Riordan and Conway Families - Knockaderry Parish, Limerick.

Bo:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Catherine had at least seven siblings based on records I located on the subscription site Roots Ireland:  Martin 1847 Mary 1848 (died young?) Johanna 1852 Bridget 1855 John 1857 Mary 1859 James 1861

The parents were married in Rathkeale parish in 1846

Date of Marriage:21-Feb-1846
Parish / District:RATHKEALE
County:Co. Limerick
Husband  MartinConway
Wife  BridgetRiordan

I believe the family lived in the townland of Ballingowan in Grange civil parish. https://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/limerick/grange.htm

Let me know what questions you have.

Roger McDonnell

Roger, Thank you so much for this information.

I have a lot of questions, but I'll try to pace myself for your sake. 

1. When researching these individuals, have the records been updated to be modernized? For instance, am I wiser to be looking at Bridgeta Riordan or Bridget, or Joannis vs John?

2. Given that the bulk of my research is now in Ireland, would you recommend that I get a subscription to any service in particular? rootsireland or ? 

3. Is there a general registry of cemetery internments that may help me find where they were laid to rest? This, of course, may possibly be easier with a subscription mentioned above. 

4. Aside from Griffith's valuation - are there other sources that I should be looking into? Are there keepers of family history/genealogy or family books in the library for some surnames? The reason I ask is 1. It would be nice to be able to piece together multiple generations at a time and also, because I have two Conways (James and Catherine) both of whom have fathers named Martin (different wives thank goodness - One married Bridget Riordan and the  other Martin, father of James, married Catharine O'Donnell) and I believe they are both from the Limerick area. I don't want to accidentally assign the wrong Martin Conway to the wrong Conway family in the Griffith's valuation. I hope that makes sense. 

Thank you again for your help. I look forward to your advice. 

Best,

Bo

Bo:

Generally, the records were transcribed as is so if the register was in Latin, the transcription would be Latin but if English then the record would be English. There was is no standard rule but in general Latin usage started to be phased out by 1850. All civil records would be in English.

I don't know how many families you have to research but Roots Ireland is a very good source and you can get a short-term subscription of a month and see how worthwhile it is to you. Roots Ireland has some gaps for example all of the Co. Kerry church records and part of the Co. Cork church records are on the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie  Parishes for the Diocese of Cashel and Emly (mainly Tipperary) are not on Roots, there are no Co. Fermanagh records and records for Co. Clare and Co. Wexford are partial maybe 25% of the parishes in thos counties.

There is no central repository of cemetery records but there are web sites with cemetery data such as historicgraves.ie and findagrave.com  

You can try the main Co. Limerick library but there are likely no books for certain surnames. If your family (s) stayed in Ireland, the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie has images of civil birth records from 1864-1916, marriages from 1870-1941 and deaths from 1878-1966  There is also the 1901 and 1911 censuses.

Roger

Thank you, Roger. I apprecite the initial leads and the additional information. Much appreciated. 

Roger, 

As you are so familiar with the Limerick area, I was wondering if you may be able to tell me what this says? 

I found it on the NLI website. It was the marriage of Martin Conway and Bridget Riordan on the 21st February.

https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000635007?fbclid=IwAR2Qct52TCN1PvRxkH70vB6H5KWHStewTk-sQvA68hReys9HZQQNCzKz_es#page/141/mode/1up

I pulled out the segment in an attempt to enhance the black to make it a little more legible.

I believe it says Martin from Knockaderry which 100% lines up with what you uncovered, but while recorded in the Rathkeale registry, I don't think it says they were married in Rathkeale. I can not tell the name of the town they were married in, nor the town that she is from. Any ideas? 

Thank you. 

Bo:

I'm just seeing the February 9th comment. Marriages were held in the bride's parish which must have been Rathkeale. I can't decipher her townland.

Roger