Fontstown Co. Kildare

There were 380 people resident in the Fontstown Electoral Division on Census Night March 31st 1901. The 17 townlands included in this file, with their populations in brackets are as follows:

1. Ardellis Lower (9);
2. Ardellis Upper (18);
3. Ballinagussane aka Ballynagussaun (25);
4. Boley Great (49);
5. Boley Little (31);
6. Boleybeg (13);
7. Castlefarm (25);
8. Derrynine (4);
9. Fontstown Lower (40);
10. Fontstown Upper (24);
11. Lynams Garden (13);
12. Monatore (8);
13. Oldgrange (31);
14. Rathconnell (27);
15. Rathconnell Wood (21);
16. Rathsilla Lower aka Rathsillagh Lower (24);
17. Rathsilla Upper aka Rathsillagh Upper (18)

The Fontstown  Electoral Division contains 17  townlands and stretches on a west to east axis to the north east of Athy town. 

The area is rural in nature and doesn’t include any large conurbations and is bisected by the main Athy to Kilcullen road (R418).  

In terms of population, the largest townlands in 1851, Fontstown Lower (87 residents) and Oldgrange (83 residents) suffered decreases of 54% and 63% over the next fifty years. In contrast, townlands like Boleybeg, Lynams Garden, Monatore, and Rathsilla Lower retained their population during the same period. 

One unusual change was in the townland of Boley Great, where the population declined from 68 in 1851 to 19 in 1891 only to recover to 49 by 1901. The number of houses increased from 3 to 7 in the 1890’s. It is likely the family of James & Bridget Coogan and their 8 children, and the 13 Whelans living in two houses next door to each other were the likely reasons the population increased in this period but research on birth certs will shed more light on that. 

Heffernan was the most prominent surname in 1901 with 32 living in 9 residences in 6 different townlands. They were farmers.  

Catherine Kelly of Oldgrange and Michael Coffey of Rathconnell were, at 84 years old the eldest residents in this district in 1901. They would have been born c1817. 

Catherine lived with her husband Thomas, who was a farmer and four years her junior, and they shared their house on Census night with their 10 year old niece Julia. 

Michael Coffey was also a farmer and head of his household which he shared with his Kilkenny born wife Mary, who was aged 70. 

Five infants were still looking forward to their first birthday when the Census was taken in 1901. They were:

1. John W Young of Ballinagussane;
2. Rosannah Gorman of Rathsilla Lower;
3. John Bell of Ardellis Upper; 
4. Julia Cullen and Kate Maher both of the townland of Rathconnell. 

1. A link to the Fontstown ED GEDCOM file is immediately provided when purchase is completed. Download the digital file to your computer then upload it to your preferred genealogy programme,  such as Ancestry.com, Findmypast.ie, MyHeritage.com etc. See our Toolkit tab for some short “How to” videos.
2. You get a spreadsheet list of all 380 residents, which includes names, address, age, occupation, religion, literacy, special illnesses and a url link to the Census record for ease of reference. We recommend that you use the spreadsheet as a control sheet to record the changes your research has found, such as maiden names of wives/widows, dates of birth and marriage, marital links to other families etc.