Patrick Lynch Family History
Patrick's Father and Mother
Patrick’s father was Philip Lynch and his mother was Ellen Connor.
Philip Lynch
Philip was born about 1830 (based on surviving census and death records). He was in his late 40s when his youngest son Patrick was born in 1876. He died on the 22nd March 1904 several years before Patrick met and married Johanna Phelan, so he never met the Phelan family or visited Piltown.
Philip lived all his life in
Hodgestown
near Killucan in Westmeath. It is believed that at the time of his death in 1904
the new cemetery at the Catholic Church in Killucan was being constructed, so he
was buried in the cemetery in the village of Coralstown1 in
Heathstown.
Ellen Connor
Patrick’s mother came from the nearby townland of
Sarsfieldstown.
She married Patrick on the 15th August 1861 in the
local church in Killucan.
Philip and Ellen had nine children, all of whom survived to adulthood.
Philip and Ellen must have run a moderately successful farm on the original holding, which had 21 acres of land. In the 1890s they acquired an adjacent farm of about 15 acres, and in the 1900s Ellen purchased the land of both farms from the Land Commission. Details of the land transactions are described here. They must also have had an interest or aptitude for horticulture. Four of their sons attended the Botanic Gardens in Dublin for training and three of them went on to become gardeners. Their details are described in the next section. Family lore recalls that many of the daffodils that surrounded the house in later years came from the Botanic Gardens2.
Ellen died in 1910 and is buried with her husband in Coralstown.