Edward O'Flaherty, County Kerry, Tralee

Tralee volunteer alerted about this message.

Attached Files

Hello Renaldo,

I’m not the Tralee volunteer mentioned by Ireland XO Volunteer Castlemore Roscommon, but found the baptisms for Edward O’Flaherty and three of his siblings, recorded in the Tralee Catholic Church records.

I first located transcriptions of the baptisms at the Find My Past (FMP) website. Links at FMP bring you to copies of the original hand-written baptism registers for the Tralee Catholic Church held by the National Library of Ireland in Kildare Street, Dublin.

First names in the baptisms are in the Latin form. For example, Edward is “Edvardus.” His father James’s first name in Latin is “Jacobi,” but Johanna is Johanna in the Latin and English.

The FMP transcription shows that Edward was baptized on 3 February 1854. His last name however is transcribed as “Oflaherly,” rather than Flaherty or O’Flaherty.

The FMP link to view the baptism transcription follows. Once you click on the link you’ll be asked to register with Find My Past before viewing the transcription. Registration is free as is viewing the transcription at: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRS%2FBAP%2F4183603

For quick access I’ve attached the Tralee Catholic Church baptism register page where Edward’s baptism is recorded. His is the 4th baptism down from the top of the page.

In the left margin you’ll see the number 3, undeath which is the name of the child “Edvardus Flaherty.” The person who recorded the baptism did not cross the letter t in the surname Flaherty, and that’s why the transcription spells the name “Flaherly.”

I’ve transcribed the baptism record retaining all the Latin:

“Ego J Moore Bap Edvardus f l Jacobi Flaherty & Johanna Keane Cath Tralio. Patritio Sullivan & Johanna Keane.”

In the baptism record the initials f l stand for “filium legitimum,” or “legitimate son/child of.”

The baptism record reads:

“I, J Moore, baptized Edward Flaherty, legitimate son of James Flaherty and Johanna Keane, Catholics of Tralee.” The godparents are “Patrick Sullivan and Johanna Keane.” It is coincidental that the godmother has the same name as Edward’s mother.

You can enlarge the attachment for better viewing of the baptism register.

Edward’s older brother is Michael. The FMP transcription shows that Michael Flaherty was baptized in the Tralee Catholic Church on 19 March 1852:
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRS%2FBAP%2F5632359

Attached to this reply is a copy of the original Tralee Catholic Church baptism register where Michael’s baptism was recorded. His baptism is the 3rd entry down from the top of the page, and shows his family were Catholics of Tralee and that his godparents were Edvardo (Edward) Keane and Margurita Keane.

The child baptized after Michael was Johanna Flaherty. Her baptism took place on 21 February 1856. See the FMP transcription at:
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRS%2FBAP%2F5632657

A copy of the original baptism record for Johanna is attached to this reply and is the 3rd entry down from the top of the register page. Her godparents are Jacabo (James) Keane and Mary Flaherty.

The last baptism record I found is for Jacobus (James) Flaherty. The FMP transcription shows he was baptized in the Tralee Catholic Church on 26 July 1858. His mother’s first name is transcribed as “Johanno.” See the transcription from the FMP website at:
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRS%2FBAP%2F7194286

By the time James was baptized in 1858, the Tralee Catholic baptism register format had changed. Baptisms were now recorded in columns spread across two pages.

Attached to this reply are two transcriptions for James. The first is for the left-hand page of the Tralee baptism register, the second is for the right-hand page of the Tralee baptism register.

On the left hand page is the baptism entry number, 1075, followed by the first and last names of the child, Jacobus Flaherty. The next two columns to the right are the day and month the child was born, 26 July, followed by the names of the child’s parents, Jacobus Flaherty and Johanna Keane. The last column on the left-hand page shows that the by the residence of the parents was Tralee.

The right-hand page of the baptism register gives the day and month of the baptism, 28 July. The day and month of the baptism are followed by the name of the priest who performed the baptism. Because the baptism register is faded, I could only make out that the first name of the priest who baptized Michael, was Thomas. I couldn’t tell with any certainty what Thomas’s last name was. To the right of the priest’s name are the names of the James’s godparents. They look like Jacobus (James) Moroney and Maria Savage.

The next thing I did was access the National Library of Ireland website to see what years the Tralee Catholic Parish registers of baptisms and marriages are available to download for free.

I found that baptisms begin on 1 January 1772 and are available until 4 June 1874, though there will be some gaps in the baptism registers.

