What We Know About Michael
Michael Garretty was a labourer from Roscommon, in Ireland, who married an Englishwoman. We have been given a number of conflicting dates for the birth of their son Robert:
1843, Ireland - R Cross was 57 - 1900 census, Seattle, WA
1844, Roscommon - Robert "Allen" was 37 - 1881 census Birmingham ENG
Dec 1845, Ireland - Robert Cross - 1911 census, Vancouver, BC
1847 - Robert Garrettey s/o Michael Garretty was 22 - Birmingham, ENG marriage certificate (May 7,1869).
1847, Ireland - Robert Garratty was 24 - 1871 census Birmingham, ENG
1849, Ireland - R "Cross" was 42 - 1891 census, Winnipeg MB
1850, Ireland - Robert Cross' death certificate, Vancouver, BC
Finding Michael
My attempt to locate Michael through the Tithe Applotment Book led to Michael Geraghty, a tenant in the townland of Kooska, St Peter's Athlone parish, Roscommon during 1833. He and his wife Bridget Doyle christened their son Michael at St Peter's on July 28, 1820.
Unfortunately the baptismal records between Feb 22, 1841 and Feb 1, 1845 are missing. The two earliest of the proposed baptismal dates for Robert Garretty fall within this period. I did not find any record of a Robert Garretty being christened between 1845 and 1850.
However I did find Michael Gerhauty and his wife Elisa Francis who christened their son Thomas at St Peter's Athlone on April 5, 1845 and buried him a month later.
Elisa's surname, "Francis," was "brought to the country by settlers who arrived from England especially during the seventeenth century. This name is ultimately of Norman origin, meaning 'Frenchman.'" Thus she could be our Michael's "English wife."
POTATO FAMINE
"In 1845, County Roscommon was one of the first counties to record the appearance of the blight in the locality. The return of the disease the following year – earlier in the season and more lethal – resulted in an immediate increase in distress. On 12 October 1846, the local constabulary stated that 7,500 people were existing on boiled cabbage leaves only once in 48 hours. The second failure of the potato crop in 1846 also brought a number of voluntary relief workers to the country. A young Quaker from Liverpool, Joseph Crosfield, passed through Boyle in December and reported: In this place, the condition of the poor previously to their obtaining admission into the work-house is one of great distress; many of them declare that they have not tasted food of any kind for forty-eight hours; and numbers of them have eaten nothing but cabbage or turnips for days and weeks." - The Great Hunger In County Roscommon
“As the potato was the chief food of most people, the failure of the crop quickly led to famine. .. Even industrious families, who were previously comfortable and quite well off were now quite destitute. Not only could they not procure potatoes to till their gardens and plots but they were obliged to exist on one meal a day and that one consisting of the worst potatoes and salt.” - Roscommon, The Untold Story
CORK
More than a million Irish are believed to have died by 1849. Two million emigrated to America, many of them passing through the port of Cork.
We do not know when Michael Garretty died. My cousin Audrey M. Balfour wrote me that her family tradition asserts Michael's widow married a "Mr Cross" in Cork.
Robert Garretty grew up and moved to Birmingham. He named his first born son Robert Cross, and all subsequent children Garretty. A little more than a decade later Robert's family moved to Canada and changed their surname to Cross.
PROPOSED CHILDREN
Robert Gerratty was probably born in December 1843, or December 1844
Thomas Gerhauty christened at St Peter's Athlone, Roscommon, on Apr 5, 1845, buried there on May 2, 1845.