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Irish Family History Foundation – update
I have now discovered after reading the update by Chris over at Scottish Genes that there is an advanced search function where you can search for baptisms if you know the names of both parents. The advanced search is used when you click on the particular county that you are interested in, such as Kilkenny.
I did another search this morning for the children of John Quirke & Catherine Slattery. The number of hits was 5, of which I had already purchased one (which yesterday to view cost me €5.00). To view the other 4 hits, the cost was discounted to only €12.00, which means it only cost €3.00 per record instead of €5.00. Pity I didn’t realise this yesterday when I was searching.
One thing though is that I found another child born to John & Catherine Quirk. I was only aware that they had 4 children, all of whom immigrated to New South Wales during the 1850’s, along with their mother Catherine. The baptism record for ‘Ally Quirke’ shows her baptism to be on the 20th July 1835 at St John’s Well Kilkenny. I did a quick look and found neither a death nor a marriage for Ally within Kilkenny. I’ve also just checked the NSW State Records website to see if maybe she had come to NSW but not listed there either. So I wonder what happened to her. Did she die in childhood? Did she marry in Ireland and then immigrant? Maybe she went to America with some of her Aunts or Uncles? From the transcript of the ‘life and times of Thomas Quirke’, he wrote that “My paternal Uncles and Aunts were all well educated. Some died young, and others emigrated to America”.
The baptism records that I got today are great in that they show some possible clues to some family.
- On the Baptism record for Margaret Quirk (1838), sponsor 1 is Michael Quirk
- On the Baptism record for Mary Quirk (1832), sponsor 1 is William Quirk
- Also, of interest is that On the Baptism record for Catherine Quirk (1841), sponsor 1 is James Millet (the quirk family acted as agents for the landlord named Millet at Mount Nugent Estate)
I only know the names of four of the male children of James & Alice Quirke, 3 of which immigrated to NSW (Peter, Nicholas & Thomas) and John my GGG Grandfather, who died sometime prior 1850 in Kilkenny. I’ll be looking forward to when I can also do a parent search in Tipperary, as James & Alice were married in Tipperary around 1798 (haven’t found the marriage yet). When I did a search within Kilkenny, I only got a hit for 3 baptisms, which I’m yet to purchase.
Surname Saturday – Quirk
The name comes from the Gaelic “O’Cuirc”, another form is “O’Coirce”. In Galway, the name also took the form “Oates,” to distinguish between branches of families. Quirke in Gaelic sounds like the word for Oates in Gaelic. It was common for parish registers to have a person’s records include both spellings of Quirke and Quirk, if an unrelated person such as a neighbour was sent to register the birth, the name was not always spelled correctly.
James and Alice Quirke were married around 1796 at Tipperary, Ireland and soon after moved to Mount Nugent, St Johns Well, Kilkenny Ireland. Their children were:
Nicholas Quirke (details unknown)
They also had another 6 males and 2 females, of which details of their names are unknown . A few years ago, a distant cousin that I was in contact with, sent me a copy of a document that was written by Thomas Quirke (b:1834-d:1908) In this document Thomas writes about his life and experiences but the most interesting thing was that he wrote about his parents and grandparents.
Who were the Quirke’s who came to Australia
Many of the Quirke Family came out to Australia between 1849 & 1865. Of which my GGG Grandmother, Mary Quirk was one, who had arrived on the ship Athenian in 1853.
| First Name | Birth Date | Native Place | Ship Name | Arrival Date | Reel Numbers | Comments |
| Margaret Quirk | Abt 1828 | Goran, St Johnswell, Kilkenny, Ireland | Victoria | 2nd Sep 1849 | Reel 2136, Reel 2460, [4/4915] | Sister to James |
| James Quirk | Abt 1824 | Goran, St Johnswell, Kilkenny, Ireland | Victoria | 2nd Sep 1849 | Brother to Margaret | |
| Peter Quirk | Abt 1798 | St Johnswell, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 6 Feb 1852 | Reel 2136; Reel 2463, [4/4926] | Father to Margaret & James above |
| Mary Quirk | Abt 1814 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 6 Feb 1852 | Wife of Peter Quirke, maiden name Connon | |
| Michael Quirk | Abt 1832 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 6 Feb 1852 | ||
| John Quirk | Abt 1835 | Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 6 Feb 1852 | ||
| Mary Quik | Abt 1849 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 8 Feb 1852 | ||
| Nicholas Quirk | Abt 1839 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 8 Feb 1852 | ||
| Thomas Quirk | Abt 1834 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 8 Feb 1852 | ||
| Peter Quirk | Abt 1842 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Neptune | 8 Feb 1852 | ||
| Mary Quirk | Abt 1831 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Athenian | 15 Dec 1853 | An Uncle Peter Quirk living in Sydney | |
| Patrick Quirk | Abt 1835 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | David McIver | 18 Dec 1854 | Reel 2137; Reel 2466, [4/4937] | Sister Mary living in Sydney |
| Catherine Quirk | Abt 1811 | Tipperary, Ireland | Matoaka | 22 Jan 1857 | Reel 2138; Reel 2476, [4/4970] | Mother of Mary Quirke & Patrick, maiden name Slattery |
| Margaret Quirk | Abt 1840 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Matoaka | 22 Jan 1857 | ||
| Catherine Quirk | Abt 1842 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Matoaka | 22 Jan 1857 | ||
| Thomas Quirk | Abt 1821 | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Nile | 4 May 1861 | Reel 2139, [4/4796] | Brother to Peter Quirk |
| Mary Quirk | Abt 1846 | Lancaster, Lancashire, England | Nile | 4 May 1861 | ||
| Johanna Quirk | St Johns Well, Kilkenny, Ireland | Nile | 4 May 1861 | Mother of Mary Quirke & Wife of Thomas Quirke |
A searchable index of the NSW Assistant Immigrants is available on the NSW State Records website. You can also scroll through the digital copies of the Bounty Immigrants lists, 1838-96, ship by ship. These digital copies are the Agents Lists and the reels numbers range between 2134 & 2137. More detailed shipping lists can be found on the reels that begin with 24 and these can be found at your local library or at the NSW State Records. These show more detail such as names of parents and comments such as ‘Uncle Peter Quirk, living in Sydney’.
1847 – 1864 Griffith’s Valuation
James Quirke acted as a landlord for a man named Millet at Mount Nugent. After James died his son John was appointed Agent for the landlord and held the position until he was accidentally killed by being crushed between a gate post and a vehicle.
County: Kilkenny
Parish: Rathcoole
Lessor: James Millet
Townland: MountNugent – Lower
Nicholas Quirle – Land. – Total net value of Land : £3.
Peter Quirke – House, Office & Land. – Total net value of Land/Buildings: £18.5
William Quirke – House, Office & Land. – Total net value of Land/Buildings: £13.10
Townland: MountNugent – Upper
Nicholas Quirke – Land. – Total net value of Land : £4
Catherine Quirke – House, Office & Land. – Total net value of Land/Buildings: £3.5 – cannot be sure, but I think this Catherine is possibly the wife of John Quirke (who died prior to 1850).
Nicholas Quirke – House, Office &Land. – Total net value of Land : £21
