Mullingar's links to most remote island in the world

Thousands of miles from anywhere, Tristan da Cunha is considered the most remote inhabited island in the world.The population is around 270; the inhabitants share eight surnames - and believe it or not, many of them have Mullingar blood flowing through their veins.It may seem incredible that this tiny island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1,750 miles from its nearest large neighbour, South Africa, and 2,088 miles from Argentina, has links with Mullingar, but that was the surprise discovery made by genealogist Helen Kelly, a native of Dysart who is the Shelbourne Hotel's genealogy butler, and is president of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland.Helen discovered the unusual link after a chance encounter in November of last year with the author of a newly-launched book on the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha.Her researches led to the discovery that just a little over 100 years ago, three men from Tristan da Cunha met three Smith sisters in South Africa, and married them, bringing them back to Tristan da Cunha with them."One sister returned to South Africa with her husband and family after a short period, but the other two sisters remained on the island with their families, and many of their descendants remain there to the present day," says Helen.Helen looked into the girls' family tree, and found they were daughters of Ellen Gay, who was baptized in Mullingar's Roman Catholic parish church on May 27 1853, and her husband, William Smith, who had been based in Mullingar as a soldier with the 100th Regiment. It is not known for sure where William was from, but Wexford is considered a possibility.Ellen's parents were Michael Gay, a herdsman, and Elizabeth Neal/Neill, who had married in Mullingar parish in 1843. "The family appear to have lived in Farranshock townland during the 1850s," says Helen.Ellen had at least two known siblings - a sister Mary, born in 1845 and who married a Thomas Carley of Newdown, Mullingar in 1872, and a brother Michael, who was born in 1856.In May 1875, the then 22-year-old Ellen Gay married William Smith in a Church of Ireland ceremony - even though Ellen was, and apparently remained, a Catholic."Their first child, Elizabeth, was born in Kilkenny the following year, and further children were born to the couple in Meath and England before they departed for South Africa, where Ellen's younger children were born," says Helen.Online records show that in 1886, the family appears to have been living at Kokstadt in South Africa.Around the turn of the 20th century, the Boer War took place, and among those who came to fight the Boers in Africa were brothers Robert and Joseph Glass, and their friend, James Hagan, all from Tristan da Cunha.While in Africa, the trio befriended the Smith family, and in the early 1900s, Elizabeth Smith, Ellen's eldest daughter, married Robert, while her younger sisters Agnes and Annie married Joseph Glass and James Hagan respectively.The three young couples arrived on Tristan on March 26 1908, but not long after, Annie and James Hagan decided to return to South Africa, settling in Cape Town.Dawn Repetto, who works in the tourist office at Tristan, wrote to Helen outlining what happened to Agnes and Elizabeth, saying they stayed on 'and were the founders of the Catholic community'.'Elizabeth unfortunately died about nine years after arriving on Tristan and her husband remarried. Agnes outlived her husband and also remarried and up until her death was a strong holder of the Catholic faith. Their descendants are the centre of an active Catholic community,' she wrote.The three girls' mother, Ellen, remained in Cape Town, dying there in a place called Woodstock at the age of 79 in 1932.In October 2008, on Tristan da Cunha, Ken Rogers died. He was the last surviving child of Agnes Smith. Agnes, through her two marriages, the first to Joseph Glass, and the second to William Rogers, was mother to nine children.Ken's granddaughter, Laurian, still lives on the island. Another daughter, Asturias O'Connor, died in England in 2006 at the age of 79.Agnes was a remarkable woman, having in September 1953 featured on the front of The Catholic Herald under the heading Mother has saved island's faith.'But for Mrs Rogers,' the Catholic Herald reported, 'there would probably be no Catholics among the island's population of 230. Before she landed there were only two - both lapsed. One of them returned to the Church before death.'The newspaper noted that she was the island's first practising Catholic, and that practically all the 25 Catholics on the island at that time were members of her family. Mrs Rogers was on the island for some 24 years before the first Catholic priest set foot on it. 'But every Sunday Mrs Rogers gathers the island's Catholics and reads the prayers of the Mass. Mrs. Rogers also instructs the children in the faith and acts as the island's catechist,' the report concluded.It is clear that there are probably people in Mullingar who are second cousins of some of the islanders of Tristan da Cunha.