The Sodens of California, USA
Tina Beck lives in California today with her family and has recently visited Cavan in 2022 during the Covid pandemic. This story was told to her by her grandmother.
James Soden from Lavey to Los Angeles
The
beginning of the 19th century in Ireland was a tough time to be
alive. To be not of the state religion was the arch cross to bear. The Sodens
of Pottlesoden, Lavey, Co. Cavan met this opposition with direct threat.
James, son of Matthew Soden of Pottlesoden, paid that price. When it was reported he was teaching the Catechism to his family, he was threatened with arrest. This would mean prison or even transportation to Australia. So that very night , he and his family, left their farm and emigrated to the USA eventually settling in Rockaway, New Jersey. Their descendants today are Tina Beck of Los Angeles, California and her family.
Matthew was born in 1810 and is recorded with his family in the extant 1821 Census for Pottlesoden, Cavan [Cavan 3/1821, p77]. Matthew’s father was Bartle, born in 1785. Matthew married Mary Fitzgerald and emigrated in the late 1850s arriving in New Jersey in 1860.
Tina Beck is the great great great granddaughter of Matthew Soden born 1810 in Pottlesoden, Cavan as registered in the 1821 National Census for Cavan County.
There were five Soden families in the townland of Pottlesoden [see attached photo]. As the 1821 census indicates there were Soden families in no less than 10 townlands. My direct ancestor is James Shoden of the Beaghey, Co. Cavan and I am confident there can be established a link between these two families and the ones in Sligo and Longford.
Tina’s
grandmother told her that Matthew trained racehorses for the English nobility, which may well have
been Lord Farnham or perhaps Rev. John Moore or such alike.
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