MIGRATION OF THE SILVER FAMILY

FROM  BALLYMACARBRY TO IOWA USA

By Gary H. "Joe" Searl, Grandson of Mary Silver

Mary Silver was born in a cabin located on the north side of the Knockacoola Townland in 1849, near BALLYMACARBRY. She died 77 years later in 1926 in Wyoming, USA, not long before my own birth in 1931. Until recently I knew only that she was born in County Waterford and arrived in the US as a young adult.  Now with the access to records available at the National Library in Dublin, the Waterford Heritage Center and a plethora, of online records in Ireland and the US, it is now possible to track her family from the early 19^th century through today.  Such records, when combined with local and family stories, enhance our understanding of the migration process. Both joy and frustrations are experienced in such a search as questions are raised and answered and new questions arise that remain unsolved.

Who were the Silvers?  The name evokes an occupational origin in England and is in fact common there but there were no Silvers in any Anglo-Norman list or recorded in the Cromwell invasion.  Not until the 17^th century does a Silver name appear in any records I discovered.  During that century, in western Waterford, two Silver “gents” appear in Tallow Parish: Maurice Silver at Ballyhander and Richard Silver in Killmore.  Maurice left a will in 1628, and Richard is recorded in the 1659 Census. While they didn’t live in the same townland, it is likely they were related and could be the ancestors of Patrick Silver in Knockacoola.  The date of the census and the designation of ‘gent’ raise a question as to how Richard  survived the Cromwell confiscation if he was of Catholic and of old English origin.  If he was protestant, there had to be a change in religion as my great-grandfather Patrick in the 19th century was Catholic. It is possible that a Silver man married a Catholic woman and any children followed the beliefs of the mother.  While not likely a common event at the time, it did happen.  It is also possible that Richard Silver had yet to be forced to move beyond the Shannon River as did many other Catholics who defied Cromwell’s governing. Many Silvers in the 19^th century lived in Galway

Several Silvers were listed in the Kiloran (now Fourmilewater) parish records in the 19^th century (see end notes) and that is where Patrick Silver Sr. and Patrick Silver Jr. are listed in Griffith’s Valuation as tenants sharing 30 acres in Knockacoola Townland.  Patrick Silver Sr. was buried in the Kilcreggane cemetery in 1849 at age 60.  No other records have been found for him, but his son Patrick Jr. leaves a more complete document trail.  He was born about 1810 in Ireland and died in Iowa, USA soon after 1886.  He married Catherine Moroney in Ireland before the famine ended. Such a late marriage suggests that he might have been a widower, but there is no record to support that theory. In 1849 Patrick Jr. and his wife Catherine were living together in a separate dwelling but sharing the land with his elderly father. As Patrick was already close to 40, he had considerable life events to influence his way of thinking.

Before the Great Famine of the late 1840s, Patrick had already witnessed several calamities including the famines of 1822, 1830-1834, and 1836.  Patrick also lived through the big wind of 1839.  A Clonmel newspaper describes the event:

            In the Main street and Irishtown piles of chimneys were blown down —the roofs of houses partially carried away —and trees, which has stood the fury of the tempest for centuries, torn from their roots and scattered a considerable distance. (C.H.) "At intervals, during the night, heavy rain fell in torrents, (but no rain in Cashel!) which was blown so impetuously against the windows that several of them were dashed in and much damage ensued. We have had some heavy falls of snow and hail since yesterday, succeeded by a partial frost. It is feared that the county districts have suffered much from the storm." (T.C.)

With 30 acres Patrick was able to escape the blinding poverty of day laborers and small farmers. The finical security that much acreage provided would have given him a great deal more freedom and opportunity.  What was his everyday life like? What pathways to weekly and occasional activities were used?  What and where were these activities?  Until a chapel was built in Fourmilewater in1826, mass was conducted in a structure near the cemetery at Kilcreggane.  This would be just a short (a bit over a mile) distance downhill from Knockacoola.  Shopping for most household items could have been at nearby Newcastle, which held fairs. Walking was also an option as my reading of 19^th century Ireland suggests that a five or six-mile walk was not considered a burden.  It is at Newcastle fairs where faction fighting occurred.  I do wonder if my great-grandfather Patrick engaged in such endeavors as a ”shanavest” fighting with caravats.  Knockacoola  means corner of a hill and is referred today as cold lands placing a limit on tillage.  I have yet to determine where the market for the farm products might have been other than the fairs.  So did the Silvers have a horse and carriage to take journeys to Clonmel?

During the great famine population changed little in Knockacoola with the 1841 population of 69 reduced to 66 a mere ten years later.  Kilroran Parish lost 1755 of its 4772 people during the same decade. One loss in Knockacoola was the death of Patrick Silver Sr.  His son, Patrick Silver Jr., was already married to Catherine Moroney at the time and famine was still crippling Ireland. The importance of their 1849 marriage is that the fortunes of Patrick were sufficient to take on the responsibilities of a family.  Catharine was about 20 years younger than her husband.  How did they link up?  Did they meet at a crossroads dance?  At church or a fair?  Was there a matchmaker involved?   There is no record of her birth at the Waterford Heritage Center.  The Moroney name was common in the area with families near by in Knockatrellane and  Curtiswood.  Catherine was also illiterate and family stories in Iowa reported that she spoke broken English

Patrick and Catherine’s family soon expanded to five daughters and a single son who died before departure to Iowa.  The three oldest girls, Mary, Kate, and Maggie all could read and write English and must have attended the national school. The national archives in Dublin describe the Bennett’s  Church building as measuring 17 ½ x 40 feet.  A visual inspection reveals a fireplace on each end. The school in 1857 had a total enrollment of 138 pupils with an average daily attendance of 77.  The pupils were  taught by William Keeting (age 26) and an assistant.  All female children learned needlework.  Before Ellen, the youngest daughter started school, the Silver family left Ireland for Iowa.

