Leitrim-Roscommon

I'm going around in circles.
My late father Alan Francis Brennan was born 1925, I've no idea where he was born. His mother was young and unmarried. From a family of Irish Travelling Musician/Variety Artist, his mother with her 3 siblings should have been in boarding school in Berwick on Tweed England at the time of is birth. 1929 my father was left in Raphoe with his grandfather and later with a McElhinney family.His mother settled in America. Dad never saw his mother again after 1929, there was no correspondence. I started researching his family a few years back, everything Dad told has turned out to be the absolute truth but the mystery of his father remains. My father believed his father was named DeFrench and was the son of a Lord. All research leads me back to the DeFreynes of Roscommom but I cannot find details of any males who could be his possible father. Dad's grandfather Thomas grew up on a large farm estate married 1907 names his father Thomas as being Land Steward. The Connaught name seems to have a lot of significance. Anyone any idea's of where I go from here or how I could contact family of the DeFreynes who may be able to assist me? I'm based in England in contact with his mothers descendants but they had no idea of his birth, he was a well kept family secret. Regards Jackie (contact me on site if you prefer) jackie005@btclick.com

1910 Nov 26th Windfall for the Congested Districts Board.
A large number of untenanted grazing farms – containing some hundreds of acres- have fallen into the hands of the Congested Districts Board on the De Freyne estate in the in the Castlerea Union. The lands were held on lease for life of the late King Edward VII, and at the time of the sale of the de Freyne estate to the Congested District Board these farms could not be taken over pending the expiration of the leases of these lands. They were held by Messrs P. Beirne and others of Frenchpark, the Hon R. French, brother of Lord De Freyne at Cahir and of Messrs James and Owen Ryan at Carrandangan. Owing to the death of Edward VII the leases fell through and the lands can be divided amongst the people. Roscommon Journal.

Any use

Dear Jackie, As I read your letter, this is what is known: Father Alan born 1925 where?---his father was named ?---his father Thomas, born probably in the 1880s, married in 1907---his father, also named Thomas, was the Land Stewart for the DeFraynes. If you checked the census for 1901 and 1911 (which is on-line), you could possibly find your great-grandfather's name (Thomas) in the listing. My suspicion is that your father, Alan was illegitimate and that the DeFraynes knew nothing about his birth and if they did were not inclined to write anything down about it. There is also another clue in your note---travelling musicans. I will forward on the notes I have about Percy French---perhaps there is a bit of information in there that could help you.

William "Percy" French

Born in the mid-1850s at Cloonyquin House, Elphin, the son of a landlord and a Reverend's daughter, Percy French grew to adulthood to become very much a man of the Irish common people. After graduation from Trinity College with an engineering degree, he began his working career as Inspector of Drains in county Cavan--certainly an inglorious beginning for one of Ireland's most famous composers. Seven years later, he returned to Dublin where he worked as an editor and part-time performer. He had married Ethne Armitage Moor in 1890 at St. Stephens Church, but tragically she and a newborn daughter died the following year. Percy was devastated.
He toured Ireland on his bicycle bringing to the rural people his one man show--entertainment saturated with wit, charm, artistic drawings, and his beautiful songs. In 1904 he moved to England where he continued his stage career until 1920 when he died after a short illness. The genius of his performance died with him--only the words and melodies of his tunes have been willed to the world:

"There's beautiful girls here--oh, never mind!--
With beautiful shapes Nature never designed,
And lovely complexions, all roses and crame
But O'Loughlin remarked wid regard to them same:
'that if all those roses you venture to sip,
The colour might all come away on your lip.'
So I'll wait for the wild rose that's waitin' for me--
Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea."*

*Last stanza of the "The Mountains of Mourne."