Brian,

Attached is your grandfather's civil birth record...last entry. I found his sister, Ellen Coughlan born 24 Aug 1888 to Thomas Coughlan & Maria Kennedy in Kilteely & Dromkeen on the paid site Roots Ireland. For some reason, I could not find her entry in the civil records on irishgenealogy.ie. I could not locate their marriage record.

Regards,

Brian,

Normal practice in the RIC was not to post an officer to a county where he or his wife had close connections (ie family). Consequently it’s probably fairly safe to assume that neither Thomas nor Maria were natives of Co. Limerick.

If you can find his RIC file (some of those records are on Ancestry) it should tell you which county he was a native of. It may also tell you where and when he married. In theory you needed to have served 7 years before you could get permission to marry but that rule was not always obeyed.

Brian,

Could this be your family-

Residents of a house 11 in Higginstown (Clara, Kilkenny)

Regards- Mary

Brian,

 Per RootsIreland (paid subscription), Thomas Caughlin, widower/ policeman married Elizabeth Tynan in 1891 in Kilkenny. Thomas was born in Kerry and his father's name was Denis/ Daniel. His mother's was Mary Barrett, address Listowel, Kerry. 

Mary Kennedy Caughlin died in 1888 in Kiltelly, Hospital, Limerick.

Regards- Mary

Brian,

Just to add Mary was 38 when she died in 1888.

Per RootsIreland

There were a Thomas Coghlan and Mary Kennedy married in Ennis, Clare in 1875. They had 5 children before Thomas James was born- Johanna born in Clare in 1877, Daniel born in Bruff, Limerick 1879 (father constabulary), John Francis born in Bruff in 1881 (constabulary), Patrick born in Murroe & Boher, Limerick 1884, and Mary born in Murroe & Boher 1885.

Regards- Mary

I looked on Roots Ireland and also the free site irishgenealogy.ie for a Thomas Coughlin baptismal record with father Denis in Co. Kerry. The only one that came up was a Thomas Coughlen November 3 1842 in Ballybunion. The mother was Mary Mulvihill. 1842 does not match up with the ages Thomas showed in 1901 and 1911. I would not expect that an RIC pensioner would  show an age 7-8 years younger on census forms. Maybe he was baptized in a parish that does not have record back to around 1850.

Roger McDonnell

Maria Kennedy Coughlin's death record here:
 

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

She died of puerperal fever.

Pursuant to the previous message...

Ellen Coughlin was born in August 1888, a few days before her mother, Maria Coughlan, died.

Wow!  Thank you all for all this great information - you've given me a few leads to track down. So far I found my great grandfather's service record which is amazing.