I also found that marriages are extent from 14 February 1774 until 1 February 1876, though there will also be gaps of coverage in the marriage registers. See the National Library of Ireland link for the dates of the Tralee baptism and marriage registers, as well as a map of the Tralee Catholic Parish at: https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0680

Because Tralee marriage go back to the 18th century, I now wanted to see if I could find the FMP marriage transcription for James Flaherty and Johanna Keane.

Their oldest child in the Tralee baptism records is Michael. He was baptized on 19 March 1852, and so I looked for the FMP marriage transcription for James Flaherty and Johanna Keane for a five year period before 1852, beginning in the year 1847, but did not find the transcription. I then looked for earlier marriage years but also without results. If they married in the Tralee Catholic Church, their marriage may have taken place where there is a gap in the registers.

I also looked for the FMP marriage transcription in other County Kerry parishes and in other counties, but still did not find the marriage record.

The other possibility is that James and Johanna were married in a Catholic Parish church that does not have marriage registers back to their year of marriage.

I next wanted to see if there are individual FMP baptism transcriptions in the Tralee Catholic Parish for James/Jacobi Flaherty and Johanna Keane.

The earliest Tralee baptism for a Jacobus Flaherty took place in 1779. There are two for the 19th century but these are for the years 1858 and 1867. None of the three could be the James Flaherty who married Johanna Keane.

I only found one FMP Tralee baptism transcription that may refer to Johanna Keane. The transcription shows that a “Joanna Kean” was baptized on 8 June 1828. Her parents are Mauritii Kean and Ellena Kennelly.

The Latin name Mauritii would be the name Maurice.

See the baptism transcription at: https://www.findmypast.com/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRS%2FBAP%2F4271808

A copy of Joanna’s original Tralee baptism record is attached to this reply, and is the 3rd baptism entry down from the top of the page. Along with the names of her parents the baptism record also shows that the Kean family were living in Tralee at the time of the baptism and that the names of Joanna’s godparents were Dionysius (Denis/Dennis) O’Brien and Ellena Fitzgerald.

I now wanted to see if I could find more information about the Tralee Catholic Church, and so I went to the Tralee Catholic Parish website and found the name of the church is St. John’s, located in Lower Castle Street. The Parish Priest is Father Tadhg Fitzgerald. See: http://stjohns.ie.temp.lin k/our-parish/

The name Tadhg in Irish is pronounced “Tieg,” like tiger, but without the er.

I also uncovered more information about St. John’s Catholic Church in Tralee at the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage/Buildings of Ireland website, which explains the church was constructed in 1861. See a description of the architectural details and a slide presentation of the church at: https://tinyurl.com/efft4es5

Attached to this reply is a modern map of Tralee from the Buildings of Ireland website showing the location of St. John’s Church. The church is shaded in blue and is in the center of the map just to the left of the Convent Chapel, and below Lower and Upper Castle Streets. You can enlarge the map for a better view.

The Flaherty children were all baptized in Tralee prior to the construction of St. John’s in 1861, and so could not have been baptized in the present-day church building of St. John’s

To find out where the Catholic Church was located in Tralee prior to 1861, I went to the GeoHive website, where I accessed an Ordnance Survey Map of Tralee from the 1837 to 1842 time period. In the comparing the contemporary map of Tralee from the Buildings of Ireland website, with the Ordnance Survey Map from GeoHive, I found that St. John’s was constructed in the same location as the older R.C. Chapel. See the attachment of the Ordnance Survey Map of the R.C. Chapel in Tralee.

For a wide-angle view showing more of Tralee on the same Ordnance Survey Map, see the second attachment of the town. In this view of Tralee the R.C. Chapel is toward the lower right corner of the map.

Kind Regards,

Dave Boylan

SOURCES

Find My Past
National Library of Ireland
Saint John's Parish, Tralee: http://stjohns.ie.temp.lin k/our-parish/
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage/Buildings of Ireland
Buildings of Ireland Map of Tralee
GeoHive Ordnance Survey Maps

Many thanks Dave for answering Renaldo's query. If you see this message Renaldo it would be a great assistance to us if you could tell us where the Flaherty family settled in the US and who you have found there so far. This information may help us to make a closer connection with any family who remained in Tralee. Links to US Census & Death Certs would be particularly helpful.

Many thanks

Martine

You're welcome Martine.

Dave