Jeremiah Denahy, son of Phillip Denahy - Dromtariff

The Catholic parish records for Dromtarriffe start in 1832, both for baptisms and marriages, and are available online at this link: https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0047

I looked in the 1832-1835 time period for Jeremiah's baptism, but did not find it. That doesn't mean that it isn't there, however, for two reasons: (i) some entries are faded and difficult to read, and (ii) in those days people often did not know exactly when they were born, so ages given in overseas records after they emigrated may just be estimates. You can download pages from the register at that site, and if you decide to look for him in 1836 or later, note that the entries follow this pattern (in that parish at that time):

In the left column, it will say something like: "Jeremia[h] [Denahy]", then to the right it will say: "[Idem] Bapt. Jeremiam Denahy F. [filium] Phillipi Denahy & Sarah O'Leary" ("[On the same day] I baptized Jeremiah Denahy, son of Phillip Denahy and Sarah O'Leary"). The parts which I've shown in brackets may or may not be there.  By the way, the "Phillipum" (objective) form of Phillip's name which you found would be used in his own baptismal record, just as "Jeremiam" would be used in the record for Jeremiah.

The mother's name will be followed by the name of the townland where the family lived, and the names of the two sponsors at the ceremony will be given in the right-hand column. As you may have learned already, some priests chose to create Latinate versions of given names, or to use Biblical names which seemed close. Thankfully, they did not attempt to alter the surnames, although different priests spelled them differently at times, because they didn't know (or care) how to write them in Irish. The Irish form of the surname Denahy/Dennehy is Ó Duineacha. It's a name which originated in Cork and is still found mostly there. Since that area would have been overwhelmingly Irish-speaking at the time, it is likely that Jeremiah was actually called Diarmuid (Dermot) by the family, and his parents may have been called Feidhlim (Phelim) and Sorcha (or Sadhbh). Some of those Latinate/Biblical names stuck eventually, and some didn't. The use of Dionysius for Donncha never took, but Denis as an alternative did make it into general use.

I was able to find the marriage record for Jeremiah Denahy and Ellen Driscoll, however (copy attached). They were actually married on July 10, 1852, not June 10. Whoever created the transcript you found wasn't paying close attention to the names of the months. The entry for them is the second one on the left-hand side of the attached image. It also lists the townland of Cloonbannin. That is probably where the Denahy's lived (i.e., where the couple were going to live), but I’m not certain. The townland is often not stated in marriage records, and when it is the townland for each person is sometimes given, so perhaps they were both from the same townland. The record also shows the witnesses at the marriage: John [Joannes] Denahy and Conor [Cor's = Cornelius] Driscoll, who would probably have been siblings or cousins of the groom and bride, respectively.

There are actually two townlands called Cloonbannin in the Catholic parish of Dromtarriffe: Cloonbannin West (in Irish, Cluain Báinín Thiar) and Cloonbannin East (in Irish, Cluain Báinín Thoir), which are located next to one another. It isn't clear from the marriage record which one was their home, and there may actually have been only one Cloonbannin at the time (names and boundaries sometimes changed). At this link, you can see a map and info for Cloonbannin West, with a link there to see the same info for the other townland: https://www.townlands.ie/cork/duhallow/cullen/skagh/cloonbannin-west/

Both townlands are located in the civil parish of Cullen. While the Catholic parish is called Dromtarriffe, it contains several civil parishes, which were essentially administrative districts by then. Within each civil parish there are a number of townlands, sometimes just a dozen or so, but sometimes many more. These are the smallest official districts, and are still used as addresses in many cases, since people in rural areas usually lack street addresses. The spelling of townland names sometimes changed over the years, so records for the same family may have different forms of the townland name. One common reason for variations in the Anglicized spelling of parish and townland names is that the officials writing them down often did not understand Irish, and in some cases had difficulty hearing correctly what was being said when the names were spoken by Irish speakers (the Irish language has a number of sounds which don’t exist in English, and are often misheard), or they based the anglicized form on the Irish spelling, without understanding how to pronounce the Irish letter combinations.

I was particularly interested in your query, because one of my great-grandmothers grew up in the Catholic parish of Dromtarriffe, in a different townland, but not far from Cloonbannin. I also noticed from my own genealogical notes that, in the 1841 baptismal record for one of my distant cousins, the sponsors were John Denehy and Catherine Denehy (maybe the same John Denehy mentioned above?), who would likely have been relatives or close friends.  If you've done dna testing and want to compare results, let me know. Also, in case you're interested, the name Dromtarriff[e] comes from the Irish Drom Tarbh, meaning "bull ridge", and may refer to an ancient pagan ceremony where a bull calf was sacrificed on May 6th near a holy well still located in the parish.

Hello Kevin,

That is absolutely fascinating!

