James Kearns birthplace and parents

 Finding your James Kearns/Cairns amongst all the other Kearns/Cairns is not going to be easy without some extra corroboration such as location and/or siblings. Do you have anything to help identify him?

Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately not. I have an relative, Bill Kearns from Townsend Montana, who has been looking since the 1990's and he has found nothing concrete about siblings or what parish he was from. I realize I may be at a dead end since we have found no sources for this information.  I thought I might get lucky and find information from his ancestors remaining in Ireland. I am visiting Ireland in a few weeks. Is there a genealogy or historical center I can visit in County Fermanagh?

Sheryl

As yet there is no centre in Fermanagh, but there are plans afoot.  Depending upon what you want to do I may be able to make suggestions. I can say from experience that you would probably learn more at the PRONI in Belfast that you will in Fermanagh.

Searching my Graham roots threw up thousands of them in Fermanagh and like yourself the problem was to identify one single individual from all the others of the same name. I wish I could offer something positive but unless you have a 100% accurate date of birth the chances of identifying him are slim to none. I saw the tree on Ancestry and the d/o/b came from USA census records. Some individuals did know their own d/o/b but most simply guessed and probably kept the guess as their d/o/b in USA. When asked by an official when were you born, no one would want to look stupid, so they would almost certainly make up a date.

I thought US death certificates included parents names. Did he leave a will?

From the names I am guessing that Tierney would be RC. My experiences have been with Protestant Church records so I can't advise much on them. I do have contacts who may do.

It did take over 30 years to locate my family in Fermanagh, but what I found did not take me back any further. I have been up many a blind alley in my time so I can hopefully save you some wasted effort. The tendency is to go the location your family came from, as I did, rather than go where the records are - Belfast or Dublin. Church records from the time you want if they still exist are in the PRONI either as originals or on microfilm. Local Fermanagh Churches may have more recent records, and many have transcripts of the originals, but as always transcripts are prone to errors.

You could have a look at the Fermanagh Gold website as a lot of records have been donated and stored there. You need to be a member of the Fermanagh Gold mailing list but that is simply a matter of subscribing. It is one of the best mailing lists with a very active and knowledgeable membership, some of whom live local.

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/NIR/FERMANAGH-GOLD.html
 

I did find one Kearns USA connection.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar/WillsSearchImage.aspx?id=227051

Bob Graham(County Fermanagh XO)

Bob,

I did not find a death certificate using ancestry.com. I do have a copy of his will, no mention of parents. 

I've looked up the online resources at the National Archives of Ireland. Planning on a stop there while in Dublin. I found 6 James Kearns in the Valuation of Tenements in County Fermanagh. But the way I understand it is these surveys were taken over several years period so there is no way of knowing what exact year they lived there. I'm not sure how to proceed with this information.

I will check out the Fermanagh Gold website.I wasn't successful in using the PRONI search.

What did you mean by "one Kearns USA connection?"

The priests that my relative have talked to have pretty much said the church records are not complete for that period.

Sheryl

Sorry the last link did not work. It may be a time thing.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar/WillsSearchImage.aspx?id=227051

If you still have problems go to main site

http://www.proni.gov.uk/

Right hand side menu  select Will Calendars

Search surname - Kearns,  First name - Daniel,  Full Abstract - Fermanagh

In the absence of Church Records you have to resort to Tithe Records, Griffiths, Wills and land deeds/leases. Most of these need a location to be of any great use.

Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)