Cousins Find Each Other – Through Roaringwater Journal!

I don’t know how to put it in words, but it it means so much to have this connection to our past and our common ancestors.

These are the words of Barbara Baxter, who found her cousin, Sylvia Whitmore-Jones, when they both responded to my post on Rock Island. Their common ancestors were the Burchills of Crookhaven. Here’s the story, as they have each sent it to me, and as I have put it together. It is deeply embedded in the history of this part of West Cork and directly related to the building of that iconic lighthouse, the Fastnet Rock.

Two brothers, Charles and Arthur Nicholls, experienced stonemasons, came from Penzance in Cornwall to help build the Fastnet Lighthouse. According to Aidan Power’s book on Rock Island (Available from the author, we can put you in touch), they were employed by  John Albert Freeman who supplied all the granite for the Fastnet Lighthouse from his quarry at Penryn, Cornwall. Nicholls’ job was to assist in the erection of the tower.

The building of the Fastnet. I’d like to think that the Nicholls brothers are in this picture (Photo courtesy of Irish Lights)

It took five years to build the Lighthouse (read more about the Fastnet here) and during that time all the men were housed locally and it seems integrated well into the local community. So well, in fact, that the Nicholls brothers married two sisters: Charles married Elizabeth Burchill and Arthur married Sarah Burchill. The Burchill sisters’ parents, Michael and Sarah (Hegarty) were Church of Ireland, and lived in Crookhaven.

A third sister, Anne, married William Wilkinson (more on her below). If I am understanding the history correctly, her aunt, Michael’s sister, also called Anne, had herself married a George Wilkinson. That Wilkinson family had a farm at Gortnacarriga, just outside Goleen. The photo below is of Barbara Baxter on a visit to that Wilkinson farm a couple of years ago. 

Let’s start with Charles and Elizabeth – they are the couple in the photograph at the beginning of the post. The 1901 census has them in House number 8 on Rock Island, with a baby daughter, Annie, who is just one. When the Fastnet project was finally over, in 1904, Charles and Elizabeth went to live in Wales where they had at least one more child, a son, in 1911. Sadly, Charles, who had served in the First World War, died in the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1919 (echoes of my own family history here – same thing happened to my grandfather).

The Rock Island lighthouse and housing, seen from Crookhaven. Charles and Elizabeth lived in one of these houses

Charles and Elizabeth’s son eventually moved to Southhampton, and worked as a draughtsman in Thornycroft’s shipbuilding firm, married and had four children. The eldest of these was Sylvia Whitmore-Jones, an active and youthful 78 year-old. Here she is.

But let’s go back to Charles and Elizabeth, living in the Fastnet housing on Rock Island in 1901. Did you notice they had a daughter named Annie? I think she was so named after yet another of Elizabeth’s sisters – Anne Burchill. Anne married William Wilkinson (I think they were cousins – not uncommon in those days), an officer in the Royal Irish Constabulary.

They had a daughter, Sarah Anne. They were great at keeping names in the family – no doubt Sarah Anne was called after her aunt, the Sarah Burchill who married Charles’ brother, Arthur, as well as the numerous Annes in the family. Sarah Anne Wilkinson must have been close to her Aunt Elizabeth Nichols because eventually, as a young married woman, she and her husband, John Miller, from Bantry, moved to Wales.

Sarah Anne Miller, nee Wilkinson, with her children

This photo (above) must have been taken then, when Sarah Anne and John had two children. Sarah Anne is Barbara Baxter’s great-grandmother and her grandmother is the little girl in the photo. Perhaps this was during the time when John was away in the war – he was apparently decorated three times for his service as a bombardier.

Eventually the family emigrated to America, finally settling in Connecticut, which is where Barbara Baxter grew up. Barbara is now 57 and lives in Virginia. She has led an active life filled with animals, especially horses. She wonders if her love of horses might be connected to John Miller – apparently before he left for Wales with Sarah Anne he worked with horses at Drombrow House, near Bantry. Drombrow, not surprisingly, was owned by the Wilkinson family.

Graveyard attached to the Church of Ireland (no longer in use as a church) in Goleen – Babara said in one of her emails: ‘I am related to all of the Wilkinsons and Burchills buried at the Goleen Church’ 

Sylvia and Barbara had been independently interested in their family history but had never known of each other or met (at least virtually) until both of them contacted us at Roaringwater Journal when they each saw our Rock Island post.

On her trip to West Cork in 2017, Barbara visited Three Castle Head. The Wilkinson farm is close by

I am beyond pleased that Roaringwater Journal has been the cause of bringing these two cousins together, but there’s another reason for my interest. My own dear cousin, Shauna, is also a Burchill! Although she has lived in the United States most of her adult life she is Irish and her father grew up in Bandon as a Prebyterian. She is likely to be connected to Sylvia and Barbara at some point way back in the family tree – the Burchills first came to West Cork in the 1620s as part of the Plantation of Munster. It’s a tenuous connection, but it adds an additional frisson for me – we are all connected somehow.

