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I am looking for John Fitzpatrick and Catherine Kehoe.I believe they were married in about 1836. They immigrated to America about 1843 with 2 children that were born in Ireland, Sarah and Thomas. They were in Augusta Maine, US in 1845, and had a daughter there. Then I find them in the 1850 US census living in Watertown, Jefferson county,  Wisconsin, with a neighbor being Thomas Fitzpatrick and his wife, Mary. Then in the 1860 census I find them in Milford, Jefferson county, Wisconsin, and Thomas and Mary as neighbors. This leads me to wonder if they are related.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Saturday 23rd Mar 2013, 03:19AM

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    Hello Chris,

    One way to try and find out if they are related would be to find church records of their respective  marriages, these could give you the grooms fathers names and also their residences at the time of marriage. Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is - http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ‘browse’ an overview of available records per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possible assistance.

    If you do succeed in finding a possible townland/ parish you could try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp  or the later Griffith's Valuation (1848-64) http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/    

    The Tithe Applotment List might be of use to you, or at least interesting for you. These lists constitute the only nationwide survey for the period, and are valuable because the heaviest burden of the tithes to the Established Church, the Church of Ireland, fell on the poorest, for whom few other records survive. The information in the Tithes is quite basic, typically consisting of townland name, landholder's name, area of land and tithes payable. Many Books also record the landlord's name and an assessment of the economic productivity of the land. The tax payable was based on the average price of wheat and oats over the seven years up to 1823, and was levied at a different rate depending on the quality of land. For Parishes where the registers do not begin until after 1850, this information can be useful, as they are often the only surviving early records. They can provide valuable circumstantial evidence, especially where a holding passed from father to son in the period between the Tithe survey and Griffith's Valuation.

    Best regards Michael.

    Thursday 18th Apr 2013, 11:49AM

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