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James Richardson
nottb
Hi,

We recently tracked our family tree back to a James Richardson of Keel, Achill in 1840. The birth record for 1840 for his daughter (our great-great grandma) shows that James Richardson was married to Edith Anna and his occupation was a coastguard at Keel.

We did some research and found the original coastguard station which is now a B&B (this was replaced about 1860 for a more modern station on the hill above Keel). We visited from the East Midlands in summer 2012 and visited the part of the building which was part of the orignial station.

I have struggled to get any further and find anything much about James or Edith online so would be great if anybody out there could help in any way or give us any additional info to work with or of interest.

I read on another post that the Coastguard in Keel was murdered in 1839 so I assume James may have taken over from the murdered coastguard. Also I noted in one article that a lot of the coastguards on this coast at this time were in fact British so would be interesting if anybody could fill in any gaps.

Thanks in advance.
 
crimea1854
Welcome to the Forum.

Using the CG Establishment Books I have traced the majority of his career. These Books are available as free downloads from the National Archives Website (ADM 175), so if you wished to follow his career I have included the refs. in the following:

He was nominated to the CG Service on 23 January 1823 from his home town of Portpatrick, Scotland, with a first posting to Rush (ADM 175/99 pdf 96), from where he made the following moves:
3 January 1824 to Lee Stone (175/15 pdf 137)
5 April 1825 to Innisboffin (175/15 pdf 307)
31 January 1828 to Island More (175/16 pdf 272)
31 Oct 1833 to Keem (Achil Beg) (175/16 pdf 255)
there is now an unresolved gap in his service, but since Keem and Keele are both in the same area I do not believe he moved far.
Keele
9 July 1842 to Cromarty, Scotland (175/18 pdf 233)
8 Oct 1845 to Spittal, England (175/22 pdf 82) reason for move ill health
8 Nov 1845 to Sutton (175/7 pdf 574) again reason for move ill health
22 March 1858 discharged on superannuation (175/7 pdf 630)

He does appear on the 1851 and 1861 census for Mablethorpe, by which time he is widowed. In the BDM Index there is an Edith Ann Richardson who died in the Louth Reg. District, Lincolnshire, Jan-Mar 1850, Vol 14, page 361 who could possibly be his wife, and perhaps the 'ill health' note relates to her.

Margaret, one of his daughters married Samuel Colwell, another Coastguard.

Hope this helps.

Martin
Edited by crimea1854 on 23/08/2012 14:46
 
nottb
Hi Martin,

That info is fantastic, thank you very much. We did see the connection with Mablethorpe a while back but struggled to tie that connection together, but now it makes sense!

We have our great great grandma as marrying somebody from Addergoole in Mayo and we assumed they met in Mayo - but if she moved to Britain at 2 then perhaps they met over here in England. so this info really opens up a few more lines of research for us.

Thanks again.
Nick
 
crimea1854
Nick

I'm pleased to have helped. There is no chance that your Gt Gt Grandmother also married a CG?

Martin
 
nottb
Hi Martin,

That may be possible, all we know Gt Gt Grandad's (Anthony McDermott) father was a farmer, and by the late 1800's Anthony and our Gt Gt Grandma had a family all working in Silk Mills in Macclesfield, England. We will do some digging and let you know.

Thanks again.

Nick
 
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