Get All The Birth Certificates You Can
Always obtain all certificates for family members that you can. This can fill in details regarding relationships, geography and place names.
Several of my Irish ancestors lived in places that are not shown on maps. Newtown Saville is a group of three townlands in Clogher parish, County Tyrone. The townlands are Dunbiggan, Lisnarable and Tamlaght. The McGinn family lived there and it was impossible to decipher which of the three townlands my McGinn family called home. The land records would list names by townland but on their civil registration records the McGinns always listed their home as Newtown Saville. I had several death certificates, baptismal records and birth records but all listed Newtown Saville as residence. The land records showed that there were McGinns at Dunbiggan and Tamlaght in the appropriate time frame.
It was not until I received Ally McGinn’s birth certificate from 1870 that her place of birth was listed as Tamlaght, and not Newtown Saville, that I had a better idea of my family’s location. More Brickwall Solutions page 77
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask
How can you contact living relatives in the old country? I looked on the Internet and found businesses near the old farm. I sent an e-mail and asked them to check their phone book for McGinn and McGuigan families living in Clogher. The owner sent me a list of three McGinns in the phone book. I wrote each of them and did not hear back.
One day I got a letter from the town pharmacist. He mentioned that one of the McGinns had given him my letter since he was from Newtown Saville and his mother was from Tullanafoile Townland. He mentioned that he spoke with old Bridget McMaugh there who knew everything and she remembered my grandmother’s brother and their cousin. He said he would get back to me with more details. After a year I was nervous that if Miss McMaugh died I would never get the information. I decided to write her myself and within a month she wrote back with the name and addresses of both my second-cousins. I wrote them and they both wrote back and shared stories and photos. They were unaware that they had “friends” in the USA.
Apparently, in Ireland, first-cousins and closer relations are family, second-cousins and more distant relations are “friends”. More Brickwall Solutions page 128
Irish Marriage Indexes
Don’t let spelling slow you down in your search for a marriage certificate.
I knew Patrick Cassidy had married Ann Murphy in Ireland in about 1877 according to the 1900 US census. My local FHC has indexes for Irish marriages from 1845 to 1921. I thought it would be a simple search to find corresponding citations in the same year for both names. I also knew the Cassidy family hailed from Newry, which is in both Counties Armagh and Down.
I could find an Ann Murphy in Newry but not the corresponding Pat Cassidy. I decided to search a few years earlier since the census information is often a bit off. I did find a match between the two names in 1873 for County Armagh. I thought maybe they lived near Newry or this was Ann's home parish. I wrote Dublin for the certificate and was shocked when I received two marriage certificates!
A Patrick Cassidy and Ann Murphy had indeed married in 1873, just not to each other, so I had the wrong people. They had identical marriage index citations because they married in the same place at the same time but not to each other.
I decided to go back and see what might be up with the other Ann Murphy and try to find Patrick Cassidy. I looked along all the names on the page near Cassidy until something jumped out at me. Patrick Cassiday had a matching citation to Ann Murphy and I got their marriage certificate from Dublin proving they married in Newry in 1877.
Likewise, be careful with unique spellings. The prefix O’ in Irish surnames caused me a few problems finding marriages in the index. I could not find the Denis Buckley-Margaret O’Callaghan marriage from 1885 nor could I find the John O’Riordan-Honora Buckley marriage in the mid-1890s. I left the FHC flustered. Months later when I learned that the O’ prefix was often dropped, I searched the indexes again and quickly found the marriages under Buckley-Callaghan in 1885 and Riordan-Buckley in 1894. More Brickwall Solutions pages 135-36
Using The IGI For Ireland
One way to find the place of origin for Irish ancestors is to use the IGI(International Genealogical Index) and hope for good luck. The IGI has Irish births listed from the beginning of civil registration in 1864 and ending a few years later.
As all eight of my great-grandparents were born in Ireland from 1849 to 1870, I hoped a parent search would flush out my ancestors in the IGI or at least their siblings who were born after 1863.
Couple by couple, I entered my second great-grandparents’ names. Michael Cassidy and Mary Reavey lived in Newry, County Down and their son was born around 1850. If he was an older child, his youngest sibling might show up in the IGI. Unfortunately, no names came up.
