Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies Carraig, Cliff Road, Windgates, Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland Telephone/FAX (01)

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1 Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies Carraig, Cliff Road, Windgates, Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland Telephone/FAX (01) Website September 2008 Report on the Claim to Chiefship of Frederick James O Carroll, Styled The O Carroll of Éile O Carroll Background Arising principally from the researches of the present writer, it emerged in 1999 that the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland had under a procedure of courtesy recognition issued certificates of chiefship to a number of questionable or bogus Gaelic chiefs. The most remarkable case was that of the Belfast hoaxer Terence MacCarthy, who went by the style of The Mac Carthy Mór. It had been known for some time to the Office of the Chief Herald that MacCarthy s status was dubious, but it was not until after the present writer issued a voluntary report on his pedigree in June 1999 that action was taken and MacCarthy s certificate of chiefship nullified in July of the same year (claims that the present writer only became involved in the case after July are completely false). MacCarthy s certificate issued in 1992 unusually bore two signatures, that of the then Chief Herald Donal Begley, and that of the then acting deputy and now Chief Herald Fergus Gillespie,(see copy at /irhismys/maccarthy.htm). This document in particular represented a nadir of ethical and professional standards in the Office of the Chief Herald, which was in effect operating as a brokerage house for spurious and questionable arms, pedigrees and titles, as I have shown in my book Twilight of the Chiefs: The Mac Carthy Mór Hoax (Bethesda, Maryland, 2004). In the wake of the Mac Carthy Mór fiasco, the Attorney General advised in 2002 that the Office of the Chief Herald had no legal power to recognise chiefs (or indeed to grant arms), and in 2003 the office

2 O Carroll Report 2 simply abandoned the practice of courtesy recognition, detaching itself from chiefs both good and bad. It has been claimed that MacCarthy s was an isolated case and the present writer s charges of further irregularities were rejected as groundless by National Library Director and Chief Herald Brendan O Donoghue, who added for good measure in 1999 that I was the self-appointed saviour of Irish genealogy. As my right and authority to become involved in investigating claims to chiefships have frequently been challenged, I can only indicate again that in an area where hoaxers, fantasists and incompetents abound, someone who knows a little about verifying pedigrees may be excused for taking a hand in the matter. I have carefully laid out the evidence in support of my charges in my book Twilight of the Chiefs and on my website at I have instanced particular problems with recognitions of chiefs in the period , including Maguire of Fermanagh (MacCarthy s late grand-uncle), O Long of Garranelongy and O Carroll of Éile O Carroll. Hitherto I was only able to issue an interim report on the O Carroll chiefship in 2001, which however drew attention to the want of satisfactory evidence to prove the claim ( After many years of further work and with the assistance of researchers in the United States, I am now in a position to show that there is no valid evidence to support the claim of the individual recognised as O Carroll of Éile O Carroll by the Office of the Chief Herald, and that in all likelihood he descends from a branch of the O Carrolls which does not have any connection to the chiefship of the sept. O Carroll Chiefship Before the present writer s efforts, the most detailed research into the question of the survival of Irish chiefly houses was conducted in the 1940s by the first Chief Herald of Ireland, Edward MacLysaght. Assisted by a gentleman scholar named Terence Grey, MacLysaght identified some fifteen senior descendants of Gaelic chiefs worthy of courtesy recognition and entered their particulars in a Register of Chiefs (Twilight of the Chiefs, pages 45-48). There was no O Carroll entry, as having reviewed relevant manuscripts and published accounts, Grey observed that the senior line was probably extinct. Grey suggested that the succession to the Chiefship would lie firstly with the Athgoe, County Dublin, branch, and if that failed, with the Litterluna, County Offaly, branch, but no acceptable candidate for chiefship was located (National Library of Ireland, Genealogical Office MS 610, pages 53-54). It has been claimed that the Athgoe branch is now extinct, but sight of relevant documentary evidence is required before this can be accepted. As to the Litterluna line, Frederick James O Carroll of Stockton, California, subsequently emerged claiming to be the senior male representative and in 1993 Chief Herald Begley issued a certificate granting him courtesy recognition as Chief of the Name (GO MS 627). It seemed reasonable to ask for sight of the relevant documentary proofs, particularly in view of the irregularities discovered in relation to other recognised Chiefs. While he did release copies of correspondence dated February 2000 concerning a query from the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh, where O Carroll was seeking to have his arms matriculated, Chief Herald O Donoghue refused access to file documents relating to proof of pedigree. O Carroll himself promised the writer some years back that he would provide copy documents to verify his pedigree, but these were never received. Chief Herald O Donoghue also stated that while the arms of the currently recognised O Carroll were registered in 1983, no pedigree was ever registered, which is a cause for concern.

3 O Carroll Report 3 Frederick O Carroll s Pedigree Mr O Carroll maintains a website at which presents his Clan Cian as a strange Irish-Scottish hybrid, complete with its own tartan and participation in American Highland gatherings. O Carroll has also taken it upon himself to designate chieftains of branches of his clan, namely, MacStail aka Stallone, Meagher, Bryant and Durnin ( More than that, O Carroll has declared a species of overlordship over hundreds of other Irish septs he apparently terms Cianachta, for example, Brogan of Mayo, MacBrady of Leitrim-Cavan, MacCleary of Antrim, O Connor of Derry, and so on (from a long list on website as of 5 September 2008). This not unnaturally has not gone down well with other clan organisations, and an online critique of Mr O Carroll s pretensions has now been published at Mr O Carroll s claimed descent, accepted by the Office of the Chief Herald and reproduced on its 1993 certificate of chiefly recognition, is as follows: James O Carroll of Litterluna, alive 1763 James, b Ireland c1815, resided New York James, b Dublin 1840, resided New York, d Galveston, Texas, 1921 Michael Frederick, b at sea 1864, resided New York and Texas, d California 1938 Winfrey Frederick, b 1909, d 1969, of Tehama County, California Frederick James, born 1933, of Stockton County, California Recognised as Chief of the Name 1993 Mr O Carroll s birth certificate shows that his correct year of birth is 1936 (copy appended), but for some reason he has persistently stated that he was born in 1933, and clearly so informed the Chief Herald of Ireland, who does not appear to have sought certified proof. The present writer has been given to understand by other parties that Mr O Carroll s true descent is from a Stephen Frederick aka Michael Frederick Carroll, born in Florida in 1867, parents James Caswell Carroll and Julia A C Watson, who died in 1922 and 1882 respectively and are buried in Crawford Cemetery, Texas ( =carroll&gscid=3103&grid= &). Stephen/Michael, also known as Frederick or Freddie, had two sons James Stephen and Orand Arboth with his first wife Julia Ann Salmon, had Winfrey Frederick and other children with a second wife Lily Hilda Masters, and having married thirdly Bertha Hanford in 1930, he died in Lassen County, California, in It would appear that there was some kind of rift between Stephen/Michael and his father, but after he made a new life in California contact was maintained with his family and the connection is remembered by the Texan branch even today. In the face of Mr O Carroll s unwillingness to co-operate or comment, and the Office of the Chief Herald s refusal to release relevant documents, I have been fortunate to acquire copies of certain records from interested parties and to secure others via official sources and Ancestry.com. Michael F Carroll s 1938 death certificate gives his place of birth as New York, and his parents are listed as unknown (copy appended). Michael F Mike Carroll s 1930 marriage certificate again states that he was born in New York, but names his parents as Jim Carroll and

4 O Carroll Report 4 Julia Watson, both listed as born in Ireland (copy appended). It has been suggested to the writer that Michael F Carroll s place of birth could refer to New York, Texas, where James Caswell Carroll s family lived for a time, and not to New York, New York, and that furthermore the certificate information in relation to his parents place of birth is erroneous. Michael F Mike Carroll s will dated 1937 (copy appended) specifies that he was leaving nothing to his sons Stephen and Arron, which it is suggested are the above mentioned James Stephen and Orand Arboth. Now the genealogist must constantly be alive to coincidences of names, but it seems that the documents specified raise serious questions over Mr O Carroll s claimed descent from an Irish chiefly line, which questions he has chosen not to answer (latest unacknowledged query 9 September 2008). Mr O Carroll has certainly given a false date for his own birth, has failed to produce documentation to show that his great-grandfather James was born in Dublin or that his grandfather Michael Frederick was born at sea, and in general he has not proven he is descended from the Litterluna branch of the O Carrolls. As such the pedigree Mr O Carroll has advanced is, to use a phrase employed during the Mac Carthy Mór affair, without genealogical integrity, and his claim to chiefship is therefore in essence spurious. Based on the sources cited above, and also referring to relevant Carroll entries in a detailed online pedigree of the Dekle and allied families at it is suggested that the following is a more accurate version of Mr O Carroll s pedigree: James Caswell Carroll, d Anderson County, Texas, 1922, m Julia Ann Watson who d 1882, son of Stephen Carroll Michael Frederick/Stephen, b Jefferson County, Florida, 1867, d Lassen County, California 1938 Winfrey Frederick, b 1909, d 1969, of Tehama County, California Frederick James, born Shasta County, California, 1936, goes by the name of Eile Frederick James O Carroll and resides in Stockton, California

