CAROLANS - EASKEY PARISH, SLIGO

You mention not being able to find any baptisms or marriage records for Daniel or Ann. The explanation is probably that the records don’t exist. The RC parish of Easkey only has records from 1864 onwards. Your family left many years before that and so sadly I don’t think you will get any information about their baptism etc.

The tithe applotment records were essentially compiled for taxes on land.  Farmers and any other landholder should be in them but the average labourer or servant, other person without a significant quantity of land would not be listed. So Daniel's absence from the tithe records doesn't mean he wasn't there, just that he may have been a labourer. Or he might have been lodging with his parents or someone else, and so wasn't listed for that reason.

The only Carolins in Easky in the 1833 tithes were Phelim & William in “Bowkane.” They were farming in partnership with 2 others. I’d expect them to be related, brothers perhaps?

Bowkane appears to be an alternative version of Bookaun. By the time of Griffiths Valuation in 1857 it was split into 2 adjacent townlands, Bookaun (Browne) and Bookaun (Tottenham). There were no Carolin/Carolan households there then. So either Phelim & William had died or moved away. Their partners in the tithes (Fenton & Morrow) don’t appear either. There were no Carolan properties anywhere in the parish in 1857, according to Griffiths.

No Rogans in either the tithes or Griffiths Valuation for Easky.

You located a Phelim Carolan in the town of Ardnaree in Griffiths. That’s some distance from Easky. Farmers didn’t often move unless they had to, so I would wonder if it’s the same man who lived in Easky. (There’s no easy way of determining sometimes). I looked for a death certificate for Phelim from Ardnaree but did not find one, so he may have died before 1864 when death registration started.

Thanks very much Elwyn for searching your records for the Carolan family.

Thank you for explaining the RC Church records are not available before 1864.

I will have to hope for some new information to come my way through my DNA Matches.

Diane Gilhula

I have also found a Bartly Carolan Carollin with an estimated birthdate of 1810 based on the birthdate of his son Anthony (1835).

I have the marriage record 1830 for Bartly, and the birth record for Anthony in 1835.  These are Catholic records.

How is this possible if records were not kept till 1864.  That was the case in Easky as you said.

Is there a list/website for when Catholic records were available in all parishes?

Bartly Carolan was living about 15 miles away in BALLINA, County Mayo at the time of his son's birth.

Is that distance too far to be a possible brother?

I wonder if he could be a brother of my 4X Great Grandfather DANIEL CAROLAN  (b. abt 1799) of Easky.

Daniel died prematurely in his early forties according to oral history. He perhaps died in an accident. It also could be due to an epidemic. What do you know about those for County Sligo?

Did you check the 1851 Census for Phelim Carolan, and William Carolan?

Thank you for all your help.

Diane Gilhula

Diane,

This site tells you what RC records exist, parish by parish, in Co. Sligo.

https://www.johngrenham.com/browse/counties/rcmaps/sligorc.php#maps/

There are adjacent parishes with earlier records but you said your family came from Easkey. If that is accurate then there are no baptism or marriage records before 1864. Statutory death registration started in 1864 and so you might find a death record for someone born there before 1864 but you won’t find a birth or marriage record before that year.

The record for Bartly in Ballina is in a different parish (Kilmoremoy) whose records start in 1823. Your information was that your family came from Easkey.  Not Kilmoremoy. So why do you think this might be your family?

If Daniel died in the 1840s then that’s before the start of statutory death registration (1864). The RC church doesn’t generally keep burial records so unless a death got a mention in the newspapers then it’s unlikely to be recorded anywhere.

You mention searching the 1851 census. It was destroyed in the 1922 fire in Dublin during the civil war. Some fragments exist (mostly from pension application information) but it’s not possible to do a comprehensive check of the 1851 census (or any other pre 1901 census).