John Crumlish was my great grandfather.

He was born about 1844 in a "wee craw in The Glen" - possibly the townland of Mossyglen - between Culdaff and Stroove, Co. Donegal. John was the son of John Crumlish and Mary MacIntire. He had at least one brother, Daniel, who was born in 1852.

John became a butcher in Moville, Co. Donegal, keeping his own animals, and buying more for slaughter from the local farmers. He married Anne Hernan in Moville on 15 February 1876.

They had four children, Mary Anne (my grandmother), Denis, Margaret, Kathleen, before John emigrated to America by himself, leaving Anne in Donegal.

The family story is that he took some beasts to market in Derry. He got a grand price, and celebrated his good fortune. In his over tired and emotional state, shall we say, he wandered aboard the emigrant tender, and ended up on an American Liner, where ( .. in the words of the song .. )

.. the next thing that we knew was a letter from New York .... !

After some time, he returned to Ireland, and the couple had a further five children, Frances, Theresa, Nora, Evelyn and Charlie

In the 1911 Census, the house in The Square is described as a "first class dwelling" having 5 rooms, seven windows at the front, and, as outhouses (at the back), a stable, cow shed, piggery, fowl house, turf shed and a general shed.

John died in Moville in 1934.

John Crumlish's butcher shop in The Square, Moville

 

Note: On his marriage certificate, John's surname is shown as Crimlisk. Griffiths Valuation of tenements in Ireland, taken in 1857, shows no "Crumlish" in the parishes of Upper or Lower Moville, but it does have six entries in Moville Lower with the surname "Crimlisk".

On his daughter's marriage certificate, in 1908, the surname is shown as "Crumlisk" for three separate people - the bride, the father and one of the witnesses. By 1920, on my mother's birth certificate, the name is "Crumlish"

John Crumlish's unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Mary's Ballybrack