I am interested in finding information on the Wholey family. My great grandfather was Timothy Wholey. He was born in Ireland in 1853 to Patrick and Bridget (nee Shannahan) Wholey. Tim arrived in the U.S. in 1870. Five years later he was joined by his brother Daniel (b. 1858). Several years later they were joined by their sister Mary (nee Wholey) Dwyer who arrived in Boston 11 May, 1891 aboard the Pavonia with her eight children: Nellie (8/1875), Dennis (9/1876- 1926?), John (9/1878), Maggie (7/1880), Mary L. (6/1881), Katherine (7/1884), Timothy (7/1884), Bridget (6/1886). I assume she was widowed because there is no record of her husband, Daniel Dwyer coming to the U.S.
I was looking at the Irish Genealogy Website http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html and came across the baptismal record for Tim's younger brother Daniel. I knew from earlier research that Daniel was born in 1858 and that his parents were Patrick Wholey and Bridget Shannahan. On 31 August, 1858, Aughadown Parish, Cork, recorded the baptism of Daniel Wholey of Kilkillleen, whose parents were listed as Patrick Wholey and Bridget Shannnahan.
As I continued to search the data base for records for Patrick Wholey and Bridget Shannahan, I discovered a baptismal record for Mary Howly dated 14 May, 1848. Her parents are listed as Patt Howly and Bridget Shanahan. Although the spelling of the surname is different, I suspect Howly is an accepted spelling of the name Wholey. I assume that this is my great grandfather’s sister since the dates of the baptism matched the date I have for Mary’s birth and the parents names were also a match.
Eventually, I came across the baptism of Tade Howly which was recorded on 12 June, 1853, the same year as my great grandfather’s birth. The parents are Patt and Biddy (Nickname for Bridget?) Shanahan so I assume that this must be my great grandfather.
After more searching, I found the marriage recorded of a Patrick Wholey and Bridget Shanghne recorded 11 February, 1834 as well as baptismal records for possible additional siblings of my great grandfather: James (4 January 1835), Michael (1 January 1842) and Abby (29 June 1856).
Is it possible to determine when my great- great grandparents, Patrick and Bridget died and where they are buried? I would also like to know if my great grandfather may have any relatives still living in the area. Any information that anyone could add would be greatly appreciated.
pwholey
Sunday 24th Mar 2013, 05:32PMMessage Board Replies
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Hi,
Thank you for your message.
You have really done some great research on the Irish Genealogy Site!
Have you checked the 1901 and 1911 census records to see if you can find record of either Patrick or Bridget? If you can find them, at least you will know that they were still alive at that time. You can search these here:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/
Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864, so if they died after this date there should be a record of them in civil records. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:
http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You can search the indexes to these records online at:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
For more information on these records and how to obtain them go to: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-civil-registration.html
Using the Irish Times website, which shows what Catholic records are available in specific parishes, it seems that there are no burial records available for the parish. This would explain why you have been unable to find them on the Irish Genealogy site:
I also found this website that has a database of of West Cork graveyards, including Aughadown. You can search this here:
http://www.graveyards.skibbheritage.com/
Some other websites that you may find useful are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/cork/index.html
Cork Gen: http://www.corkgen.org/publicgenealogy/cork/
Failte Romhat: www.failteromhat.com (this has lots of useful links tht yo umay find helpful)
I hope that some of these are helpful. Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support