Jernegan

sources: Kilcommon PRs transcribed by Anne Chamney, 2000 and Alan Jones of Abergele, N.Wales (see documents for extract from Alan Jones' email) Account of train accident I am, when time allows, trying to assemble some biographical/genealogical information about the victims of a serious train crash which occurred in 1868 in Abergele, North Wales (where I live). 33 died in a collision involving the Irish Mail en route for Holyhead. The grave is in Abergele churchyard. One of the victims was a young girl aged 9, Louisa Symes. She was travelling under the care of Judge Walter Berwick (a judge of the Irish Bankruptcy Court) and his sister Elizabeth Mary Berwick, who were returning to Dublin after spending a vacation in Switzerland. Until recently I could not discover who Louisa was but last week I was in Dublin and managed to find time to look through some newspapers of the day and eventually found a reference in the classified deaths announcements columns of two papers which said she was the daughter of Arthur Rowley Symes, J.P., of Ballybeg, Rathdrum, co. Wicklow. I could not find anything more except a reference in a register of Dublin Wills etc. to his 1855 marriage to Charlotte Louisa Richardson. An internet search this morning revealed your entry and the copious references to the Symes family. ...... she was actually buried at Abergele: the remains of the victims had all been burnt to cinders as the crash involved a terrific fire caused by the Irish Mail crashing into some runaway trucks from a careless shunting exercise, and those trucks carried drums of paraffin. Alan Jones: AJones9446@aol.com Please acknowledge the source of any data you download. Good luck with your ancestor hunting

This record was compiled 5-20-2006 by Jeff Jernegan <jeff@jernegan.net>. It may be used for research but not reposted for any commercial use or on any commercial site.