After surviving the famine, why did the Silver family leave Ireland in 1864? And why go to Iowa?  Three years of terrible weather blanketed Ireland starting in 1860.  The Clonmel Chronicle of June 16, 1860, reports ceaseless torrents, rivers swollen to the bank, flooded roadways, and an acre of potatoes carried away.  The next two years were among Ireland’s wettest and driest. Patrick had already experienced several famines, a cholera epidemic, the big wind, and the rise of political activism of ‘Young Ireland.’  He certainly had heard news of murders and executions and, during his last year in Ireland, the murder and pretrial hearing at Ballymacarbry.  

Iowa seemed to be the intended destination.  Family stories tell of relatives in Dumont, only 25 miles from Cedar Falls, but no contact was maintained as descendants of the Dumont connection have no knowledge of relatives in Cedar Falls. But the Dumont heritage dates to John and Alice Silver who lived in Cedar Falls during the 1860 US Census and had moved to Dumont by 1870.  Not far from Cedar Falls is New Melleray Abbey founded by monks from Mt. Melleray in Waterford.  Patrick would have been part of the massive labor force drawn from every nearby parish to help build walls at Mt. Melleray in the early 1830s.  One of the sponsors for a Silver child lived near Mt. Melleray.  Was Patrick attracted to Iowa because he had heard about the landscape and the chance of opportunity resulting from communication with someone in Iowa that might have been passed on through the local gossip network? Or is it merely a coincidence? 

The Silver family departed from Liverpool to New York City on the sailing ship Thornton with over 700 other passengers. The six week journey ended June 13 at the Castle Garden Reception Center in New York City. Just outside the building the Silvers were reminded that the American Civil War was still going on as they could see recruiters for the Union Army seeking more soldiers. As they boarded a train to Iowa, the family consisted of Patrick, Catherine, and their five daughters with toddler Honora the youngest. Family stories in Iowa tell of Honora dying on the journey to Iowa.  Her mother insisted she be buried in Iowa and kept the body until arrival.  While walking from one train station to another in Chicago, a man on a carriage noted the family’s despair and gave them some money. If Honora died on the train from New York to Chicago, the family would have been visibility distraught.  After a short train trip from Chicago, the Silvers arrived in Iowa.

The Silvers new life started in Cedar Falls with Patrick working as a laborer and sometime stonemason.  He may have learned enough about stone work from his brief experience at Mt. Melleray or he could have helped build the bridges for the railroad through Clonmel.  Two sons were added to the family while living in Cedar Falls. Michael was born in1866, joined by John in 1870. My grandmother Mary was out of the house and her activities and location remain unknown until her marriage in 1878.  Her sisters all lived with their parents with Kate and Maggie working as domestics while 11-year-old Ellen attended school.

The Silver family moved north of Cedar Falls to Finchford by 1880, and Patrick returned to farming. The censuses of several different years show daughters getting married, suffering widowhood, and marrying again. After the year 1900 the daughters become scattered beyond Iowa to Illinois and Wyoming. Kate was widowed three times and lived out her last years in Waterloo, a city next to Cedar Falls. Ellen was widowed twice and lived her last years in Peoria, Illinois, with her son.  The two Silver sons stayed close to home.  Michael never married, but John had four sons and left numerous descendants in Iowa and elsewhere. In my own case, my grandmother Mary did not marry until she was 29. She wed Christopher William Searl, born 1848 in Canada to an English father and an Irish mother.  Mary must have met “Bill” when she was visiting her parents near Finchford.  Bill was a section crew foreman on a nearby railroad.  They lived a few miles away in Janesville for several years, moved to Minnesota, and finally to Wyoming where my father completed high school and, years later, I was born.  Mary’s sister Maggie married a man who once lived in Finchford but had moved to the same part of Wyoming where Mary and Bill Searl lived to in 1900.  All this migration resulted in enough distance so that descendants in Wyoming and Iowa had no knowledge of each other.

There are a few surviving folktales associated with Patrick.  In Ireland there is the story of the family dog predicting the famine.  And it was said that some were hesitant of going to the Silver lands as they might never be seen again.  In Iowa, Patrick told people that he had changed his name from Murphy as there were too many with that name.  He might have been told too many times that he wasn’t really Irish with a name like Silver.

The Silver migration is a very common story of Irish success in America but differs from the stereotype of hard-drinking ghetto Irish living in such large cities as New York and Boston.  The descendants of Patrick and Catherine engaged in a variety of pursuits and lived comfortably though scattered from the middle of the US to the west coast.

Searching for my Irish ancestry has been most gratifying as I have communicated with long-lost cousins and have been able to visit the location of my grandmother’s birth.  I have enjoyed the friendliness of the Irish people, who have helped me in so many ways including: Larry and Kathleen Walsh, the present owners of the Silver lands; Michael Hallinan, who hosted me for an evening in Clontarf; and the endless help from Michael Desmond of Dear Park.  To all the Irish I have had the pleasure of meeting who have given me a thousand welcomes, I want to give back a thousand thanks.

END NOTE

I have included the parish birth records with all local Silver names and other people associated with the family.