Looking for my great grand father's information

Sean,

Quite a few trees on Ancestry list Thomas McGovern and family. They show Thomas as born in Edinburgh (Scotland) c 1870. Parents Patrick McGovern and Mary Dolan who are reported to have married around 1860 in Ireland. If that's correct then the sensible thing is to find Thomas’s Scottish birth certificate as it should record where and when his parents married. Those records are on the Scotlandspeople site.

The family appears in the 1871 Scottish census at 37 Kirk St, Calton, Glasgow.  Patrick 27 b Ireland, labourer, Mary 33 b Ireland, Ellen 4 born Edinburgh, Thomas 2 born Edinburgh, Patrick aged 5 hours, born Glasgow. That leads me to Thomas’s likely birth on 30th Oct 1868 in High St, Edinburgh.  Father Patrick was a railway labourer. Mother Mary Levy, widow, maiden surname Collins. (Not Dolan). The parents weren’t married, and the birth is marked as illegitimate. However the father was there to confirm paternity and so his name appears on the certificate.

You ask what specific parish Thomas was from. The answer is Canongate, Edinburgh. However I realise that’s not really what you were hoping for.

I searched Scottish records 1855 to 1875 for a marriage between Patrick & Mary but did not find one. Unless they married in the US it looks as though they never married.

Mary’s husband was Michael Levy/Levie whom she married in Girvan, Ayrshire in 1859. He was the father of Ellen (Helen) born 2nd June 1866 in Edinburgh. Michael died in Edinburgh in 1866 aged 46.

If you can find Patrick McGovern’s parents from his US death certificate, you might be able to trace his origins in Ireland. Otherwise it’s going to be a bit challenging.

This might be your gg-grandparents' marriage info (from RootsIreland). Perhaps Scottish records can confirm.

Good luck.

Date of Marriage:       12-Jan-1863                

Parish / District:         TEMPLEPORT                      

County:           Co. Cavan

Husband                      Wife

Name: Patrick            Magovern                   Mary   Dolan

Address:                                  Coracombra

Denomination:            Roman Catholic                      Roman Catholic                     

Witness 1                    Witness 2

Name: Francis            Magovern                   Ellen   Dolan

Address:                                 

Notes: