John McKiernan b1832

Maura:

The transcribed record in your message does not show the names of the parents of John McKiernan only shows the sponsors names unless I'm reading the transcription of the record incorrectly. I went to the NLI site https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0820 and there is a gap in records from February 1830-December 1838.

The Roots Ireland subscription site appears to have the same gap. Likely the book(s) in questions for the gap period (1830-1838) in question were lost sometime after 1857.

The 1857 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Carrigallen civil parish has 69 Keirnan/Kiernan records so we can't easily determine if the father of John was listed.

Does the 1858 marriage record show his fathers name?

Roger McDonnell

Scottish marriage certificates normally show both parents names, occupations and whether they were still alive or not. (Look for "dcd" after their name, if deceased).

What looks to be the marriage you need is in the Scotlandspeople records as John McKarnie & Elizabeth Halley. 1858 GROS reference 472/9, Balfron, Stirlingshire.

You can view that certificate on-line on the Scotlandspeople site for about £2.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/search-our-records

Thanks so much for your response. Yes I missed some details, but your reply at least confirms what I have.

The marriage certificate of John McKiernan for 1858 in Balfron, Scotland shows his name as John McKarnie and his parents as John McKarnie and Mary Keenan both deceased. So far I have not been able to find this couple.  The other detail I missed off is that  both John and his father are recorded as Masons, a trade that was carried on by descendents. [I'm not sure a Mason in those days is what we would consider today and may be was something like a bricklayer??].

Any other ideas gratefully received, thanks.

Maura

Maura,

The RC parish records for Carrigallen parish only start in 1829 and are noted as having “many gaps.”  Suspect that if you haven’t been able to find their marriage, it’s because it was either pre 1829 or in one of the gaps.

Death registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864. Given that both John & Mary were dead by 1858, there won’t be a death record for either of them, unless they have a gravestone.

I searched for McKiernans in Carrigallen in Griffiths Valuation in 1857 but without success. Tracing anything about them may be fairly challenging.

This is what Wikipedia says about stonemasons: “Masonry is the craft of shaping rough pieces of rock into accurate geometrical shapes, at times simple, but some of considerable complexity, and then arranging the resulting stones, often together with mortar, to form structures.”

Thanks for trying. Another brick in the wall eh?

I will continue to search however, as new records come online continually.

Maura.