Patrick J.Towey, born county Mayo 12-14-1878 UPDATE

Marriage of Patrick and Bessie is on FamilySearch, as a transcript (also an unindexed image), which gives names of their parents - could be vital in confirming the correct births.

Parents for the groom - Martin Towey and Kate Duffey, and for the bride Lawrence Cook and Hanah Regan.

Based on the details for Patrick's parents there's a good match for Patrick in the extracted civil births on FamilySearch with matching parents names, and date of birth as 9th December 1877 (ages/dates of birth are often inaccurate in secondary sources - e.g. US death certs, census returns etc). 

The full birth record on IrishGenealogy shows that Patrick's birth was registered is indexed as Castlebar registration district (*) early the following year, and that birth took place in 'Ardcul' townland in a sub-district which covered parts of counties Mayo & Roscommon, and that his father was a small farmer. 'Ardcul' is likely a reference to the townland of Ardkill, which is in Castlemore civil parish.

* I believe the IrishGenealogy website has the district indexed incorrectly - it should be 'Castlereagh' possibly written as Castlerea on the birth register. This fit's much better with the sub-district of Ballaghdereen, and description as 'Counties Mayo & Roscommon';

There is a corresponding baptismal record for Patrick Towey available at the NLI's online set of parish registers, which shows him as being baptized on 14 December 1877 (it was not unusual for people to be baptized days aftter their birth).  You can see the record here:  https://registers.nli.ie/pages/vtls000632294_037

The record shows Martin Towey and Cathernie Duffy as the parents, with Andy Duffy and Mary Duffy as the sponsors at Patrick's baptism.  Andy and Mary were probably siblings, cousins, or an aunt and/or uncle  of Catherine.  The baptismal records for the parish go back to 1851, and marriage records to 1831, so you may be able to find siblings of Patrick there, and probably a marriage record for his parents.  The main page for the parish records is here:  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0119

Given that people in the area were still marrying at a fairly young age back then, even after the famine, you may be able ot find baptismal records for Martin and Catherine themselves (and perhaps Andy and Mary), and thus learn the names of Patrick's grandparents.  Note that, if Catherine was from another parish, then the marriage would probaby have taken place there, but there is an interactive map at that site which will alow you to check out nearby parishes as well.

The baptismal record shows their townland as what appears to be "Ardcuil", and I agree that the current townland of Ardkill seems like a good bet.  At first glance, the second part of the name Ardkill would seem to come from the word cill ("church"), but I notice that the origin of the name Ardkill is uncertain (according to logainm.ie), so the second part may well come from cúl or cúil, which would make a spelling like Ardcuil back in the 1870's not unlikely (people in the area at the time would have been more familiar with the Irish form).  You can see more info about Ardkill here: https://www.townlands.ie/roscommon/frenchpark/castlemore/ballaghaderree…

At that site, there are also links to the 1901 and 1911 census records.  I glanced quickly at the 1901 records, and there were still Towey's living in Ardkill then.  Combining those records with baptismal records, you may be able to figure out which ones were relatives of Patrrick.

Tony:

The area around the town of Ballaghaderreen is where you find most Toweys including your Patrick. Ballaghaderreen is in Co. Roscommon but prior to 1898 was in Co. Mayo. There is a very active Towey Clan which meets every three years usually in Ballaghaderreen. Here is a link to their web site https://irishfamily.toweyclan.com/

Roger McDonnell

Such great information and links, thank you all so much

Can anyone steer me to where I can get a copy of Pat J. Towey birth certificate, needing it for citizenship application. Thanks to all!

Got it, Certificates.ie

https://www2.hse.ie/services/births-deaths-and-marriages/contact-a-civi…

Confirmed their place of birth with my Mom's birth certificate!