O'melia

Hi there,

The name 'O'Melia' is indeed an unusual name. The name in Griffith's Valuation (1848-64) is rare, but is found in Dublin. The other variants of the name: 'Mealia' is quite numerous in County Mayo, and 'Melia' is numerous in counties Galway, Donegal and the north midlands.

You could try looking for Martin O'Melia in Griffith's Valuation (www.askaboutireland.com) or in the other land record called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38). You have an idea of where he is from, so it could be worth looking into.

School records for this period worth checking include:

• Personnel records for The Society for Promoting the education of the Poor of Ireland (the Kildare Place Society). It trained thousands of personnel from 1811. Records date from 1814 to 1854. These are held at the Church of Ireland College of Education (www.cice.ie)
• Appendix 22 of the Irish Education Enquiry, 1826, 2nd Report (4 vols) lists parochial schools in 1824, including names of teachers and other details. It is indexed in Schoolmasters and schoolmistresses in Ireland, 1826-1827 (1982), by Dorothy Rines Dingfelder (NLI - National Library of Ireland - Ir.372 d38).
• Principal source for teacher is the series of Teachers Salary Books from 1834 to 1855 held by the National Archives of Ireland.
• Corcoran, T.S., Some lists of Catholic lay teachers and their illegal schools in the later Penal times, Dublin (1932)

You could also post your message on the profile page for County Mayo here: http://www.irelandxo.com/group/county-mayo

Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.

Kind regards,

Sinead Cooney

Genealogist (Ireland XO)

Hi Sinead thanks for your helpful , quick reply . I am going by what a very distant relative is saying and she is in her senior years . The information I posted is not recorded in census records to my knowledge . The mormons of Latter day saints help with genealogy and they said I will never find him because of the time frame . Records were not kept until 1864 . Prior to that they were possibly destroyed?

The name O'melia is a very ancient Irish name stems from the O'malley, O'mailey, O;maoileoin .Irish :Anglicizied form of Gaelic ''O'MALLEY'''

Research says This family O'melia are the descendant of the County Mayo sept of O'maille who were famed for their maritime exploits on the Atlantic Coast . They were considered to be expect  seaman . The name Malia is a variant 

Another person mentioned before the name is common in Galway County ,Townland /Parish Calla [Callow]  Ballindoon 1880-1900 . Can you look into this for me ??

Thanks so much 

panda

Hi Panda,

Records are kept from 1864 by the General Register Office (GRO). Records (such as census records) do exist prior to this, but only for pockets of the country. Depending on the religion and the type of record you are looking for, there are lots of records available. so don't depair!

You should post your last message on the parish profile page for Ballindoon here:http://www.irelandxo.com/group/ballindoon-galway

Kind regards,

Sinead

Hello Sinead ,,

Thanks for the encouragement , it really helps! The latter day saints on the website say that Catholic records were not destroyed and like you were saying some can be searched.. I search on their site and they have very helpful information , explaining what Civil Parsihes are and Barony and Townlands . They recommend when searching Irish names sometimes variants other names were used . The O'melia are Roman Catholic or Catholic   

Thanks again