elizabeth byrne of co carlow

Hello Steve,

I first went looking for Elizabeth Mc Donnell and found her baptismal record on www.irishgenealogy.ie.  She was baptised on 21st March 1875, born 16th March 1875 in Rthmines in Dublin.  Father Patrick Mc Donnell, mother Elizabeth Byrne.  This record is free to view on this website.

I then went looking for Elizabeth Byrne.  I couldn't find her on this website (which deals with Co. Carlow) however I went to www.rootsireland.ie and found her there.

Baptism of Elizabeth Byrne, father Edward Byrne, mother Bridget McCabe, in 1849 in Co. Wicklow.

You would have to register with this site(free) but it will cost approx €5 to view and print this record. 

It is possible that she was born in Co. Wicklow but grew up in Carlow?

I think it's important to realise that most people who emigrated were illiterate and undocumented.  They didn't know how to spell their names and hadn't a clue as to what age they were.  At the port of arrival their names were recorded phonetically, their ages were only guessed, and this is the information that followed them for the rest of their lives.

The proof of this occured in 1909 when the old age pension was introduced into ireland.  People had to prove their ages and were forced to go through baptismal records to establish when they were born.  That is why there is such HUGE discrepancies between ages in the 1901 census and the 1911 census of Ireland.  Dates were found to be out by many many years in some cases.

Hope this all helps,

Kind regards,

Anne Dennehy

Hello Steve,

I just went back to www.rootsireland.ie and searched for the marriage record of Edward Byrne and Bridget Mccabe.   I found their marriage record in 1842 in Co. Wicklow.  When investigating further I found that it took place in Hackettstown.  this village is right on the border of Carlow and Wicklow.   It is officially listed as Co. Carlow but the parish in which it was in extended into Co Wicklow.  Civil parishes and church parishes are two separate entities.  So Elizabeth was born in Co. Carlow but the church records fall into wicklow parish.  This is frequently the case in all villages and towns that sit on the borders of each other.

You will need to view this record and hopefully it may contain some other information tht will help you on your search.  Although the further back you go the less detail you tend to find in records.

Kind regards,

Anne

Steve,

While I was at it, I searched for all children born to Edward Byrne and Bridget McCabe

Byrne   Edward      1844

Byrne   Mary          1846

Byrne   Elizabeth    1849

Byrne   Henry         1851

Byrne   Catherine    1853

Byrne   Thomas       1860

All these were born in Co. Wicklow (parish) and can be found at www.rootsireland.ie.  just put in the parents names and leave the firstname blank.  It will give you all the children born to this couple.  this can only be done on the homepage (not the county page)

Anne