The Dennigans of Tomiskey
A Dennigan Chronology
The First Generation
While at this point the
whereabouts of this Dennigan family is not known prior to 1836, we learn, thanks
to the pedigree supplied, that Laurence Dennigan’s father was Thomas Dennigan
and he married in Killashee in 1836.
The Marriage Register of
Killashee Catholic Parish8
shows the following marriage:
| Name of Parish | Killashee | NLI Microfilm Ref | POS4235 |
| Event | Marriage | ||
| Name of Groom | Thos Dinigan | Name of Bride | Maria Casey |
| Date of Marriage | 16th Feb 1836 | ||
| Residence | Not Given | Residence | Not Given |
| Name of Witness 1 | Christy Donohoe | Name of Witness 2 | Mary Mannian |
| Other Information | £1/-/- |
It should be noted the priest
was paid £1 for performing the marriage ceremony. Sadly, as is the norm with
Catholic Marriage Registers of the time, the information is sparse, and does not
give residential or parental information.
Turning
again to Griffith’s
Valuation,
there were 117 Casey households in County Longford in the mid-19th
Century. These were heavily concentrated in the Parishes of Killashee and
Rathcline, however, and as the marriage took place in Killashee, and as
marriages almost always took place in the bride’s home parish, it seems
reasonable to assume that Mary Casey was a Killashee woman. As available
Killashee Parish Register records date only from 1826, it is unlikely that
further evidence of Mary’s origins will be found. However, it may be significant
that most of Laurence’s children, as shall be shown later, are known to have
been born in Corragarrow townland in Killashee (see
Page 11). On Griffith’s
Valuation
of 1857, Corragarrow, as already stated, contained a Thomas Donegan (a possible
misprint for Dennigan, see Page 53) and also a
David Casey. It is not impossible that this David Casey was Mary Casey’s father
or brother.
Thomas and Mary had their
first child about almost a year after their marriage. The baptismal details are
as follows.9
|
Name of Parish |
Killashee |
NLI Microfilm Ref |
POS4235 |
|
Event |
Baptism |
||
|
Name of Child |
John |
||
|
Date of Baptism |
19th Jan 1837 |
Date of Birth |
Not given |
|
Name of Father |
Thos Dennigan |
Name of Mother |
Maria Casey |
|
Residence |
Not given |
||
|
Sponsor 1 |
John Casey |
Sponsor 2 |
Mary Dinigan |
|
Other Information |
2/6 |
||
This time, the priest was paid 2 Shillings and 6 Pence for his services. At this point no investigation into the fate of John Dennigan has been conducted. It seems probable that of the sponsors, John Casey was Mary’s brother, and Mary Dinigan was Thomas’s sister. It is notable that the one record contains two variants of the surname. Note too that it was quite common at the time for the first son of a marriage to be named after the father’s father. If this pattern was followed then Thomas’s father was named John, but this is purely speculative.
8 Killashee Roman Catholic Parish Registers, National Library of Ireland, Pos4235
9 Same
