Martin McNamara and Ellen Foley had four children recorded in the surviving baptismal registers (dating back to 1836) of Kilkee Catholic parish (which was split in 1855 into Doonbeg parish and a smaller Kilkee parish):
Bridget (27 Aug 1837), Mary (Dec 1840), John (May 1842) and Honor (Mar 1844).
The original registers have not been microfilmed and you would need to consult them in the parish office in Kilkee to see in what part of the parish this family lived.
The original Kilkee Catholic parish comprised the civil parishes of Kilfearagh and Killard.
The period between the last record of the family in Ireland and the first record of the family in Canada coincides with the height of the Great Famine, so it would be worth checking for a Martin McNamara (or variant spelling) in the relevant enclosures at
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/kr_evictions/kr_evictio...
A Google search for the exact spelling does not find him.
I have once or twice come across "Tulla" written where I expected to find "Tullaher", one of the townlands in Killard civil parish.
I am not surprised to see St. Patrick's Day chosen as a birthdate by an Irishman anywhere in the world, but it is interesting to see the USA's Independence Day chosen by an immigrant to Canada who was baptised on 27 August and undoubtedly born within a few days of that!
The various books on the earlier settlers of what is now Ontario written or published by D. W. McCuaig and/or his wife Carol Bennett and/or their company Juniper Books Ltd. may have helpful information, for example "Founding Families of Admaston, Horton & Renfew Village" and "Valley Irish".
They frequently quote Millie Gravelle (daughter of Margaret O'Gorman) and Father Joseph Gravelle, who may have been her brother. Millie compiled a genealogy of the O'Gorman family in 1945. Father Joseph was a "well known priest and genealogist of the Upper Ottawa Valley", who in 1967 wrote an article for D. W. McCuaig of the Renfrew Advance, "in which he described the family of Daniel O'Gorman and his wife, Mary Foley of County Clare".
For example, in Valley Irish by Carol Bennett and D. W. McCuaig (Juniper Books, Renfrew, 1983, ISBN 0-919137-07-5) on page 77, the late Fr. Joseph Gravelle is quoted as writing that "John O'Gorman ... was married twice. His second wife had the same name as his mother, Mary Foley, and his sister-in-law, Ellen Foley, married Martin McNamara. In this branch, we find Father Martin McNamara, formerly of Barry's Bay; Father Kevin McNamara, OMI, Ottawa; Father Clarence McHugh of Sault Ste. Marie; Father Vincent McHugh of Elliot Lake and their brother, Father Joseph McHugh of Killarney, Ont."
There are various Gorman references in the catalogue at
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000180.pdf
which may mention their Foley and McNamara relatives, including this one:
"The O'Gorman Family of County Clare, Ireland", [Edited by Allan O'Gorman of Victoria, British Columbia] (Dublin: 1966). Contains Canadian descendants of Daniel O'Gorman (b. 1740) of Tarman, County Clare, Ireland, whose sons John O'Gorman (1765-1851) and Thomas O'Gorman (1786-1879) came to Canada in 1835 and 1840 respectively and settled in Renfrew County, Ontario.
A few people with Foley ancestors from West Clare have uploaded their DNA data to www.GEDmatch.com and there are 16 instances of Foley ancestry in the Clare Roots project at
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/clare-roots-society/about/background
Do you have a GEDmatch kit number?
Best wishes
Paddy Waldron
Volunteer parish administrator
Moyarta, co. Clare
Ireland Reaching Out
