John F. Grogan was the grandfather of Walter and great-grandfather of Catherine Rose. He was born 24 May 1815 in County Kilkenny (Irish Gaelic: Cill Chainnigh), Ireland, in the Catholic parish of Lisdowney (Lios Dúnaígh). This information is according to his obituary, published in the Rome Semi-Weekly Citizen, Friday, 12 March 1897. Unfortunately, baptism records for Lisdowney only go back to 1817, so we don’t have a birth record for John, but we do have a few for his younger siblings.
John’s parents were James Grogan and Bridget Fitzpatrick. Unfortunately available marriage records from this parish skip the years they were likely married. There were 5 known children from that marriage, John being the eldest. All were baptized in Lisdowney. James died before 1830 (known because Bridget is listed as a widow in an 1830 Tithe Applotment Book, see below), which put an end to the growth of this family.
Children of James Grogan & Bridget Fitzpatrick
- John F. Grogan, born 24 May 1815; no baptism record found.
- Mary Grogan, baptized 23 September 1818.
- Patrick Grogan, baptized 18 February 1821.
- William Grogan, baptized 7 August 1825 Residence at birth: Lisdowney Hill.
- James Grogan, born about 1828 in Ireland; no baptism record found.
(Note: in genealogy, when the only record of a child’s birth is their baptism record, we use the baptism date as a stand-in for the birthdate.)
Baptism Register Entries for Mary, Patrick, and William
Lisdowney
As in many places, early records in Ireland were created by the church long before the government decided to get involved. Irish place names get tricky because the civil and religious boundaries (both Catholic and Church of Ireland) are often different and may have changed over time. Wikitree has a good, succinct explanation here.
John Grogan and his siblings were baptized in Lisdowney, which is a Catholic parish within the Ossory Diocese and a townland in the civil parish of Aharney.
Townlands are the smallest territorial units in Ireland, typically covering areas ranging from a few acres to several hundred. They serve no administrative purpose but were historically used for land division and are still commonly referenced today in Irish address systems and genealogy, especially in rural areas.
To make things interesting, Aharney straddles both the northern border of County Kilkenny and southern border of County Laois (note: Laois used to be called Queen’s County). Howver Lisdowney, both the parish and the townland, is located within the boundaries of County Kilkenny.
Here’s a link to the townland of Lisdowney on Google Maps.
Below are links to Ordinance Survey maps showing Lisdowney church from 1839 and 1900 surveys. The featured photo for this post is a section of the revised map.
- Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-Inch Ireland, 1829-1969: County Kilkenny – Sheet 9, Surveyed: 1839, Engraved: 1842, Printed: 1842
- Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-Inch Ireland, 1829-1969: County Kilkenny – Sheet 9, Revised: 1900, Published: 1902
The parish church that stands in Lisdowney today, dedicated to St. Brigid, was built in 1840. Prior to that, around the time of the births of John Grogan and his siblings, there was a chapel located about where the gate is for the current church (below). Here’s a Google Maps link to the location.
The blog Lesser Laois Houses, which documents the grand homes of County Laois, has an entry for Aharney House, which provides some history and characterizes Lisdowney as follows:
Nowadays, one might never penetrate the rolling countryside between the Durrow to Ballyragget road and the Durrow to Cullahill road, unless deliberately visiting the area. In prehistoric times, things were different – the fulacht fiadh, ringforts, and other early earthworks tell of a busy landscape. The ancient highway between Upper Ossory and Kilkenny crossed Cahir Hill to Newtown and on to Lisdowney. The very name of Aharney means ‘Ford of the Heap’ and commemorates a cattle raiding skirmish between the men of Upper Ossory and Lower Ossory. The men of Upper Ossory retreated to the nearby stream to recover from the battle and were so exhausted and injured that they drowned, and their bodies lay in a heap. There was also a tree in the field to the southeast called Sceacharawash, the Bush of the Race, where The MacGiollaPadraig threw Thomas Butler, the son of the 8th Earl of Ormond, down from his horse and most cruelly murdered him after his flight from a conference held by the Butlers and Fitzpatricks in 1532.
- John N. Colclough, Lesser Laois Houses, “Aharney House- A Napoleonic Duke, and A Silver Tongued Cathedral Horseman” 2018
Tithe Applotment Books & Griffith’s Valuation
Tithe Applotment Books were created to collect taxes for the Church of Ireland. They were compiled 1823-1837 and serve as a vital source for genealogical research for the pre-Famine period, given the loss of the 1821-51 Census records. These documents list landowners, tenants, land class ratings (referring to the quality of the land), land size, and land value.
From this we learn that in 1830, Bridget Grogan was a widow on 1 acre of 2nd class land, and her tithe was 1 shilling, 9 pence. You can view the record on Family Search here: Bridget Grogan, Ireland Tithe Applotment Books 1830
Griffith’s Valuation (1847-1864) was a government survey that listed landowners and tenants across Ireland, along with the value of the property they occupied. This was used to assess taxes. I found Bridget (Fitzpatrick) Grogan on 2 valuations, in 1849 and 1850:
- General Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland: County of Kilkenny, Barony of Galmoy, Union of Kilkenny. 7 July 1849.
- General Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland: County of Kilkenny, Barony of Galmoy, Union of Urlingford. 2 September 1850.
From these documents we learn the widow Bridget Grogan lived in the Townland of Lisdowney, 1849-1850, She was taxed on 2 acres, 1 rood (quarter acre), and 23 perches (1/40th rood). The net annual value of the land was assessed at 1 pound (£), 15 shillings (s.); the net annual value of the buildings was 15s; and the total net annual value was 2£ 10s. She was a tenant of Viscount Mountgarret. Also worth noting, she lived very close to several Fitzpatricks and a Ryan (note to self: research later) and I see a number of surnames that appear as witnesses for Grogan baptisms and marriages.
But the super awesome thing about Griffith’s evaluation is it comes with maps! Each head-of-household is given a number based on the order they were visited by the surveyor, and the corresponding property was labeled with that number on the map. Here are the two available maps (one being a revision of the other; I’m not sure which is which, but the information concerning Bridget Grogan does not change) on which I marked the location the Grogan homestead (#40). Here’s a link to the exact location on Google Maps.
1st Marriage of John F. Grogan
John married Marry Buggy, 27 July 1839 in the parish of Freshford (a mistranslation of the Irish name Achadh Úr which means fresh field), which is just south of Lisdowney (see history of this ancient parish here, here, and Saint Lachtain’s holy well here). Mary
Children of John F. Grogan and Mary Buggy
- Bridget (Grogan) Brady, baptized 6 August 1840 in Freshford. Married Edward Brady about 1861 in Clinton, Oneida County; 9 children produced from the marriage. Died 17 August 1911 in Stittville, Oneida County (obituary). Her husband died 2 weeks later (obituary).
- Judith “Julia” (Grogan) Bogan, baptized 11 Oct 1842 at Freshford Parish. Married John Bogan. Died 16 August 1892 in Rome (obituaries [1], [2], [3]).
- Patt Grogan, baptized 20 March 1845 at Freshford Parish. No additional records have been found.
Mary Buggy died sometime between 1845-1850; no record has been found.
2nd Marriage of John F. Grogan
John married Bridget Dunphy, 9 Oct 1852 in Lisdowney.
John and Bridget Dunphy Grogan’s first child, James, was born Christmas Day 1851, 10 months before his parents’ marriage. If you examine the full pages of the church registers for the marriage and baptism, you will see they’re rather sloppy and chaotic (wouldn’t be the first drunk Irish priest, or the last) so it’s possible the dates are incorrect. However the dates written here are the most accurate I can pull from these documents, so I’m sticking with them.
Children of John F. Grogan and Bridget Dunphy
- James H. Grogan, born 25 Dec 1851, baptized 27 December in Lisdowney. Married Margaret Foster in February 1874; died 7 Sep 1904 in Rome.[24]
- John Francis Grogan born 1 Jan 1854 in Rome. Married Helen Fitch. Died 20 Oct 1920 in Rome.
- William J. Grogan born 24 January 1859 in Rome. Married Sarah. Died 24 Dec 1919 in Rome.
- Edward Albert Grogan, born August 1859 in Rome. Married Catherine M. Horan. Died 5 October 1925 in Rome.
- Patrick H. Grogan born in 1862 in Rome. Married Mary Sheible. Died 9 August 1927 in Rome.
The Famine in Kilkenny, Kilkenny Journal, September 1845 – March 1848, Michael O’Dwyer
1855 NY State Census: Too Many Bridgets
The earliest known record of the Grogans in the United States shows the blended family living in Rome, Oneida County, NY (click to see record on Family Search). The census enumerator made an error in documenting the relationships in the household, listing everyone as the child of Bridget (Fitzpatrick) Grogan, which has led to a tangled mess of online family trees. With 3 Bridgets in one multi-generational blended family household including a few of John Grogan Sr.’s children with Mary Buggy, deceased, and a few with Bridget Dunphy. Here’s an image of the document and below I have listed the information provided but with corrected relationships. Note John and his brother James Grogan were tailors.
- Bridget (Fitzpatrick) Grogan, age 57, born in Ireland, residing in Rome 5 years
- John Grogan, son, age 37, tailor, born in Ireland, residing in Rome for 1 year
- Bridget (Dunphy) Grogan, daughter-in-law, age 24, born in Ireland, residing in Rome for 1 year
- Bridget Grogan, granddaughter (daughter of John Grogan & Mary Buggy) age 13, born in Ireland, residing in Rome 1 year
- Julia Grogan, granddaughter (daughter of John Grogan & Mary Buggy) age 11, born in Ireland, residing in Rome 1 year
- James Grogan, grandson (son of John Grogan & Bridget Dunphy) age 3, born in Ireland, residing in Rome 1 year
- John Grogan, grandson (son of John Grogan & Bridget Dunphy) age 1, born in Oneida County
- James Grogan, son (of Bridget Fitzpatrick and James Grogan Sr., deceased) age 26, tailor, born in Ireland, residing in Rome for 5 years)
- Anna Delany, cousin, age 34, born in Ireland, residing in Rome for 1 month
TL/DR
The important take-away is Bridget Fitzpatrick Grogan left Lisdowney and immigrated to the United States sometime around 1850-51, after she was recorded in the Griffith’s Valuation survey of 1850. She came with or around the same time as her youngest son James, a tailor. Bridget was in her early 50’s and James was in his early 20’s. Bridget’s eldest son John F. and daughter-in-law Bridget Dunphy Grogan came over a few years later, sometime between the births of their first and second sons, James and John, probably late 1853. They also brought John’s daughters from his first marriage Marry Buggy, Julia and Bridget.
