Thomas and Mary Tracy - looking for information

Dawn:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I located a transcription of the civil record of the 1871 marriage you mentioned which is below. ( As an aside, the church marriage record shows Tracy).The age of the bride and groom is shown and the names of their fathers are provided.The groom would have been born around 1841 and the bride 1849 which is different than the 1850 and 1855 in your note which I presume you determined from the 1880 census report.

If Thomas and Mary were from Athenry, baptismal records for that parish are not available because the parish records start in 1858. Below is a link to the parish register. I also provided a link to the 1855 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Athenry parish which shows one Tracey and a few Currans.

Date of Marriage:09-Feb-1871
Parish / District:ATHENRY
County:Co. Galway
Husband ThomasTressy Address Newcastle
Wife MaryCurranAddress:Tysoxan
Occupation:FARMER Age 30
FARMERS DAUGHTERAge:22
Husband's Father MartinTressy
Wife's Father JohnCurran

http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0103

http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/galway/athenry.htm

As I further worked on your family, I think I found information that will conclusively determine if the 1871 marriage in Athenry was for your ancestors. Did the 1880 census report show any children? The Athenry couple had an Anne in 1872 and a Martin in 1873 and here is the kicker, they had a Mary in 1879. If these names don't match up then we can eliminate the Athenry marriage.

There are no other Thomas Tracy/Tracey marriages to a Mary in the civil marriage index records (at least that I can locate). Does the form show years married or the year 1871?

Have you considered autosomal DNA testing?

Let me know what questions you have.

Roger McDonnell

Name:Mary TraceyDate of Birth:

Date of Baptism:31-Aug-1879Address:NewcastleParish/District:ATHENRYGender:FemaleCountyCo. Galway
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:Thomas TraceyMother:Mary CurranOccupation:
Sponsor 1 /
Informant 1:Thomas Curran Sponsor 2 /
Informant 2:Anne Tracy 
 

Hi Roger,

Thank you so much for your response.  I really appreciate the research that you did.

In answer to your questions:

1)  I found the Catholic Parish register (see attached file).  I thought I found the marriage certificate.  The parish register is where I got the name "Curran".  As you guessed, the bride and groom that you found were much older than my relatives.

2)  I got the marriage year of 1871 from their 1900 US Census Report.  They wrote that they had been married for 29 years, but they didn't list an actual date.  After reading your response, I looked at their 1910 US census report.  To my surprise, they wrote that they had been married for only 21 years.  The number was written twice; once for Thomas and the other for Mary. Either one or both of these numbers are wrong.

3)  Mary wrote on her 1900 census report that she had six children and five were surviving.  A six month old boy by the name of Thomas appeared on their 1880 US census report and they wrote that he was born in Pennsylvania.  Thomas died shortly after that.  Their other five children were all born in the US.  The names of the Irish-born children that you found definetly don't match.  So, we can throw out the Altenry marriage.

4)  I had my DNA tested through Ancestry.com a few months ago.  I'm not sure what Autosomal DNA testing is.  Would it be helpful to get you the results of my DNA test?

Again, thank you so much for your help.  How should I go about finding Thomas and Mary's actual year of marriage?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Dawn Harvey

Dawn:

I don't know that we can be sure that the couple married in Ireland particularly since they did not have any children before Thomas left in 1873. It was not unusual for a father to emigrate and then send money back to bring the wife and children over but if they had no children then likely a husband and wife would come over together.

I just saw the 1920 census which indicated they both emigrated to the States in 1873 presumably together. Too bad they did not die in Pennsylvania because Ancestry has all the Pennsylvania death records online for 1906-1964. I would keep searching for the death record for clues on their parents names.

Your Ancestry DNA test is an autosomal DNA test which checks your paternal and maternal DNA lines. I assume you have looked at your closer matches to see if there are any Tracy matches. I find Ancestry DNA frustrating because so many people either do not have a tree posted or if they have a tree they keep it private.

Roger

Hi Roger,

Thank you so much for your response.

I don't think Thomas and Mary were wed in the United States, but I could search for marriage records. Maybe they were married in England?  

You make an excellent point about the couple traveling seperately to the United States.  The 1920 census lists different information than the prior census reports.  Maybe I should be focusing on the 1920 census as the correct information.

I agree with you about Ancestry DNA matches.  Many people do not have a tree or it is set to private, which I don't understand. I found a Tracy DNA match at the distant cousin level (5th to 8th).  She has a George Tracy in her tree born in Ireland in 1820.  I just sent this person a message.

The other five or six matches that I found list Tracys born in Connecticut, US in the 1600 and 1700s.  Maybe one of Thomas' great grandparents came to the US much earlier.  None of these matches list any Tracys born in Ireland.

Thank you so much for your help!  I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Dawn

Dawn:

You may want to look into Gedmatch www.gedmatch.com  Gedmatch is a volunteer run site which allows you to upload your raw DNA data from Ancestry and see if you match someone who tested with another company e.g. Family Tree DNA (and also loaded their data to Gedmatch. 

I have tested with Ancestry and Family Tree and my data is also on Gedmatch.

Roger

Hi Roger,

Thank you for the suggestion.  I will get started on GEDmatch.

Regards,

Dawn

Hi Roger,

I obtained a burial list for my Tracey/Tracy relatives.  It turns out that Thomas' parents, Thomas and Catherine, traveled to the US along with Thomas' younger siblings, Bridget, and Bernard.  I am hoping that this information could lead to birth records for the family. I would like to know where in Ireland the family came from.  Any information that you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

Here are their birth and death dates:

Thomas Tracey born abt 1826 in Ireland and died on September 20, 1894 in Philadelphia at 68 years old.