Thank you so very much for taking the time to give me such wonderful information regarding my ancestors. I have always been so keen to learn about my family history, and am desperate to visit Ireland at some point soon. I know my Dad visited Cork a number of years back, and met up with a few Denahy's; but nothing too much has been recorded, and, sadly, my dear Dad passed away a few years ago. 
There is also an interesting link to the Beresfords, in Waterford, that I'm persuing. My Great Grandmother was Annie Beresford, and her father - John (apparently he made a bit money in the Gold Mining fields of Ballarat, Vic - my home town).

I am certainly happy to share my DNA study with you - what is the best way of going about that? I have only just got back on to the genealogy site after quite a few years, so the past couple of days I have been learning to navigate all the new 'bells & whistles'. I am happy to report though: I'm 89% Irish (at this stage, as I know they are updating the info all the time). 

again, thank you so much for taking the time to share your vast knowledge on this subject - I am so very appreciative. I have also passed it in to a number of my extended family, who were equally as impressed and excited. 

kindest regards

Angie 

Hello, Angie!  I'm glad the info was of interest.  If you want to check for a dna match, my results are posted at the FTDNA, Ancestry, and MyHeritage sites, as well as at the GEDMatch site.  At the first three, you can just check under my name (Kevin Jewell) in your list of matches, and at GEDMatch you can compare your kit number to mine, which is T780556.

I forgot to mention that, at the links which I gave for the townlands, you'll see further links to records for each townland from the 1901 and 1911 censuses, as well as Griffith’s Valuation (mid-1800’s), if they’re available.  Sometimes the links are not working for a given townland, which is probably due to either name changes having occurred or alternate spellings not being accommodated by the linked sources.  In the case of Cloonbannin (either one), the link to Griffith's Valuation isn't working.  That's the case for many townlands in Dromtarriffe, including the one where my great-grandmother's family lived.  However, the links to the 1901 census are working for both townlands.  I checked them out and there were still some Denehy and O'Driscoll families living there in1901, so Jeremiah and Ellen may indeed have been from the same townland.  My great-grandmother was a Cronin, and I noticed that there were also a number of Cronin's in Cloonbannin in 1901.  That won't necessarily mean that we'll have a measurable dna match, though, since O'Cronin is another surname which originated in that general area, and there were (and are) lots of Cronin's in that parish and nearby ones.  Also, Dromtarriffe is a pretty large parish, and I think the population was very large in the early 19th century.

By the way, you may also see the name spelled as Dromtarriff (without the "e") in some records.  The name of the Catholic parish has the "e", but there is also a civil parish (one of several within the Catholic parish) which uses the name without the "e".  Just to make things interesting, within the civil parish of Dromtarriff, there is also a townland with the same name.  Many rural parishes have names which go way back, sometimes to the pre-Christian era, and they often bear no connection to the name of the local parish church (which will not have been built until the 18th-19th century in most cases).  In Dromtarriffe, the local church is called St. John's, and it's located in the small village of Dromagh (which is also used sometimes an alternate name for the parish).

One more piece of info which I just discovered is that someone has entered a number of 1830's-1840's baptismal and marriage records for Denahy's from Dromtarriffe at the Family Search site [https://www.familysearch.org].  FamilySearch is operated by the LDS (Mormon) church.  It's free to use and is a huge database (possibly the biggest of all).  You have to create an account to use it, but they don’t ask for much personal info, and no missionaries will contact you or anything like that.  Most of the Denahy records I saw were just single records, not shown as being connected to other Denahy's, and it appears that someone has just gone through the parish register and created a record in each case at FamilySearch (Mormon volunteers do that a lot).  None of the records I saw seemed to connect with your family, but interestingly enough there is one for a Philip Denahy born in Dromtarriffe in1833.  He doesn't appear to be your Philip, though, because his wife is named Julia Murphy and they appear to have moved to Boston in the 1850's and had their children there.  However, in each person's record at FS, at the right hand side of  the screen, you can see the screen names of those who have created or modified the record, and can send them private messages, so you might be able to get more info and perhaps also locate some relatives that way.  Someone named Courtney Marshall appears to have created the records for that Philip and his family, so if you do go to FamilySearch, you can find that Philip's record under ID # 96XB-NJJ, and possibly contact Courtney there.  One possibility which occurred to me is that the Philip who went to Boston could have been a cousin of your Philip.  In rural areas, the first son was customarily named after his grandfather, so your Philip and that Philip might have shared a grandfather named Philip.

Hello again, Kevin,

Thank you, again, for all of this amazing info - I will have a very good look at the sights that you have suggested - the Mormon one sounds very interesting.

I did a little search for our DNA link, but alas, we are not related. 
 

The whole family history exploration, is such a joy - it's so wonderful connecting with my ancestors and learning so much about their lives. I'm, also, currently working on my partner's Scottish family (he was born in Edinburgh) - thankfully his Dad has compiled detailed information on his Grandparents, so it has been much easier to confirm the connections. 
 

I will let you know if I make any further progress with Mr. Phillip Denahy, but if not, I can hopefully make my way to Ireland, and that district, and explore a little more - I would absolutely love that! It looks like such a beautiful place to visit. 
 

kindest regards

Angie