From the Emerald Isle to the Land of the Long White Cloud and back again.....

Ancestral tours are something that have organically followed my genealogical research story.  I get contacted to do some genealogy with the next request being - "can you help us plan a trip to Ireland?"  This led me to undertaking the National Tour Guiding course offered by ATU (Atlantic Technological University formally LYIT) and becoming an AITG National Tour Guide.  The course was advertised as "suitable for anyone interested in working in the tourism activity sector providing a range of professional guiding services for visitors, and in delivering and managing a comprehensive tour management and guiding service for tourists visiting and travelling in Ireland."  It was the perfect next step in expanding my business and my skill set.

My blog will cover some of the tours that I have arranged over the years, the people I have met and their family stories.  

Way back in May 2013, I met the "Dougherty" sisters from New Zealand who were visiting Inishowen in the hope that they could find out a bit more about their O'Dochartaigh Clann heritage than their Uncle had on his visit during the O'Dochartaigh Clann Reunion 2000.  The lovely Kitty Doherty Barr (USA & Moville) had put them in touch with me and I arranged to meet them in Moville town after doing a bit of pre-meeting research. This is the story of their visit to retrace their O'Dochartaigh Clann ancestor back to Ireland from New Zealand...

The New Zealand Doherty Sisters visiting Northburg Castle in Greencastle, Co. Donegal (apologies for the poor 2013 image!)

​​Blog first posted 31 May 2013

From Ireland to Auckland?
Spent a lovely afternoon on Tuesday, 28th May with three sisters of the Doherty Family from New Zealand.  They told me at our initial consultation that their Irish link related to their Great x 2 Grandfather who they believed had travelled from Ireland to Auckland New Zealand, however they weren’t sure when.  They were keen to find out more and to make a tangible connection with the country they were visiting, albeit for the first time but one they felt a strong affinity with all the same.  In short, they felt like they had come "home".

Armed with the few scant details that they could provide me with, and prior to our meeting, I uncovered a treasure trove of information to their excitement.  I had to work back obviously from what they did know, but I soon found their connection to Joseph Dougherty who left ENGLAND in the late 1840s for a new life in the Southern Hemisphere with his wife and family.  

Their family story is fascinating and something that, with further research, I'd like to write much more about.  It goes to show that we as genealogists have only really scraped the surface when it comes to the various groups of the Irish Diaspora which left these shores for a better life.  New stories of emigration, and the self-preservation that came with leaving the life they knew behind in Ireland, come to light weekly and it is never safe to assume that people only emigrated directly from Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845-1849.

Passenger Listing Helps To Unlock More
One of the first documents that I found relating to the family's voyage across the world was a passenger listing from 1847 which helped to unlock a lot of what was to follow in terms of my research. It showed that Joseph Doughty (Dougherty) travelled with his wife Winifred (nee Callaghan) and their two children - John and the other unnamed.  It also suggested that Joseph died in Howick, NZ in 1854 as did his son John, who was by that time, aged approximately 9 years old.

The note which was included in the passenger listing's transcription showed that the ship was carrying "Fencibles".  This was my first time reading this phrase, so I needed to find out more.

The New Zealand Fencibles, also known as the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps, were retired British soldiers and their families who were recruited in 1847-1852 to serve as a defence force for early Auckland, New Zealand. In exchange for free passage and a pension, they were given land and a cottage, which they would own after seven years of service. The Fencibles settled in the southern and eastern suburbs of Auckland, and their arrival significantly boosted the fledgling town's population, with many of them being of Irish descent.  The corps was established in response to concerns about the "unrest" between Māori and early settlers and the need for a defensive reserve for Auckland. The initiative also aimed to increase the population of the new settlement and provide labour.

So very interesting!  The foray into my newly found "clue" led to much additional information about Joseph and his military background.  I managed to find some details on his birth from those records and it appears that he was born in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath in 1805 and had joined the British Army.  He was married in Dublin in 1840 to Winnifred Geoghegan (Callaghan is a strange derivative of this).

The Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps

​Short Trip
The ladies were only in Inishowen for a couple of days but I managed to find out a good deal of information for them at very short notice including the date of departure from Ireland and arrival in New Zealand, and the name of the ship on which they sailed.  I also found their Grt Grandfather’s DOB of birth in New Zealand (the first of his family born outside Ireland) and the fact that he was a twin.  All this information was news to the ladies and they were delighted.

We spent some time in Moville and I took them out to see Northburg Castle in Greencastle (one of the O'Dochartaigh Clann castles) and we had fun exploring the ruins there.

This is just the beginning of looking at the Auckland-Doherty's family history story in Ireland and I know I am going to enjoy doing more resarch for them both here in Donegal and of course in New Zealand also.

If you would like to read more about the New Zealand Fencibles, you can do so here:
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/getmedia/488279bf-fa99-4330-af74-0ab9d57bbeac/Auckland-Fencibles