Next, I tried Dominick Benson and Mary Fahey. Their daughter, Bridget, was born around 1854 and again, I was hoping that some younger siblings might appear. Only one name did, Dominick Benson. Up until this moment, all I knew was that the Bensons were from County Sligo but this birth record would give me a parish name to search further.
Then, I entered Patrick McGuigan and Catherine Mallon. Nothing came up. I moved onto Patrick McGinn and Alice McWilliams. Three children came up: Patrick, Biddy and James. This too, was exciting because it corrected my family tradition that they were from Omagh and properly identified the parish as Clogher, County Tyrone.
Encouraged, I moved onto my mother’s side of the family which I hoped would bring better results since both my maternal grandparents were Irish-born. Denis Buckley and Catherine Cahill returned no hits. Likewise with Maurice O’Callaghan and Mary Mahoney.
My last two couples were successful though. Daniel Riordan and Mary Anne Desmond had daughters Julia and Catherine. It identified their birthplaces as Macroom, County Cork, which was a great help. Lastly, the search for John Buckley and Honora Curtin brought up my great-grandmother Honora and her brother Denis in Mallow, County Cork.
These results also reinforced a genealogy rule that you always search by family and not just your ancestor. Of the four couples that had IGI matches, only one of the entries was for my direct ancestor’s birth. The others were all just siblings but the geographical information gained from these collaterals was key. More Brickwall Solutions pages 138-39
Check Those Genealogy Periodicals
Always check genealogy periodicals for others searching your names in the same localities.
I am researching the Benson family of Ballysadare, County Sligo, Ireland. I found the address of a New York man also researching the Benson name in Ballysadare during the 19th century. He wrote back telling me that we were not connected but gave me the address of a researcher from Australia. She, too, was not a match but she gave me the name of a Benson family currently living in Ballysadare.
When I wrote them, they informed me that there were no members of my Benson family still there but they were so kind to send me photographs of the farmhouse, the church and the gravestones of my ancestors. More Brickwall Solutions page 148
Study That Church Register!
A good way to learn about your family is to study the church register even if you do not expect your ancestors to show up in the records because of a late starting date or gaps in the records.
When I borrowed the Ballysadare Catholic baptismal register for County Sligo, Ireland from my FHC, there was a gap from 1853-1858. My aunt assured me that her grandmother was 39 in August of 1893 when my grandfather was born. That would make her birth in June of 1854 and inside the baptismal gap beginning in August of 1853 through to February 1858. I was expecting that my great-grandmother, Bridget Benson, would fall between the cracks and not be listed. I started with the earliest records for the register and recorded every Benson entry I could find.
I was stunned when I got to the baptisms of 3 July 1853 and found Brigida Benson, daughter of Dominick Benson and Maria Fahy of Corhawnagh Townland. This was totally unexpected and very exciting. I also found two unknown siblings in 1859 and 1862 and the youngest brother whose 1864 birth registration had led me to this parish register. Apparently, Bridget was 40 when she became a first-time mother in 1893. More Brickwall Solutions pages 150-51
Getting Genealogy Goose Bumps
Always check the published family histories located at most historical libraries. Once, while we were passing through Des Moines, my wife and I stopped at the Iowa State Historical Society to check some census returns. After I finished my assignments, I started browsing. With just 15 minutes to go before closing, I hit a goldmine. I saw a book called the Munson Record 1637-1887 A Genealogical and Biographical Account of Captain Thomas Munson (A Pioneer of Hartford and New Haven) and His Descendants by Myron A. Munson.
My wife’s second great-grandmother’s 1883 wedding invitation said "Mr. and Mrs. O.D. Munson invite you to the wedding of their daughter Nelle”. We were able to find Nelle’s marriage license at the courthouse and it said she was the daughter of Orson Deriel Munson and Sarahh Elizabeth Powell. Our quest had begun.
The Munson family book was indexed and I got goose bumps as I looked in the People Who Married a Munson index and found an S.E. Powell. Could it be our S.E. Powell? Quickly turning the pages as closing time approached, I found that it was indeed the Orson and Sarah Munson family of Omaha, NE and it listed their children including Nelle.
I quickly made notes of Orson’s ancestors and got back to Capt. Thomas Munson, an early settler in Connecticut. We made a Xerox of the title page and planned to return when we could make copies.
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