1914: one hundred years on

Exactly one hundred years ago today, on June 28th 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It was an event that quickly precipitated the start of the First World War (1914-1918).

I shall be taking a short summer break from my series of blog posts commemorating the 17 CONDR*Ns who gave their lives serving in that war. I have seven more still to write about.

On a happier note, I see from my database that there were 30 CONDR*Ns born in the British Isles in 1914: 15 in Ireland, 11 in England, 3 in Scotland and 1 in Wales. Of these, two were CONDRENs (one each in Northumberland and in County Kilkenny) and 28 were CONDRONs. The greatest concentration was in Dublin, with two born in Dublin North and three in Dublin South. The most popular boys' name was James (3) and the most popular girls' name was Margaret (3). Other names included Cecil, Herbert, Hubert, Irene, Ivy, Jessie and Olive.

Lest We Forget

Tyne Cot Cemetery near Passchendaele, West Flanders, Belgium (image credit: www.cwgc.org)

2014 is the centenary of the start of the First World War.

The First World War began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. They called it the Great War, the war to end all wars. The war pitched the Allies (Britain, France and Russia, later joined by the United States and others) against the Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary, later joined by the Ottoman Empire [Turkey] and Bulgaria). Many factors contributed to the start of the war, including: the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s territorial ambitions in the Balkans, leading to its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908; the arms race between Britain and Germany; the “bellicose utterances and attitude” of the German Kaiser (to quote Liddell Hart); and the various treaties between the big powers that linked them into joining the war. The trigger for war is generally taken to have been the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 during a visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 28 July, Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Other major powers mobilized their troops in the subsequent days: Russia on 29 July, Germany on 30 July, France on 2 August. Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August following the German invasion of Belgium.

In all, more than nine million combatants were killed. Britain and Ireland lost nearly 900,000 men, while the loss of combatants from the British Empire as a whole was more than 1.1 million men. Many more were casualties. The names of the campaigns and battles where so many lives were lost – Gallipoli, the Somme, Passchendaele, … – still have a resonance today. In some countries, we remember those who died each year on the anniversary of the Armistice, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, and wear red poppies like those that grew in the fields of Flanders where such slaughter occurred.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
– From ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae

In 2014 I shall use this blog to remember those CONDR*Ns who gave their lives in the First World War, devoting one post to each of them in the chronological order in which they died. I have researched carefully and believe this is a complete list of CONDR*Ns (with their service numbers) who were killed in the war:

Arthur CONDRON, Private, 4/8173, died Aug. 1916
Edward CONDRON, Petty Officer Stoker, 295103, died Sep. 1914
Frank CONDRON, Corporal, 4525, died Sep. 1915
Herbert CONDRON, Private, 36779, died Dec. 1917
Hugh CONDRON, Private, 3046, died Aug. 1916
Humphrey N. A. CONDRAN, Private, 3045, died June 1917
John CONDRON, Private, 11362, died Apr. 1915
John CONDRON, Private, 9249, died June 1915
Lawrence CONDREN, Private, 3015, died Aug. 1915
Martin CONDRON, Private, 7401, died Apr. 1915
Michael CONDRON, Rifleman, 3956, died Dec. 1917
Michael CONDRON, Corporal, 26919, died Apr. 1918
Patrick CONDRON, Private, A/7579, died July 1916
Thomas CONDRON, Private, 24941, died Apr. 1917
Thomas CONDRON, Private, 32396, died Feb. 1920
Thomas Arthur CONDRON, Serjeant, 15901, died Feb. 1918
Thomas Denis CONDRON, Private, 7045, died Aug. 1918

All these are listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) among those who died in the First World War, with one error that Thomas CONDRON (died 1917) is listed there as “J. CONDRON”. Following the CWGC, I have included Thomas CONDRON who died in 1920, even though his death occurred after the end of the war.

If I have erroneously omitted anyone from the above list then I sincerely apologise and ask readers of this blog to let me know the name and details of the deceased (my contact details are below). Also I would greatly appreciate receiving photographs of any of the above men who died in the war.

Of course, many other CONDR*Ns served in the First World War, and numerous of them were casualties of the war. I would welcome receiving information about them. If I receive enough contributions I will write a future blog post about those who served without sacrificing their lives.

