Doherty vs Dorothey?

The surname Doroth(e)y does exist in Ireland. It?s rare and mostly found just in Co Fermanagh. There are 29 in the 1901 census throughout all of Ireland, including 1 Sarah Dorothy. See:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Enniskillen_…

Thanks for the information.  My Sarah Ann was married in Western Australia in 1858.  She was 21 years old.  So I guess that puts her at being born abt 1837.

She did not return to Ireland as far as I know.  And died in 1894.

The only record I found was of a Sarah Doherty who arrived on a ship in 1856 to Western Australia.  So I thought this may be her.  But the shipping details say that she was from County Clare.

Any help is appreciated.

I think you need to decide which is the correct surname because it?s going to make a huge difference to your searching. If Sarah was reasonably literate and signed clearly as Dorothey, then that's first hand evidence of her name. I?d start searching that, not Doherty (which in any case will be a needle in a  haystack).

Hi Cathryn,

I tried a search of births/baptisms on www.rootsireland.ie for Sara Dorothey and got no results.

I tried for Docherty and got 7 matches for births 1837 = - 1 year.

I tried Doroty and also got 7 matches - the same ones so given literacy and inaccuracies perhaps the names were used interchangeably.

There are no Clare records on rootsireland and it's a pay site. I am not able to attach the records as the file is too big but can type them out if you like. The best match was Sara Anne Dougherty 1836 Derry.

Col Cafferky

Hi col Cafferky

I would really appreciate your help.  thank you so much.

Her name is definitely Sarah Ann Dorothey/Dougherty/Dockity/Doherty/Dorothy/Docherty.

As her marriage certificate states she was 21 years old, she is either born in 1836/1837/1838.

Talk about a needle in a hay stack.  She is my 'needle' in my genealogy.  Do any of the records have the parents names?  She has put her father as James, again I cant find any reference for a james arriving in Western Australia either. 

thank again.

Thanks for the clarification.  I agree.  concentrate on the name on the marriage certificate. 

hyvfam

The problem is that there were no statutory birth records in Ireland before 1864. Prior to that you are dependant on church records. Unfortunately not every parish has records that go back to the 1830s, and Rootsireland hasn?t got them all on-line anyway. So when you search there, you can?t be sure you have covered all the options.

I looked to see what they have for Fermanagh (see attached link) and found a list of parishes that actually relate to the adjacent county of Tyrone. So they appear to have incorrect information on their website.

http://fermanagh.rootsireland.ie/generic.php?filename=sources.tpl&selectedMenu=sources

Here?s another link that shows you the RC parishes in Fermanagh (there are 20) together with the start dates of their records, and where copies are kept. You?ll see that many have nothing before the 1850s.

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/fermanaghrc.htm

In spite of not finding any Dorothys in Rootsireland, the name does exist. If you have a look on familysearch, you?ll see at least 100 of them, mostly in Co Fermanagh (thus matching the census).

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

I wonder whether rootsireland have any Fermanagh records at all. Possibly they don?t or at least they may be incomplete. You might want to e-mail them and check. (You could point out that their website doesn?t actually list any Fermanagh parishes and if nothing else, that needs correcting).

I come back to my earlier point which is that if Sarah was literate and signed Dorothey in her own hand, then I?d investigate that before moving to Dogherty etc. The name Dogherty (and variants) is very very common in Ireland. In the 1911 census there were 18,000 listed, including 411 Sarah Doghertys. If that was her surname ? and I am not yet convinced it was - you?ll need some other information about her to try and narrow the search. (Col has told you about 7 Sarah Docherty matches. You have to widen that to include Doherty which is the most common spelling in Ireland. Searching rootsireland on that, b 1837 +/- 5 years, you?ll get another 20 Sarahs.). I?d stick to Dorothey first.

You need to consider the possibility that you may not be able to trace her simply because the relevant records from her parish don?t exist. Alternatively they may exist but are not on-line. You could search through the RC records for Fermanagh and any adjacent parishes that appear in the 1901 census. Since not all have records for the 1830s, that?ll speed things up. (You may need to get someone to go through the records in PRONI, Belfast or in the National Library, Dublin, for you).

Finally re Sarah?s age when she married. People often lied about their ages. If she was under 21, she would probably have needed parental consent to marry. Tricky, if her parents were in Ireland. So she might have just said she was 21, when in fact she was younger. That was very common practice, especially in times when few people had any proof of their birth.  Unless anyone in the congregation objected, the priest usually just accepted your word that you were 21. So don?t rely on her age being totally accurate.

Hi Catherine,

I searched rootsireland again with father James added and the only match was Sarah Doherty baptised 1838 in Derry.

You might want to check with the Clare experts on this site. If no luck you could google Clare Family History as they hold lots of records.

Cheers

Col