Shauna (right) and I, on one of her visits to Ireland

Thank you to Sylvia and Barbara for generously sharing their family stories, and to Aidan Power, whose book on Rock Island was the ultimate catalyst for all of this. It’s been a privilege to be a tiny part of it. If I have made mistakes in my relating of their stories, I hope they will weigh in with the corrected version. 

Now all we need is for the descendants of Arthur Nicholls and Sarah Burchill to join the party. C’mon – we know you’re out there.

27 thoughts

  1. Hi,
    Read the article with interest when I googled Bere Island/Burchill Cork. My ancestry DNA analysis came back with a heavy chunk of West Beara/Beara peninsula. I have a lot of Irish ancestors but thought the Beara link would come through my Great grandads side (Thomas McHugh) who was born in Waterford, but the link to Bere Island actually comes from his Welsh wife Charlotte Barry my great grandmother. I traced Charlotte’s ancestry back through various Isaac and Samuel Birchills and an Elizabeth Russel etc born on Bere Island in the 1700s. I got as far back as a Jason Burchell b 1640 who was married to a Sarah Burchill b 1642. Never been to that part of Cork, but looking forward to getting over there and having a few yarns and stouts with the locals this summer.
    Best
    Andrew Vaughan (born in Cardiff, currently of West London, but hopefully coming all the way back home ‘genetically speaking’ to Beara soon!!)

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  2. My name is Gail Waters née Burchill. My great grandfather was William Burchill who died at the age of 38. He was Sarah, Elizabeth and Anne’s brother. They originated from my home place.

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  5. Hi!
    I am also a descendent of the Burchill/Wilkinson family! My great grandmother was Mary (Minnie) Elizabeth Wilkinson married to Henry Baldwin Long who were farming in the 1901 census at Clogher, Crookhaven in the lands of the O’Grady’s of Carrigmanus; close relatives. Her mother was Ann (Nancy) Burchill daughter of Mick Burchill and Mary Gosnell of Gortnacarriga, Goleen. Later they moved to Moneens near Bandon and finally, in 1929 they moved to Mount Prospect, near Tallow.

    I have an extensive tree (rough draft!) on Ancestry and am in touch with Barbara. She is my 3rd cousin, 1 x removed!

    I am also interested in following up any connections to the Goodwins, Simpsons, Bishopps and Puxleys of the area. I am struggling to find out where they lived exactly and who they were in the community (although I know the Puxley’s were well documented). I have a copy of the Berehaven parish records from Pat Crowley’s website which has records of Simpson births for Killaconenagh but being from Bristol, UK I have very little knowledge of the area! If anyone has any knowledge of them I would be extremely grateful!

    Thank you for such a great blog, I have been reading them for a while now and love the photography!

    Best wishes,

    Juliet Charleston Smith, Bristol, UK

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    • Thanks for this, Juliet – this story just keeps expanding and I love it! I hope somebody can see your comment and provide the information that you need. Have you been in touch with the Heritage Centre in Skibbereen? They are the experts.

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      • Hi Finola!
        I haven’t, as yet. I’ve been on the website so I think I should now make direct contact as my searching seems to have hit a dead end! It’s proving very addictive though. I now have information that I am connected to the ‘Two Chiefs of Dunboy’ via Rev. Thomas Goodwin, whom I believe to be my 5 x great grandfather and I have a whole new collection of books to read about their story!
        Thanks and best wishes,
        Juliet

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      • Thanks Finola!

        No, I haven’t made contact though I know the site. I will do that now and hopefully they may be able to help.
        Thanks for helping us all get in touch!
        Best Wishes,
        Juliet

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    • Hello Juliet,
      I also descend from the Wilkinson family. Three Wilkinson brothers; John, William and Richard immigrated from Goleen to Michigan in the 1850’s and all purchased land next to each other. My Grandmother’s DNA results can be focused to the Cork Headlands area on Ancestry.com and she has 161 DNA matches from that area. We have a lot of cousins from that small area in West Cork.

      Jon Marshall
      Michigan, USA

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      • Hi Jon!

        I have been following your Ancestry tree for some time and I’m grateful for your info, thank you! How great to have your grandmother’s DNA! Unfortunately, my grandmother Beatrice Sarah Long passed away (101 years) in 2001 so she knew nothing of this information. I have to rely on just my own.
        Hopefully you will have seen my tree? (Charleston-Smith Beta -or draft!) I am in touch with a few of my cousins stateside, it’s great to collaborate isn’t it. I have spotted a few Burchills and Wilkinsons further back in time in the Registry of Deeds memorials in the area and I’m wondering how to connect them. I’m gradually making my way through to see if I can connect the dots! I’ve also spotted Burchills in the Berehaven parish records very kindly uploaded by Pat Crowley on his ‘Durrus’ website. I haven’t connected them yet…

        Best wishes,
        Juliet

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  8. So Amazing and grateful for your team effort.
    Sarah and Arthur Burchill were my Great Grandparents.
    Fantastic Photo’s, thank you.
    Kindest regards, Joy.

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  10. Finola, another link – my middle name is Power (named after my maternal grandmother Lucy Power who married James Burchill). Maybe there’s a connection to Aidan Power!

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