Here is information in her own words about this family:
I am descended from John HAWKINS (b.1810-d.1900) of Wicklow. John was a farmer in Cranareen, and married Mary Ellen WILSON in 1837. He had three daughters – Rebecca (my 2 x gr.grandmother), Elizabeth and Mary Ann. The family's oral history does not mention any sons.
I have speculated that John was the second child of Thomas HAWKINS and Rebecca DAGG of Rustyduff and Killibeg. My reasoning goes like this :
(i) Thomas and Rebecca are known to have a son named John b.c.1810
(ii) John's oldest daughter was named Rebecca.
(iii) John was farming in Cranareen which is “right next door” to Rustiduff.
(iv) The person who registered John's death in 1900 was Edward ALLEN, who I believe to be the son of Elizabeth HAWKINS (Thomas and Rebecca's fifth child) and Edward ALLEN.
However, I know that there is another John HAWKINS of Wicklow who emigrated to Canada and married Eliza MOORE, and it is suggested that he was the son of Thomas and Rebecca. I believe that the evidence for this is that :
(i) He also was b.c. 1810.
(ii) Other sons of Thomas and Rebecca had emigrated to the same area in Canada.
(iii) Other DAGG descendants had emigrated to the same area in Canada.
(iv) John died in 1853 in Canada. In 1855 in Ireland, Thomas - and his second wife, Mary MOODY - had a son whom they named John. It's believed that the child born in 1855 was given the name John because his older half-brother was the John who had died in Canada a year or two earlier.
I'm not aware of any paper trail which might allow us to distinguish between the two John HAWKINS men, and I hoped that DNA evidence might help to clarify which John really was the son of Thomas and Rebecca.
Autosomal DNA evidence from FTDNA and Gedmatch appears to suggest that there is a familial connection between my John and the family of Thomas and Rebecca, although it's not clear what the relationship is.
I have one match with a known descendant of Thomas and Rebecca.
I have one match with another “probable” descendant of Thomas and Rebecca.
I am aware of two known descendants of Thomas and Rebecca with whom I have no DNA match.
If I am correct in my theory that my John was the son of Thomas and Rebecca, then all the relationships here are around 4th cousin (give or take a removal) - and so absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.
I would love to know whether there are others associated with Thomas HAWKINS and Rebecca DAGG of Rustiduff and Killibeg who have tested and might be able to shed any light on the puzzle. Thomas married twice and had 25 children in total, and so there are many, many descendants out there.
With best regards,
Gina.
georgina_meyers@yahoo.com.au
If you are reading this and have interest, be sure to read the comments that follow as other researchers have added information. I encourage all of you who belong to this family to work together and if you have updates to this post or want a new post, just let me know and I'll work with you on it.
In 2023 I am deleting e-mails from my overfull inbox and thought I would add the following from another researcher who connects to County Wicklow:
Hi my name is Susan , I found you on a website blog about Hawkins Rustyduff Co , Wicklow , I had a great grand mother Harriet Louise Blanc Hawkins , child of William Hawkins and Harriet Taylor , , farmers of Rusty duff , My Harriet was marry 4 times , and had many children , but I do ? if there was maybe another Harriet , or my grandmother did rehome one of her children ,, she was widow many times , I descend from her third marriage , Hawkins came from Devon and kent uk before they lived in Ireland , and we are link to the Drake family , Famous Francis Drake .
susanheffernan7@hotmail.com
