Great grandmother Bridget Sheehan

Good Afternoon and welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find information without a more specific place of origin. Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a specific location within Ireland, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.

Do you have any documentation pertaining to the family that mentions any place names at all? This can include wills, marriage/death records, census records, letters, diary entries etc. Have you tried searching Ancestry.com for any mention of your ancestor?s name in member family trees or messages? 

There are some places where you can search online for Bridget, however these websites do not have complete collections and many do not cover the period after 1900:

www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.

www.rootsireland.ie have a large collection of Irish Church records, however you have to pay to use this site.

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ have begun a project to upload Irish church records to their site free of charge. However, so far only Counties Dublin, Kerry, Carlow and parts of Cork have been covered.

Other important sources include the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith?s Valuation. Even though these sources only record the head of the household, the information is very important and can be valuable:

Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1837): http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/index.jsp

Griffith?s Valuation (1847-1864): http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

The National Archives of Ireland: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/  you can search the 1901/1911 Census on the National Archives page too, for instances of the family name at that time

Remember to post any new information that you find here. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Best of luck with your search

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support  

I really appreciate all the suggestions. I've already tried many of them but will try to check into all of them again.. There are many issues tracing this woman and her family. Her eldest living son, my grandfather, married a woman who was a Baptist. Bridget Sheehan was so outraged by this that she completely disowned her son. It even went so far as to his being excommunicated, at his church in Lynn, MA, and his soul was condemed to hell. Likewise, he never spoke of her either, to anyone. She died in 1912 when my mother was just a small child. After that the rest of the family reunited with my grandfather and it was the first time my mother knew she had grandparents. From what I gathered over the years, this silence about Bridget Sheehan continued. The only clue we have is her obit which says she was from Galway. When she came to this country she went to Hyde Park, MA to live. This town was just taking shape at that time and the founder of it was Irish. Many Irish families settled there, many Sheehans. Her only known sister was Catherine. I have yet to be able to find her on any immigration record, census, or death record anywhere in Massachusetts and I know she lived in Lynn, MA. My thinking is that this Sheehan family didn't come from Galway, but moved there and that is where Bridget grew up. Her father's name was Michael Sheehan and I have found that to be rather common, so it's a needle in a haystack thing. The hunt goes on!!!

Morning

It is strange that she hasn?t turned up in a search of baptism records in some parish or other. She may of course have been born in a parish at a time that predates the church records. Usually though, you could find some sort of record. So, either she wasn?t born in Galway or was born in Galway but perhaps predates the records. Alternatively our dates are off somewhat. Even given the latter and the fact that she may have been born in a different county entirely, the sites suggested would be able to pick up a record.

Ancestry.com is hosting ?webinars? on their site. The latest focuses on how to use Irish records when you do not know where your ancestor is from. This might be of some help to you. Let us know how you get on.

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support

Hi

I came across a Bridget Sheehan born 1853 in Carrabane. Her parents are Michael Sheehan and Catherine Cain. There is also a Catherine Sheehan born in 1849 in Carrabane to a Michael Sheehan and Winifred Cain. I would be surprised if there were 2 Michael Sheehan's married to 2 different Cain's in carrabane. I suspect that maybe Catherine Cain is the same person as Winifred Cain and there may have been a mistake or maybe Catherine Cain went by Winifred also. It might be worth looking into at least.

Regards

Ronan