Our great-great-great-great grandparents
Maurice McGrath and his wife Margaret are primarily known to us from the death record of their only known son John McGrath. They were probably both born in Templetenny parish in southwest Tipperary near the Cork/Limerick border some time between 1770 and 1780, and married in the Roman Catholic chapel in the village of Ballyporeen some time between 1790 and 1800. Maurice was a farmer.
The only Maurice McGrath of Templetenny parish listed in the Tithe Applotment Books was shown in 1825 at the village of Skeheenarinky. This may have been our Maurice, who would have been around 50 years of age at the time, or perhaps one of his sons.
Griffith’s Valuation, completed in County Tipperary in June 1853, has no listing for a Maurice McGrath, and he presumably died before then. There is, however, a listing for Margaret McGrath renting a house and garden at Cahergaul Bridge, on the Dublin Road (now the R369) less than a kilometer from Skeheenarinky village. The Valuation entry for Margaret shows that she rented the property from “John McGrath (Maurice)” – the “(Maurice)” probably denotes his father’s name and was presumably included to distinguish him from “John McGrath (Pat.)” who is listed immediately underneath. If this is the case, John McGrath (Maurice) is most likely our John McGrath. The Valuation entry for John McGrath (Maurice) shows that he rented 2,630 square meters of land straddling the Dublin Road at Cahergaul Bridge. Two parcels of this land, each comprising a house and garden, were sub-let to Margaret McGrath and Michael Joyce respectively. As the remaining land had no house on it, John McGrath (Maurice) himself must have lived elsewhere.