I have been working with Jim O'Dea of Pennsylvania on how we may be related. This is very good news, as I have no known McNamara in my tree yet.
FYI, I just today ran across this from the wonderful County Clare Library. It is a record of who attended a special meeting held in 1837 to address the famine in Clare - a full eight years before the Irish famine officially began. It includes a Mr. McNamara and a James O'Dea. It also includes several McMahons - my great granfather Daniel Joseph Melican b.1864 married a Bridget McMahan in Buffalo, NY.
Link: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/poverty/kildysart.htm
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Title: Poverty Before the Famine, County Clare 1835
Clare County Library
Parish Kildysart. Barony Clonderalaw.
Examinations taken by
P.F. Johnstone, Esq.
E.B. Molloy, Esq.
Persons who attended the Examination.
JAMES BOURKE, baker. M. CAHILL, a small farmer, with about nine acres. JOHN CARRIG, labourer. ANTHONY CURRY, process-server. Rev. MICHAEL DYNON, roman-catholic curate of Kildysart. The Rev. MICHAEL FITZGERALD, protestant rector of Kildysart. Dr. GEARY, dispensary physician. TIMOTHY GORMAN, a small farmer, with about 12 acres. DENNIS HURLY, shopkeeper. JOHN KINNAHAN, labourer. PATRICK M’CABE, weaver. MARK M’MAHON, grocer in the village of Kildysart. Mr. M’NAMARA, postmaster, and extensive farmer. PATRICK M’MAHON, farmer, steward to Bindon Scott, esq. MICHAEL MYERS, a small publican and labourer. MICHAEL O’BRIEN,* labourer. JAMES O’DEA, broker in the village.
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