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Trying to find where in Ireland my Great Great Grandparents came from

James Dowlan/Dowling with his wife Jane Dowlan/Dowling nee Murray together

with their 1 year old daughter Mary Dowlan/Dowling arrived into Fremantle, Western Australia in 1841 on the 15 October 1841 on the Ganges from Liverpool.

Have been searching for years and keep running into brick walls.  Any help would be very much appreciated

 

 

 

 

jan

Wednesday 27th Feb 2013, 02:56AM

Message Board Replies

  • Hello Jan,

    You should try joinging the irishfamilyhistoryfoundation which holds the parish records.  Try putting in Mary Dowling birth 1840 and gradually narrow it down.  Then put in father James and gradually refine your search.

     

    I found 3 Mary Dowlings.  2 in Co. Kilkenny and 1 in Co. Laois.

    This website is free to join and run names through and you only pay to view a particular record.  It costs €5 for each record but you can bulk buy these also.

    Hope this may be of help to you,

    Any questions? just ask.

    Kind regards,

    Anne K Dennehy

    Wednesday 27th Feb 2013, 07:52PM
  • Hi Anne

     

    Thank you for your reply,  I am a member of IFHF, sadly there does not appear to be a Mary, James and Jane

    all at the same time anywhere in the IFHF collection.  I have spent quite a sum trying to find these three

    relatives.

     

    Kind Regards

    Jan McGill

    jan

    Thursday 28th Feb 2013, 01:07AM
  • Hi Jan,

    You need to keep an open mind regarding names.  Many many people were called one name on a batpismal cert in honour of parents and grandparents, but lived with a totally different name altogether.  It's worth looking at the records with Mary and James names and see if you can substantiate the record in any other way.  Please bear in mind that these records were transcribed from latin and I believe sent overseas to be transcribed.  There can be misspelling and other problems with names.

    I have seen many old records and often they are almost illegible with water damage and mould damage.  So If I were you I'd certainly open these up and take a look.

    I hope you find them,

    Kind regards,

    Anne

    Thursday 28th Feb 2013, 02:52PM














  • http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie


    And rootsireland a pay to view site, but you can get a lot for free using this technique-


    In this example I was looking for a Minnie and Catherine Wiley sisters parents unknown.


    How I did it was to use the pay to view site


    http://rootsireland.ie/


    I did firstly a national search for Minnie which threw up a couple both in Antrim. I then switched to County Antrim.


    By playing about with the date range I was able to narrow down the baptism to a specific year. I still have not used the pay to view option yet nor used up any of my limited number of free previews. Once I had a Minnie I had to find her parents first names. I started with father first name a - this would bring up any firstnames starting with "a". Working through the alphabet got me to H when I got a hit adding further letters and worked out father was Hugh. Search then for Wiley children no firstname father Hugh within ten years of Minnie. Got 6 hits and using same technique was able to work out the 6 names - but no Catherine. Minnie is a common nickname so reverted to Catherine. Broad search found two which narrowed down to one in 1868 and one in 1872. Was able to work out 1868 was daughter of John and Mary. Broad search found no other children to this couple. 1872 Catherine was daughter of John and Jane and a broad search threw up 9 children. Plodding through the alphabet got me Alexander, Eliza, Catherine, Eleanor, Francis, John, James, Samuel, Wilhemina, which was more complicated since it is usually spelled WilheLmina.  Catherine I knew was 1872, and bit of playing about with date range got me 1881 for Wilhemina. Age gap fits the two sisters although the ages are well out - no surprises there!


    You can play about with the dates until you match up the other 7 children. You can refine it a bit more by choosing one child then working your way through the drop down menu of the various parishes until you get a hit. Then you can see if all the other children were also in the same parish. Bearing in mind couples did move about as well as changing churches. It is quite possible that these 9 children were born to more than one couple named John and Jane.  Getting one transcript should give mothers maiden name and doing a broad search for baptisms to John and Jane with new surname hopefully should confirm 9 children. However many older records do not list mother's maiden name. Using this technique you can gain a lot of data without using up your limited number of free searches or having to buy any transcripts.


    Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)


     

    Saturday 2nd Mar 2013, 02:00PM

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