Military Monday - Barracks in Fethard Tipperary - Ireland to New Jersey - Military Men and Purple Hearts

                                         Barrack Street, Fethard Tipperary
                                
The Military barracks in Fethard was one of the oldest in the country. 
It was built on the site of the original Everard Mansion House.The Barton Mansion House was acquired in 1797 and converted into a temporary military barracks, lighted by oil, and used to accommodate two troops of Cavalry. It was converted into proper military barracks in 1805. 

The Barracks occupied an extensive area on the North of the Square and was initially occupied by horse-mounted troops. The Barracks proper had a good exercise ground amounting to an area of 15 acres. 2 roods, 0 perches.

Fethard Military Barracks was at one time an outpost of Clonmel, having a Howitzer Battery of the Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery stationed in Clonmel. In latter years it was an outpost of Cahir Military Barracks being occupied by a battery of artillery of the Cahir Brigade Royal Field Artillery.

William Fant, Nailer married Margaret Hickey and had several children here on Kerry Street.He served the Army in some capacity and his sons William and Patrick Faunt and Patrick's sons joined the British Army at 18. 

William Faunt son of William the Nailer came to New Jersey with a British Army pension with wife Ellen Lynch and two sons Patrick and Will. Patrick's son George Patrick Faunt fought for the US and died  from wounds received in Italy. 

Surname Saturday - Fant Family of Ireland - Military Barracks in the 1850s

McDermott, my Irish researcher and I are connecting  family units of  the Fant family forward and backward from about 1850, using existing records. He was puzzling over a James Fant in England with mother Catherine.

When I looked at that I found that Catherine Fant was the daughter of a John Fant from Mallow Cork and Ann McLoughland of Londonderry. Catherine somewhat mysteriously has two sons James and John living with her after he father dies in 1857.

He brother Thomas is married with children and her other siblings seem not to marry.

John Fant was a Color Sergeant ( whatever that was) in Parkhurst Barracks located in Isle of Wight. It apparently was a predominantly Irish Regiment as the Colonel Jeremiah Taylor and his son, John B. Taylor was an Ensign.

I suspect these  Army records will point to many if not all of my 4th cousin DNA matches who insist they are Welsh. Parkhurst Barracks has 65 pages..I am in.

Mappy Monday - Monday May 30,2106 - Fants of Limerick Cork and Tipperary Ireland

Quite Recent research, (of course utilizing DNA) and extensive records, show strong interconnectedness between Kilbeheny and Kilmallock Limerick Fants and those found in various Tipperary locations and Brigown, Mitchelstown and Fermoy Cork in the late 1700s and into the 1850 period.

The town of Mitchelstown lies close to the point where the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary all meet. It is located within the poor law union of Mitchelstown. The poor law union lies in County Cork and County Limerick. 

The town is in the Cork civil parish of Brigown, and in the Cork barony of Condons & Clangibbon.
Mitchelstown Union is in the baronies of Condons & Clangibbon and Fermoy. 

The union was created in 1850, at the end of the famine, carved out of the existing unions of Clogheen (in County Tipperary) and Fermoy.

Follow Friday - Arthur Fant Physician of Tipperary, Arkansas and Texas ~

           Follow us with  DNA and figure things out..

In my DNA at AncestryDNA I apparently match some distant Fants.. Years ago, our dear departed friend Bert Fant from Arkansas told me about Arthur Fant a physician, born in Ireland and living in Arkansas and later dying in Texas.. unrelated to the Fants of "the Book" and sometimes spelling it Fort.

John McDermott and I speculated about Arthur-the- physician.. he sometimes styled his name with other spellings..
 Other Virginia Fants do that of course..My good DNA buddy Luther Franklin Fant has found matches with other lines with names like Elias spelled a different way..
 Proud of you Luke for pursuing this thing with me !

So now I find Anne Phant/Fant marrying with a John Howard, in Templemore Tipperary and having a lot of children.. TWO of her children's Baptismal sponsors were "Arthur Fant/Pfant/Forte"

I am also quite proud of my 5th cousin who was first cousin to my first little playmate on East Line Street. Yay Bill Howard and Frank J Howard.. Bill has followed me into this mess and is doing a great job of figuring it out..

Tombstone Tuesday - Mary ( May) Fant Westenskow - Immigrant daughter of Patrick Fant of Durham and Cork

My chasing of DNA cousins quite often results in English or Welsh  cousins and I sharing an Irish ancestor. This is easily explained by the fairly high percentage of Irish in my genome and that most of my ancestors came to the US after 1850.

I believe Mary "May" Fant and I share 4th great grandparents, James Fant and Bridget who lived around Brigown Cork. She marries a man born in Utah of Danish ancestry and names a son Parley Faunt Westenskow.

Motivation Monday - Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland- Fants from Ireland into UK

With 23andme back to almost full speed and AncestryDNA closing in at over 1.5 million testers and FTDNA's Family Finder with 300,000 maybe
 I am increasingly aware of DNA cousin matches who are in England who definitely go back to a shared Irish ancestor.

This means of course that I am skeptical of any large Fant presence in England that did not originate in Ireland.
 Why is that?

Because around the later 1500s they began to lose their Irish lands.. 1580s for sure..
 Many many men who are in Ireland in the late 1790s in Brigown Cork which is quite close to Tipperary and Limerick both are in certain areas of England by 1841 when census records begin.

Marriage records even sooner..Which places? Derbyshire.. Thos Fant Burial May 24 1712 Wirksworth Derbyshire..
 Durham..William Faint Gentleman's Servant and Rachel Wharton marriage St.Giles in the Field London..the family of Patrick Fant.. 
 Actually the families of 3 separate Patrick Fants and extended families, the families of 3 Jeremiah Mahers and 2 Jeremiah Fants.. these men were born in Brigown Cork ( rural Mitchelstown) before 1780..

Did they just flock off to an unknown place? Surely not.. Occasional records have always been popping up which lead us to believe they were always there but I think that since written records began in the 1550s in UK they were going to these places.

It has been called "The Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland"