Histories

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Barr story

The farthest back I have on the Barr side our 3 x great grandparents, James and Rose Barr, who had a son called James (I’ll call him James 2 for convenience). James 2 married Mary Doherty, daughter of William and Mary Doherty; I’ll call her Mary 2.

James 2 was born in Gobnascale in 1816/17 and died in St Columb’s Wells in 1875. Mary 2 was born in 1823/24; her place of birth is listed as Milltown but I don’t know where that is. She died in 1897 in 108 Bogside (aka Fahan Street) at the home of their son William (our great-granda).

James and Mary had 4 children. Oldest was Mary who married somebody called Irvine, possibly John. The second child was Sarah who married a Michael King, forming the King branch of the family - they are thought to have had 12 children, only 5 of them are known by name. The third child was Eleanor of whom I have no further details so far.

The fourth child was William, our great-granda who was born in 1857. He married Catherine Doherty – I have not been able to find birth or marriage records; both of them are shown on their burial records simply as born in Derry. William died on 4th Jan 1911; Catherine died on 17 Jan 1938 aged 77 so my generation’s parents would have known her. Does anyone recall their parents talking about their granny Catherine?

William and Catherine had 10 children, the eldest being James Barr who was our grandfather. At the time of the 1901 census, William and nine of his family lived on Fahan Street. I think Fahan Street was just a formal name for what locals referred to as 'Bogside'; other records (births, marriages, deaths )refer to 108 Bogside and an old photograph shows ‘Bogside’ on a nameplate on Fahan Steet.

At that time William had a pawnshop on Rossville Street. Three of his sons worked in the pawnshop – James (23), Michael (19) and John (15). William died in Jan 1911. The 1911 census just 3 months later shows his widow Catherine and 7 of her children still living at 108 Fahan Street.

William’s son James, our granda, married Margaret Josephine McLaughlin on 2nd Jan 1906. The 1911 census shows them living at 5 Tyrconnell Street with their 3 oldest children – Catherine, William and Thomas. He is again listed as a pawnbroker and presumably at this stage had taken over from his late father. The 1911 entry for Catherine shows John (25), Neal (22) as pawnbrokers and Joseph (15) as a pawnbroker’s assistant, presumably still working with our granda in the pawnshop. Three more children were born in Tyrconnell Street – Andy, Jimmy and Molly.

In 1914 James and his family moved to Elmwood Terrace where the rest of the family was born (Fr Joe was the first to be born there).

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