1 Augusta Byrn (b: c.1794, d: 1867) of Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow, Ireland.

Augusta Byrn was the fifth of seven siblings; there were two sisters among them, with Augusta the younger by some 15 years. Very poignantly, her older sister Sarah incurred their parents' wrath because (in my grandfather's words — Sarah was his great aunt, and he was no doubt quoting his own parents) "she married to please herself". The grisly result was that her parents disinherited her. The same drastic fate had befallen her great uncle James who was "cut off with a shilling" because of his "not conforming to his Duty" as a young man, i.e. to fulfill the terms of his apprenticeship to a Dublin Solicitor.

Unlike her older sister, Augusta certainly married with her parents' consent. Her husband came from a prominent family. He, Patrick Burtchaell (1793-1845), either in his own person or that of another family member, held the office of Ulster King at Arms (i.e. the chief heraldic officer for Ireland). Augusta and Patrick married on 12 May 1816 in St Nicholas Within, Dublin, and they had seven children. The two youngest of these, Archdall and Nicholas, eventually emigrated — like several of their Byrn cousins — but whilst those Byrn cousins went to Australia or New Zealand, Archdall Burtchaell chose Canada and Nicholas Burtchaell chose the USA.

Augusta's maternal grandfather was Nicholas Montgomery Archdall MP (c.1720-c.1790), of Castle Archdall in Co. Fermanagh, a family which continued to play a leading role in Ireland. As Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory for the Year 1862 shows, his namesake a century later, Nicholas Montgomery Archdall, was High Sherrif of Fermanagh in 1861-2. The name of the ancestral seat, Castle Archdall, is commemorated in the naming of several male Burtchaell and Byrn descendants down to at least Augusta's great grandnephew (my uncle) Mervyn Archdall Byrn (1920-2002).

Of Augusta and Patrick Burtchaell's seven children:

2 Their sixth child, Archdall Burtchaell (b: 1824), emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
He married twice.
+ (c.1850) Mary Howitt (b: c.1825)

3 Margaret B. Burtchaell (b: 1852)

+ *2nd wife (bef. 1856): [Miss] Gore (b: c.1825)

3 Anna Eliza Burtchaell (b: 1857)
+ (1886, Toronto, Ontario) Richard Truax (1848-1899)

3 Sara Burtchaell (b: c.1860)

3 [son] Burtchaell (b: c.1863)
+ [Miss] Smith (b: c.1865)

2 Their seventh child, Nicholas Burtchaell (1826-1890) emigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
+ (c.1858 in New Orleans) Anne Dinnin (b: 1840 in Co. Cork, Ireland; d: 1917 in New Orleans)

3 Benjamine Burtchaell (1858-1905)

3 Nicholas Burtchaell, Jr (b: c.1861, d: 1914)

3 William Burtchaell (1863-1939) in New Orleans
+ Marie Doll (1870-1944)