5 O Carroll Report 5 Dual O Carroll Arms On 12 May 2000 Chief O Carroll issued an appeal for donations towards an heraldic court fund, totalling about $5,000 and involving the erection of a banner in the Heraldic Museum in Dublin and a petition for matriculation of arms to the Lyon Court in Edinburgh. O Carroll s website also draws attention to a seeming anomaly with regard to his arms, in that there appear to be two different forms, as shown below. The first arms, which feature two silver lions on a black background, were granted by the Chief Herald in The second arms, featuring two gold lions on a black background, appear on the 1993 patent of recognition (GO MS 627). It is claimed that the latter arms are those of William O Carroll, King of Éile, which the then Chief Herald allegedly assigned to O Carroll in an amendment of 1993, for Displayment with Authoritative and Protective Use and for Future Succeeding Chiefs of Name (this obscure formulation formerly appeared on Mr O Carroll s website at but has now apparently been removed). Now Chief Herald O Donoghue dealt with a similar anomaly in relation to dual arms of Andrew Davison, so-called Count of Clandermond and partner of Terence MacCarthy, by cancelling both. Certainly, the discrepancy in relation to O Carroll s arms was deemed sufficiently important to be raised by Lyon Court in its already mentioned correspondence with the Office of the Chief Herald.

6 O Carroll Report 6 Conclusion In summary, we have uncovered evidence which raises serious questions about the validity of Mr O Carroll s pedigree, arms and claim to chiefship. Again, what certificates and other primary sources were presented in support of O Carroll s claim for recognition, and if they are in order, why cannot they be opened to public inspection? Is it not the case that rather than being descended from the chiefly Litterluna line, Mr O Carroll is in fact a descendant of James Caswell Carroll of Texas and adjoining states, whose branch has no known chiefly connections. Taken with the anomaly in relation to the Davison arms, the dual form of the O Carroll arms gives rise to further concern about the adequacy of heraldic practices in the Office of the Chief Herald. It has now been acknowledged, by no less a person than the Chairperson of the Board of the National Library, that a shambles existed in the Office of the Chief Herald in the past ( Even though the National Library has detached itself from the process of recognising chiefs, its management should not be allowed to evade its responsibility of dealing with the problem of inaccurate or corrupt records in the archive of the Office of the Chief Herald/Genealogical Office. In the matter of the recognition of Frederick James O Carroll as The O Carroll of Éile O Carroll, and following the precedents of Terence MacCarthy s and Andrew Clandermond s cases, it is therefore recommended that the Board of the National Library of Ireland should carefully study the present report, of which it is being sent a copy, and if its findings cannot be disproved, the following rulings should be considered: (1) The 1993 decision to grant courtesy recognition to Mr O Carroll is be regarded as null and void. (2) The decisions in 1983 and 1993 to ratify and confirm arms to Mr O Carroll must be regarded as invalid. (3) The pedigree recorded on Mr O Carroll s 1993 certificate of chiefship is without genealogical integrity. Finally, the writer repeats his call for the institution of some sort of open and external official enquiry into the administration of the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland and the Genealogical Office, with particular reference to the recognition of bogus and questionable chiefs during the years , and he will be glad to assist any such enquiry in any way he can. Sean J Murphy MA Appendices: Birth certificate of Frederick James Carroll, 1936 Death certificate of Michael F Carroll, 1938 Marriage certificate of Mike Carroll and Bertha Hanford, 1930 Will of Mike Carroll, 1937 Carroll entries in online Dekle pedigree

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