Co Clare - seeking help with tracing the Hare family (later O'Hare and variations) emigrated to Australia late 1850s. Appear to have been free emigrants.

Mary,

A search for a marriage of John Hare and Margaret Meredith did not show any results.

There is a Police Constabe in South East County Clare named Thomas Meredith. He is recorded in 1851.

According to Dr. Edward MacLysaght - Surnames of Ireland - the name is in Ireland since the 16th century.

The difficulty with the name "Hare" - you have names - Hare (English) Hore (Anglo Norman) Hoare(Variant), Hehir, O'Hehir in County Clare, so which is the correct surname

for John Hare?

Regards,

Hi Mary,   
Margaret, Ann, Martin and Mary Ann what are their approximate ages?
This is to work out which site to look in  for information.
On the record of the marriage does it give the Church name or Register Office name?
I came across a marriage, have you got Chadwick in your family?
Thanks
Margot 
 

I checked on Glasby names, looks like they were from King's County, now called County Offaly.
The John Burns marriage does it give his fathers name?

Margot

Thank you so much McCoy and Margot.  Looks like 'Meredith' it is!!      The spelling of Hare/O'Hare varies.   It may have depended on what was seen as 'standard' at any one time.

The earliest documentation is Mary Ann's marriage at St Bede's Braidwood NSW.  The surname is listed as Hare.  Her brother Martin (and parents) Hare  and John Burns the brother in law.  She married in 1861 aged 23; she died in 1893 aged 62 so born c 1831, or, 1838 if marriage is correct.  The marriage register lists the parents' names (not the civil births deaths & marriages at this time) - both were deceased by 1861.  Her husband completed the registration for his son's birth in 1863 and listed her name as O'Hair. In the baptismal register for the son his sponsor was his uncle Martin - the name spelt O'Heir.  His other sponsor was Margaret Burns (misspelt  Bryns).   Her husband drowned in 1867 due to accidentally falling off his horse into the flooded Shoalhaven River.  In that year Mary Ann was granted probate of his estate and Martin Hare and John Burns were her 'supporters'. Her death certificate lists her age at marriage as 30 and time in the colony as 32 years so not long before she married.  '23' may have been a clerical error and '28' more likely.  Interestingly the undertaker and burial witness are M and John O'Heir respectively. 

Martin died in 1881 - I have a copy of his death certificate and this was completed by a friend with blanks for the parents' names though it does say his time in the colony was 23 years so that would mean he arrived from Ireland in about 1858.  I have not found any likely assisted emigration records for any of them.  He was supposedly 65 years which would mean he was born about 1816. (The age might have been a guess by the friend - no doubt as a farmer he looked older than he was - 42 seems rather old for a single man to have emigrated.) Never married.

I have found out some information about the sisters - more reliably Ann(e) Glasby - died in Sydney in 1895 aged 70 which would make her birth approx 1825.  Her husband, John Glasby, died at Braidwood in 1877.  Cemetery records list his parents as Patrick and Honor.  They had two daughters - Mary Anne (died Sydney 1946 aged 84 born c 1862) and Margrette (died Sydney 1952 aged 92 born c 1860) - I couldn't find any records for them in NSW BDM.         Margaret Burns is not an uncommon name - there are a couple of possibilities but I did find for certain that her husband, John, died in 1884 aged 63-64 which would make his birth c 1820.

It would be fantastic to be able to trace where in Clare they might have come from - I am hoping to travel to Ireland next year when things have settled down and this time would like to visit Clare.  My mother's father came from Kerry so that is the main district I have visited.

Very grateful for your assistance so far and the time you have given.

Hi Mary, Thanks for all the info.
Can you send plaes, the whole record of the marriage.

Patrick Glasby in the Tithe records. 1823
The Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-37 (nationalarchives.ie)
The map 
Thomastown Demesne Townland, Co. Offaly (townlands.ie)

John Hare
In Grfiffiths Valuation (record attached in a word doc.)  
These are all the Hare spellings in County Clare
Griffith's Valuation (askaboutireland.ie)
Looking at the John Hare this is the record see attached. word doc.

Map for 
Shantraud Townland, Co. Clare (townlands.ie)
Map for
Knockyclovaun Townland, Co. Clare (townlands.ie)

Both townlands overlap.

County Kerry records......  What is the family name and what year did they leave Kerry?

Thanks Margot