Please contact me by leaving a comment below, or by emailing me at CONDRAN[AT]ONE-NAME.ORG

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
– From ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon

Little Ireland, and an Offaly update

Three months ago I wrote about a puzzle of three CONDRON families of Cloghan, Co. Offaly ("Family 1", "Family 2", "Family 3") because I could find no link between them. I still have not solved that puzzle, though I have found out some more about at least one of the families. In the 1871 UK census, the following members of "Family 3" are living in Hulme, south Manchester: John (age 2) with his parents William (age 28) and Judith (nee ROURKE) and younger sister Jane (age 10 months). In the same household are two other CONDRON families: Thomas (age 30) with wife and one child, and Michael (age 32) with his wife Joanna (nee WALSHE or WELSH). Everyone except Thomas's child was born in Ireland. Could Thomas perhaps be the same Thomas who was head of "Family 2" in Cloghan? It seems quite likely though not proven that William, Thomas and Michael are brothers. One small piece of supporting evidence is that Michael's marriage record to Joanna at St Wilfrid's RC church in Hulme shows that his father was called John, which I know also to be the name of William's father.

The historic townships of Hulme and Chorlton-on-Medlock (not to be confused with Chorlton-cum-Hardy) lie within the registration district of Chorlton, which is located just to the south of Manchester and was separated from it by the River Medlock. (Today this area is very much part of Manchester). Many Irish immigrants lived in Hulme and Chorlton-on-Medlock in the nineteenth century, many CONDR*Ns among them. More than 70 CONDR*N births are recorded in Chorlton between 1845 and 1900.

One area adjacent to the Medlock was known as Little Ireland because of the high density of Irish immigrants living there, and is described in horrific detail by Friedrich Engels in his 1844 book, The Condition of the Working Class in England. Of the Medlock, Engels say, "Along both sides of the stream, which is coal black, stagnant and foul, stretches a broad belt of factories and working-men's dwellings, the latter all in the worst condition." And he goes on:

But the most horrible spot ...  lies on the Manchester side, immediately south-west of Oxford Road, and is known as Little Ireland. In a rather deep hole, in a curve of the Medlock and surrounded on all four sides by tall factories and high embankments, covered with buildings, stand two groups of about two hundred cottages, built chiefly back to back, in which live about four thousand human beings, most of them Irish. The cottages are old, dirty, and of the smallest sort, the streets uneven, fallen into ruts and in part without drains or pavement; masses of refuse, offal and sickening filth lie among standing pools in all directions; the atmosphere is poisoned by the effluvia from these, and laden and darkened by the smoke of a dozen tall factory chimneys. A horde of ragged women and children swarm about here, as filthy as the swine that thrive upon the garbage heaps and in the puddles. ... The race that lives in these ruinous cottages, behind broken windows, mended with oilskin, sprung doors, and rotten door-posts, or in dark, wet cellars, ... this race must really have reached the lowest stage of humanity. ... [I]n each of these pens, containing at most two rooms, a garret and perhaps a cellar, on the average twenty human beings live.

Apparently, and fortunately, Little Ireland was demolished in about 1847. One can only hope that the CONDR*Ns and others who lived in Chorlton district lived in better conditions than Engels so harrowingly described.

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!

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.

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.

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!

William Condron of HMS Strafford

The oldest CONDR*N document of which I have a copy is the will of William Condron, dated 1744:

I William Condron Mariner now belonging to his Majesty's Ship Strafford being of sound and disposing Mind and Memory, do hereby make this my last Will and Testament. ...[A]s for such worldly Estate and Effects which I shall be possessed of or intitled unto at the Time of my Decease, I give and bequeath the same as followeth that is to say unto my loving Friend Ann Grafton of Portsmouth in the county of Hants. All such Wages Sum and Sums of Money Goods Chattles Estate Rights and Credits whatsoever that I shall be possessor of at the time of my Decease I give and bequeath to the said Ann Grafton her Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns. And I do hereby nominate constitute and appoint the said Ann Grafton sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament. ... In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred and forty four and in the eighteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second ... .

Does anyone have any older CONDR*N documents?

