Caraher Family

Hi Brian,

Thank you for your message.

Given Patrick?s year of birth you should be able to find his birth record in civil records (civil registration began officially in Ireland in 1864).  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 up to 1958 online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

You could also look in Church records in Kilsaran parish for information. Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Kilsaran parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Louth&parish=Kilsaran&churchid=224

Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42

Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.

In order to see if the family were in the area earlier in the 19th century you could check the land records. There are two:

The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

To see if the family were there at the end of the 19th start of the 20th centrury you could check the census records of 1901 and 1911. These can offer lots of useful information. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Some other websites that you may find helpful 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/louth/index.html

Ireland Genealogy Projects: http://www.igp-web.com/louth/index.html

Familysearch: www.familysearch.org

Irish Newspaper Archives: http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

I hope some of this is 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