McNamara in Corofin Co Clare.

Hi Clara,

Thank you very much for your message. I hope that someone with information on these McNamara?s contacts you and helps you with your research before  Margaret?s son;?s visit. In the meantime, here are some links and resources that may help:

Church Records:

It may be an idea to look at the church records pertaining to the family to see if any more information can be found in them.A useful website when it comes to Catholic records is the Irish Times as it gives an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For Rath/Corofin Catholic parish follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Clare&parish=Rath&churchid=799

As you can see, records there start as early as 1819 and the heritage centre in Corofin have copies available. Most Catholic records are still held locally so it may be an idea to contact the local parish priest for possible assistance also. I suggest that he rings beforehand though to arrange an appointment as opposed to simply dropping in.Here is a link to the contacts page of Corofin parish:

http://www.killaloediocese.ie/parish/corofin/contact.html

Civil Records:

Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 so any births, deaths or marriages in the family after this date would be recorded in these records. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records up to 1958 online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

Land Records:

You could also try looking for record of the family in the land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century. If you can find them in these it will help narrow down the townland in which they lived. There are two:

The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Census Records:

The census records of 1901/1911 can offer lots of useful information. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

I also suggest that when he is in CLare he definitely calls to the Local Studies Centre at Clare County Library. They have an excellent county resources collection and may be able to give some advise as to what records are available to you.Here is a link to their webpage:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/library/local-studies/locstudi1.htm

You can also look at what family history resources are available before the trip:http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/genealog.htm

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

Family Search: www.familysearch.org

Genealogy links:http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/clare/index.html

From Ireland:http://www.from-ireland.net/county-clare-genealogy/

I hope that some of this is helpful and that some new information crops up before his visit.Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

All the best,

Genealogy Support