The oldest CONDR*N events in my database are a marriage and christening in St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, in 1578: Ann, daughter of John CONDRON, christened on 24 August; and John CONDRON marrying Katheren HEWETT on 16 November of the same year. Both of these are from the International Genealogical Index (IGI).

The next oldest events, over 100 years later in Dublin and also from the IGI, are at St Michan's, Dublin: the marriage of Robert CONDRAN and Mary CARLETON on 31 July 1695, and the christening of their son Richard on 31 August 1697.

Does anyone know of any older CONDR*N events?

CONDR*Ns in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey

The historical records of proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, which have recently gone on-line at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org, reveal a few CONDRENs and CONDRONs who paid dearly for breaking the law.

1726 December 7 James COWDON alias CONDRON Theft - grand larceny
James Cowdon, alias Condron , was indicted for stealing a Fustian Frock, Value 10 Shillings, a Wig 7 Shillings, a pair of Shoes 3 Shillings, a Leather Apron and 2 Linnen Handkerchiefs , Oct. 29 .
John Baxter depos'd. That he found the Goods upon the Prisoner in Clement's Lane in Clare-Market, the Sunday was Sev'night after.
The Prisoner said he was sorry for it, and intended to bring the Goods again. The Jury found him guilty to the Value of 10d.
Punishment: Transported.

1748 July 6 Thomas CONDRON Theft - receiving
Catharine Bourne was indicted for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of William Simpson , about the hour of two in the night, and stealing two silver spoons, a ham of bacon, a table-cloth, two pewter dishes, and one hundred and eight glass bottles, the property of William Simpson , in his dwelling-house. Thomas Condron was indicted for receiving a ham of bacon, and two pewter plates, part of the said goods, knowing them to be stolen , June 12 .
Punishment: Thomas CONDRON was sentenced to be transported for 14 years.

1831 October 21 John CONDREN Theft - stealing from master.
JOHN CONDREN was indicted for stealing, on the 29th of September , two 100l. Bank notes, and an order for payment of 30l. , the property of John Phillips Beavan , his master.
MR. JOHN PHILLIPS BEAVAN . I am a solicitor , and live in Sackville-street - the prisoner was in my service as porter for about eight months. On Thursday, the 29th of September, I gave him two 100l. Bank notes and a cheque for 30l.; I desired him to leave the two 100l. notes at my bankers, Sir C. Scott and Co., and to bring me the money for the cheque - he did not return; I found him in custody at Liverpool on the following Monday; when I went into the room I said."I am sorry to see you in this situation: you are the last man in the world I should suppose would be guilty of such conduct" - he said he was very sorry for it, that it was the first time he had ever committed a wrong act, and he said a 100l. note which was found on him was mine also one hundred and three sovereigns, which he said he got in exchange for the other 100l. note and the cheque- I have recovered 203l.
Cross-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. Q. You believe it is his first offence? A. Yes - he bore an excellent character from several masters with whom he lived many years- he could have robbed me of 700l. the day before.
JOHN McCOMB . I am an officer of Liverpool. I apprehended the prisoner - Mr. Beavan's evidence is correct.
GUILTY . Aged 27.
Strongly recommended to Mercy by the Prosecutor and Jury.
Punishment: Transported for 7 years.

1887 April 25 George Stratford CONDREN Theft - mail theft
GEORGE STRATFORD CONDREN (22) PLEADED GUILTY to three indictments for stealing while employed in the Post-office three letters containing orders for the payment of money, the property of Her Majesty's Postmaster-General, also to four indictments for forging and uttering receipts to the said orders.
Punishment: 5 years' penal servitude.

UK CONDRANs

One of the pleasures of genealogy is that one occasionally makes contact with hitherto unknown relatives. Hence it was a great pleasure recently to be contacted by Nick CONDRAN. It turns out that Nick CONDRAN's great-grandfather Ernest CONDRAN (b. 1893, Nottingham) and my grandfather Frank CONDRAN (b. 1890, Nottingham) were brothers. Nick tells me that of the small number of CONDRANs in England and Wales in 2002, 13 are descendants of or related by marriage to descendants of Ernest CONDRAN.