John Callaghan b 1826 Co Cavan

Trish,

Though the baptism and marriage records for Lurgan RC parish are complete for both Owen/John?s baptism and his subsequent marriage, not all adjacent parishes have complete records. For example, Castlerahan has no baptisms between 1820 and 1828, nor any marriages between 1841 and 1855. (The records have presumably been lost). So this may account for your inability to trace these events.

It was generally tradition to marry in the bride?s church. You say Brigid and Owen/John were married in Lurgan c 1849/1850. The Lurgan records are on-line on the rootsireland site (subscription). I can?t see a marriage in Lurgan in 1849/1850 that fits that information on that site.

Sorry I can?t come up with any more positive leads.

Elwyn

Elwyn

Thanks for your comments.  I will start searching Fintawin, Co Cavan for John and Brigid's marriage.  Do you know of any sites that will help me with this?

Did I misunderstand or are you saying Lurgan RC Parish do have baptisms and marriage records for the period I am looking for?  I do use the rootsireland site but have never had much luck.  Most of my records are RC which seem to make searching from this end of the world difficult.

I appreciate your help

Trish

Trish,

According to this site, Lurgan RC have records for 1755 ? 1899 (Baptisms), 1755 ? 1920 (marriages) and there are also some burials 1821 ? 1855. (It?s unusual for RC churches to keep burial records so that?s a bonus).

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/

If you go to the rootsireland site, you can check to see what they have got, county by county. (They don?t have every possible set of church records by any means). Click on county genealogy centre Cavan. Then click on the words ?sources list.? That then brings up a list of what they have, parish by parish, denomination by denomination. For Lurgan RC they show 1755 ? 1899 for baptisms & marriages as well as the burials I mentioned earlier.

Now having viewed many original RC records, I can tell you that often pages are illegible, sometimes a page is missing, they are often in Latin and there are frequent transcription errors on the rootsireland site. So for these reasons you don?t always find something even though you are pretty sure it ought to be there. It?s always worth looking at the originals if you can in case it has been overlooked or mistranscribed. Or even if the records for a particular year are missing or illegible you then have an idea why you can?t find it.

There?s a copy of Lurgan RC records in the National Library in Dublin. LDS have also copied them and you can order that in to your nearest LDS library (for a small fee). However if you can?t use either of those options then the good news is that the RC records for this parish, and most other parishes in Ireland, are going to be put on-line this summer, so you?ll have a chance to look at them yourself, free, later this year. They won?t be indexed or transcribed but you will at least be able to search them yourself, page by page. (On the National Library site).

In Latin, John should be Ioannes or Joannes and Brigid may just be Brigid or Brigida.

Fintawan townland is in Lurgan RC parish, so those records are on-line. Don't expect too much from the marriage if you find it. RC marriages at that time generally only contain the date, the couples names and their 2 witnesses. No ages, parents names, occupations, etc.

Regarding the prefix O, as in O?Callaghan, it (and the prefix Mc) are viewed as detachable in Ireland and not always used. Sometimes you?ll find the prefix used and sometimes not, according to the whim of the official recording the information. So try both options to be safe, when searching the records.

Elwyn

Hello Elwyn

Thank you for your indepth reply.  You have given me a number of leads and I am particularly excited about RC records being digitised for NLI.  I shall watch out for these new records when they come online. 

Your comments are a huge help and I am grateful for yourself and all volunteers who do an amazing job.

Cheers

Trish