Monday, February 4, 2013

Family History Writing Challenge Day 4 - Ballylanders and Galbally



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Ballylanders, Co Limerick, Ireland is a small village in Limerick.  It is in the south part of the county along the Mitchelstown-Limerick road.  In the 2006 census a population of 333 was recorded.[i] 
Ballylanders translates as “de Londras town” which could either be a reference to an Anglo-Norman surname “Landers” or can also be translated as referring to the “Town of the Londoner”.  Either could since the surname Fleming could have originated in Flanders and Griffith’s Valuation indicates that most of the land was actually owned by Englishmen.[ii]
There is a holy well at the west side of the village which serves as the focal point of the “Pattern Day” held on 15 August.  It is one of the major fair days of the area.[iii]
This then is the area where Thomas Fleming ran a grocery store and raised his family. Most likely he was the only merchant in the village while most of the employment was in farming.
Alice Fleming’s Baptismal records indicate that the ceremony took place in Galbally, Limerick, Ireland.[iv]


Galbally is a village in southeast Limerick at the foot of the Galtee Mountains.  Galbally or An Gallbhaile means “town of the stranger or the foreigner”.  It is part of the Catholic ecclesiastical parish of Galbally and Lisvernane.  Locating both Ballylanders and Galbally on a map shows their proximity and would help to explain why the baptism took place there.  This appears to be the closest church.  The deanery of Galbally in the Diocese of Tipperary includes both Ballylanders and Lisvermane.[vi]  As further research is completed Lisvermane will enter the picture as perhaps the home of the Hennessys.

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[i] Wikipedia
[ii] ibid
[iii] ibid
[iv] Ireland, Births and Baptisms 1620-1911 Family Search FHL film 255846
[v] Tipperary Family History Research
[vi] Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly 

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