William, Michael and Margaret Smith - late 1800's

Grenagh volunteer alerted

Hi Bill, 

It might be worth your while contacting Grenagh Parish office. Their contact information is here: https://cloynediocese.ie/parish-grenagh/ . Perhaps you might find some evidence of marriage or baptism certificates of interest. 

I would also recommend you contact Mallow Heritage Genealogy Society. They may have contacts in Grenagh or know local experts that might be able to help you. 

Good luck!

Dave 

Thank you very much Dave, I will pursue those leads to see what I can find!

Just in follow up, I have written to the local Parochial House, as suggested by Cloyne Diocese, but have yet to receive a response from the parish priest. It appears he does not use email!  

Also, Mallow Heritage Centre only referred me to the site rootsireland.ie - I don't want to waste my time there if I'm unsure of the county since it's a subscription site.  I need to confirm if my great-grandfather was from Grenagh or not - one of his records says Derry but I'm not sure that's right.

Bill:

I searched the subscription site Roots Ireland and there was no William Smith/Smyth  baptismal record in Grenagh with any parents name. So I don't think he was from that parish. Here is a link to the parish register which is the same source the local church would have to access https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0058  You can scan the register for the years you mentioned to see if you see a record that the Roots Ireland transcribers missed.   

Roger McDonnell 

Thank you very much for your time Roger to check for me. The link that you provided doesn't work, could you please try again?  There is a possibility he may be from Derry - information was passed down to relatives that he was from Grenagh. Unfortunately any other records we have just indicate "Ireland" as a birth place.

Bill

Bill:

One more try  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0058   If this link does not work go to registers.nli.ie  and enter Grenagh.

Roger

Thanks again Roger, will give it a try!

While I haven't gotten any further with looking for my great-grandfather William through parish records, I have found his mother Margaret Killegar (not Killochan - it was misspelled on his marriage certificate), who was christened 16 July 1845 in Youghal. Unfortunately I have no way of knowing when she married husband Michael or where he was from in Ireland. I would like to be able to trace William's steps back to Ireland from Scotland, where he was married in 1899, but I think I'll need to go there and spend a day at the registry house to try and find other leads.

Today's post about Smiths in County Cavan gives a good argument for where my Smiths may have originated, but too hard to say.

Any Smith or Killegar descendants, please feel free to reply :)