My Great Grandfather

John Bacon

My family has always believed that my great grandfather fought in Bolands Mills during the rising. However, I can't find his name among its Garrison lists, nor any of the Rising's garrison lists for that matter. This leads me to believe that he gave a different surname, possibly because of his English sounding and spelt surname. His name was Thomas Heeley, generally people in Ireland spell it Healy, Heely or Healey by mistake, but even still there are no Thomas Heelys or Healys on the lists either. His mother's maiden name was Cantwell, which is also a very English surname.

My questions are;

Would it have been common for people with English surnames to change them upon entering the volunteers? e.g. Cathal Brugha (Charles Burgess).

Are these Garrison lists accurate? i.e. are some names missing? Where they made before the fighting started or after, maybe when some of the volunteers escaped arrest?

Any ideas or help would be really appreciated!

Cheers.

Peregrinus

It was not common to change one's name on joining the Volunteers. Brugha did change his name, but long before he joined, and for all purposes, not just for his volunteer service. If your great-grandfather had changed his name you would know him by his chosen name, not by his former name.

The garrison lists are pretty accurate, but no record is 100% accurate.

No offence to your great-grandfather and I don't doubt him for a minute, but the class of people who at some point claimed to have been out in '16 was considerably larger than the class who actually were out. What role did he play in 1919-21, and in 21-22? If he was active he might have been entitled to, or at least might have applied for, an IRA pension, and if he did his service in 1916 (if it could be verified) would have been taken into account. So if you can find any records of an application for a pension, there might be a lot of information there.

Arsemageddon

Peregrinus wrote: »

It was not common to change one's name on joining the Volunteers. Brugha did change his name, but long before he joined, and for all purposes, not just for his volunteer service. If your great-grandfather had changed his name you would know him by his chosen name, not by his former name.

The garrison lists are pretty accurate, but no record is 100% accurate.

No offence to your great-grandfather and I don't doubt him for a minute, but the class of people who at some point claimed to have been out in '16 was considerably larger than the class who actually were out. What role did he play in 1919-21, and in 21-22? If he was active he might have been entitled to, or at least might have applied for, an IRA pension, and if he did his service in 1916 (if it could be verified) would have been taken into account. So if you can find any records of an application for a pension, there might be a lot of information there.

Just to add to Peregrinus post here's a link for the Military Archives pension records, you should find some good information here....

http://www.militaryarchives.ie/en/collections/online-collections/military-service-pensions-collection