR*N in Ireland in that time frame.

That's a quick update. Do keep those emails coming!