Our Roots

McGrann Family

The McGrann family arrived in Liverpool in 1847 as refugees from the Irish Famine. James McGrane and Mary McCartan came from the townlands of Derrynose near the town of Keady in County Armagh in Ireland.

Home was south of Keady and close to the current border with the Irish Republic. The parents of James were most likely William McGrane and Mary Ann Bryan. James McGrane was born in 1813 in Derrynoose.

They had been farmers in the Derrynoose townlands and the church records recorded the family name as both McGrane and McGrann (the Ulster spelling).

James and Mary had 4 children in Ireland: John, Bernard, Arthur and Cecilia. After they moved to Bootle they also had Alice (1847), Mary Ellen (1852) who died aged 5 and Mary (1850) who died in infancy. We are descendants of John McGrane.

 

Shrine at Derrynoose, near Keady                                        St. Mochuas Church, Derrynoose

Initially, the family lived on Marsh Lane in Bootle. Later they lived in Pleasant Grove.

John McGrane of Derrynoose married Jane Lehane from Ireland in 1859 in the Parish Church of Liverpool. The Lehanes were probably from County Down. They had 6 children: James (1859), Mary Jane (1861), Alice (1864), John (1865) who died aged 3, Catherine (1868) and John (1872). It is John McGrann born in 1872 from whom we are descendants.

The children were all  christened at St. James's RC Church in Bootle. The family lived at numbers 2 and 9 Henry St. (off Marsh Lane) in Bootle.

The name McGrann was more commonly used at this time no doubt as a result of the improved literacy of the family.

John McGrann was married to Mary Ann McKenna of Shercock in County Monaghan on 17 May 1898 at St. Winifred's RC Church in Bootle.  Mary's family lived in Milford St. Liverpool and she was christened at St. Alban's (off Great Howard St.).

John and Mary Ann had 5 children including my grandfather John Joseph born in 1898 in Berry St. Bootle. The other children  were James (1899) at the Workhouse Walton, twins Arthur and Mary Ann in 1902, and Peter in 1903.The family lived in Raleigh St., Canal St. and Berry St. in this period. The twins died within  a few days of their birth.

John McGrann (b.1872) was  a merchant seaman and we can find no trace of him after 1903. My Dad called him the 'mystery man' as we could not find details of his death. It was supposed that he died at sea although it is believed that he may have hanged in South America...we shall never know. His wife remarried in 1910 to Matthew Hayes. 

John McGrann (b.1898) was also a merchant seaman. His brother James was a mariner who died at Walton Hospital aged 21 of tubercolosis. Peter later married Josephine Eyles and lived in Weston-Super-Mare. I met his daughter Patricia a few years  ago with her husband Jack Cullen from Liverpool.

John McGrann (b.1898) married Margaret Feeney at Liverpool Regstry Office in 1921. They had 9 children and the youngest was my father Patrick born on 16th May 1937.

The other children were: William (1920), James (1922), Margaret (1924), Mary Ann (1925), Catherine (1928), Elizabeth (1931), Theresa (1933) and Ann (1935).

Only Catherine (Kitty) survives from the family. My dad was born in 2 Campbell St. Bootle. He spent many hundreds of hours compiling the family tree from public and church records in Liverpool and Ireland. Those records have now been lost and this is a tragedy.