Searching for birth and early residence in Co. Clare of Catherine E. O'Brien, mid-19th century.

MaggyMae:

I have a lead for you. I searched the subscription site Roots Ireland in Co. Clare (full disclosure Roots Ireland does not have all the Co. Clare RC parishes) and found one Catherine O'Brien baptismal record in Parteen RC parish. The date was September 21 1846. The parents were William O'Brien and Catherine Maher. No other records for siblings were located.

Have you tried to locate a death record for Catherine or an obituary which might provide her mother's maiden name?

When did her parents return to Ireland and do you know when they died? The 1901 census and the civil death records on the free site  www.irishgenealogy.ie   would be helpful.

Roger McDonnell

Thanks for your message, Roger.  I wish that I knew more.  1846 seems rather early for Catherine's birth but still possible.  My mother reported that after Catherine's husband died, she had always lied about her age as she was older than he by five years.  US Fed Census information shows a wide variety of dates. Her mother-in-law, my grandmother, destroyed all the documents that Catherine may have kept, figuring that no one else would be interested in these docs.  I have not found a death certificate for Catherine. My mother, who was an adult at the time, reported that Catherine died April 3, 1940, at Worcester City Hospital, Worcester, Massachusetts.  I would be surprised to find her mother's maiden name on a death certificate as my grandfather, who supplied the information, did not know Catherine's father's correct name. I learned his correct name from her marriage record.  But, there was no maiden name for her mother on the marriage record.  Catherine's sister, Nellie, probably was close in age. She married a man who's surname was Durkin.  They both learned English while taking care of other people's children.  I guess that they would have been nannies.  My grandfather, David Edward Roche, was Catherine's and John's only child.