Catherine Tracey born abt 1836 in Ireland and died on October 11 1899 in Philadelphia at 63 years old.

Thomas Tracy/Tracey born abt 1854 in Ireland and died in April of 1927 in Camden, NJ at 73 years old.

Bridge Tracey born abt 1855 in Ireland and died on April 28, 1889 in Philadelphia at 34 years old.

Bernard Tracey born abt 1857 in Ireland and lived in Philadelphia, PA at least until 1906.  He is not buried with the family.

Thank you so much for your help!

Regards,

Dawn Harvey

Dawn:

No luck. I searched for the baptismal records for Bridget and Bernard on Roots Ireland and Find My Past and got no record so they were from a parish that no longer has records back to the 1850s.

One of our active volunteers, Shane Wilson, has a site that shows where surnames were found in the mid-19th century based on Griffiths data  http://www.swilson.info/sdist.php   Looks like the top county was Tipperary followed by Galway and Limerick.

Keep plugging away. Eventually you will get a breakthru.

Roger

Thank you, Roger!

Regards,

Dawn

There are new developments in my search for Thomas Tracy/Tracey.  It turns out that Bridget was not Thomas' sister, but his first wife.  Thomas was born around 1854 and his parents were Thomas (b. about 1826 Ireland) and Catharine (b. about 1836 Ireland).  Thomas had a brother named Bernard (b. about 1857 Ireland).  Is there a marriage record for a Thomas Tracy/Tracey and Bridget (maiden name unknown)?  I am trying to find Bridget's maiden name and I am hoping that the marriage record will lead me to this information.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Dawn:

I found two possible marriage records which are below but how do you determine if either of these records relate to your ancestors? Check your DNA matches for any Fadden or Neale matches?

Roger

Date of Marriage:15-Mar-1868
Parish / District:Burriscarra RC parish
County:Co. Mayo
Husband  ThomasTracy Address Tawnyagry
Wife BridgetFaden
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Roman CatholicOccupation:

Date of Marriage:24-Nov-1867
Parish / District:Abbeyside
County:Co. Waterford
Husband:ThomasTracy
Wife BrigidNeale
 

Awesome!  Thank you for this information.

I have four DNA matches for Fadden and 25 DNA matches for Neale.  I guess I have some research to do.  This is very helpful.  Again, thank you!

Regards,

Dawn

Hello!  It turns out that Bernard Tracey was born sometime around 1848 in Ireland.  Could you check records for a birth around this time with parents named Thomas and Catharine Tracey?  Bernard's brother and my second great grandfather, Thomas Tracey, was born sometime around 1854.  I do not know of any other siblings.  Any information that you could provide would be greatly appreciated!  Regards, Dawn.

Hi Dawn!

I searched Roots Ireland for all of Ireland and did not find a baptismal record for Bernard. If the family was from Athenry, the records for that parish do not start until sometime in 1858.

Roger

Hi Roger!  Thank you for checking.  I located cousins of my ancestor.  Could you check for the following people?  If I can locate these people, then I can locate Thomas Tracy's parish.  His relative, Henry Tracey, was born sometime between 1830-1833 in Ireland to Matthew Tracey (born sometime around 1789 in Ireland) and Ann Carr (born around 1795 in Ireland).  Henry married a woman by the name of Elizabeth and they had a son named Matthew Tracey born sometime around 1855 in Ireland.  Henry's other silbings include:  Catherine born sometime around 1831, Ellen, Mary born sometime around 1841 and Patrick born sometime around 1843.  I am not confident of Ellen's birth year because she lied about her age on US records.  Another cousin of Thomas', Joseph Treacy (spelling variation), was born on August 10, 1842 in Ireland.  A descendent of Joseph's family wrote that he was born in County Mayo, but I don't have any physcial records confirming this statement. I appreciate your help!  Regards, Dawn.

Dawn:

I was unable to find a record for Henry's baptisma but I did find his marriage record to Elizabeth Hoey and baptismal records for five children starting with Matthew. The other children were Patrick 1857 John 1859 Mary 1861 Henry 1863 The last four children were baptized in St. Mary's parish in Meath which is part of Drogheda. Roots Ireland did not have a baptismal record in Mayo from 1837-1847 for a Joseph Treacey + variants.

Roger

Name:Mathew TracyDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:15-Oct-1854Address:
Parish/District:DROGHEDAGender:UnknownCountyCo. Louth
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:Henry TracyMother:Bessy HoeyOccupation:
Sponsor 1 /
Informant 1:Patk Tracy Sponsor 2 /
Informant 2:Ellen Russell 

Date of Marriage:15-Nov-1853
Parish / District:DROGHEDA
County:Co. Louth
Husband   HenryTracy
Wife  ElisabethHoey

Roger:  You rock!  Thank you so much for finding this information!  Have a great evening!  Regards, Dawn.

Hello,

I was wondering if you could check parrish records in Navan, County Meath for the following:

1)  Thomas Tracy born about 1853 to Thomas Tracy/Tracey and Catherine.

2) Bernard Tracy born about 1848 (give or take a few years) to Thomas and Catherine Tracy/Tracey.

3) A marriage record for Thomas and Catherine Tracy/Tracey dated 1845-1852.

Any information that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.  

Regards,

Dawn Harvey

Hi Dawn!

I searched in the Navan records and did not find any records for the Tracys in your message.

Roger

Thank you!