Leitrim-Roscommon

(This posting integrates and updates my previous postings in October 2000 and December 2002. Thanks and congratulations to Ed and Shaun and helpers for continuing to maintain and upgrade this excellent site).

My great-great-great grandparents were John Cuttle and Mary Purdue of Ardkeenah, Parish of Estersnow, Co. Roscommon. Their children, who were baptised in the Estersnow Parish Church, were John (born 1819), Edward (1820), Jane (1822), John (1824), Thomas (1827), William Purdue (1829), Richard (1834), Elizabeth (1836), and Susanna (1838).

At least two of the children were married in the Parish church. Jane Cuttle (1822) married Benjamin Rea in 1848 and they migrated to the United States where they became successful farmers in the state of Illinois. My great-great grandfather John Cuttle (1824-1886) married Anne Ekins (~1826-1901) on 25 March 1852. They remained as farmers in the Townlands of Knockroe and Ardkeenah, raising a family of seven children, all of whom were baptised in the church between 1853 and 1870. Their children were John (1853), Annie Marie (1854), Thomas (1857), William (1859), Edward (1862), Eliza (1864), and Richard (1870).

John and Ann Cuttle and their family migrated to New Zealand on the "Canterbury", arriving at Port Chalmers (Dunedin) 29 December 1877. Most of the family and their descendants remained in New Zealand. My branch of the family came from my great grandmother Annie Marie Cuttle who married William Douglas from Londonderry. They married in Dunedin, NZ, had two children, David and Elizabeth Annie (my grandmother), before migrating to Australia, settling first in New South Wales, then moving to Western Australia in about 1898.

I would be delighted to hear from anyone researching the surname Cuttle in County Roscommon, and particularly from those who believe they have links to John Cuttle and Mary Purdue.

I would also be most interested to know if anyone has information to confirm the existence of an abandoned burial ground (eg. records of burials or tombstone inscriptions) located close to where my Cuttle ancestors lived. The site is about 3 miles south of Boyle, on the main road to Frenchpark and Elphin where the road passes through the western margin of the Townlands of Ardkeenagh and Knockroe. The burial ground is believed to have been located several chains east of the road, within the Townland of Ardkeenagh.

Russell Hudson

G'day Russell
I was in Ireland in 2001 and was staying about a mile and a half from the old church. I took some photos of the ruin and if you are interested it would be my pleasure to send them to you in an email. The ruin is quite striking, since the walls still stand but the roof is gone and when you peer inside the altar is still standing. It is a very poignant image! The images would, of course, be absolutely free of charge, just to be clear on that! Have a great summer!

Sonja Harding
Ottawa Canada

Hello Sonya,

Thank you for your response to my posting, and for your kind offer to send me copies of your photos of the ruins of the Estersnow Parish Church. It brought back pleasant memories of my own trip to Ireland in 1998 and caused me to re-visit some of our earlier correspondence.

You may recall that we exchanged emails in October 2001 on the topic of the Estersnow Parish Church, and we had pleasure in discovering that we had shared the same experience of visiting the church and staying at the nearby “Rushfield Farm”, at the time owned by the Graham family, but previously your family home.

My wife and I spent several days in the district near Boyle in August 1998, and we also took a number of photographs of the ruins of the church and graveyard. These photographs turned out very well, and in fact I used one of the photographs of the church on my Christmas cards for 2003. The only “Cuttle” we located in the graveyard was an Anne Cuttle, whose gravestone is inscribed: “Anne Cuttle, alias Harris, wife of George Cuttle, who departed this life August the 30th 1817, aged 58”. During the visit to Boyle, I was also able to transcribe records of Cuttle baptisms and marriages that took place in the Estersnow church during the mid 1800s.

One of the local residents, a Mr Jamesy Cox of Knockroe, was kind enough to take us to a small holding in Knockroe, on the boundary of the Townlands of Ardkeenagh and Knockroe, where he said my Cuttle forebears had their farm. He also spoke of the old Ardkeenah cemetery that I mentioned in my earlier posting.

Best wishes,
Russell Hudson

Hello Russell
I am sorry I didn't recognize your name! I've been through two computer crashes and two computers since we corresponded so I no longer have our previous emails. I've since learned to print out anything I need to keep!

I was so happy to be able to share photos of the ruin that I didn't think we'd been in touch before. These days I am more distracyed than usual. I'm planning a trip to Australia to meet the descendants of my Roscommon McWilliam relatives in May! Some of my mother's cousins had been searching for our kin for nearly forty years, so the discovery is particularly exciting! I've dreamed of seeing a little of Australia for most of my life and I almost can't believe I'll be there in just under three months. Maybe the emu I met on the road to the church ruin that day in Ireland was a hint that I would one day get to Australia. Who would ever expect to meet an honest-to-goodness EMU in Co. Roscommon!

In case anyone else is interested in the Estersnow church ruin, please feel free to contact me via email and I would be happy to share the pictures I have.