Michael Reynolds and Isabella O'Farrell of Mohill 1853

Hi there,

There are Roman Catholic church records (Baptismal and marriage) available fro Mohill dating from 1836. These can be accessed via the Church of Latter Day Saints, ref. no. 1279224 item 1-3. Or the National Library of Ireland, Pos. 4239. Failing all of that, you could try writing to the parish priest of the area.

You could try looking in Griffith's Valuation (www.askaboutireland.com) or in the other land record called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38). You have an idea of where he is from, so it could be worth looking into.

School records for this period worth checking include:

• Personnel records for The Society for Promoting the education of the Poor of Ireland (the Kildare Place Society). It trained thousands of personnel from 1811. Records date from 1814 to 1854. These are held at the Church of Ireland College of Education (www.cice.ie)
• Appendix 22 of the Irish Education Enquiry, 1826, 2nd Report (4 vols) lists parochial schools in 1824, including names of teachers and other details. It is indexed in Schoolmasters and schoolmistresses in Ireland, 1826-1827 (1982), by Dorothy Rines Dingfelder (NLI - National Library of Ireland - Ir.372 d38).
• Principal source for teacher is the series of Teachers Salary Books from 1834 to 1855 held by the National Archives of Ireland.
• Corcoran, T.S., Some lists of Catholic lay teachers and their illegal schools in the later Penal times, Dublin (1932)

Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.

Kind regards,

Sinead Cooney

Genealogist (Ireland XO)

Hi Sinead,

Thanks for your response with lots of helpful information. I decided to hire a genealogist to help me search further, and luckinly I found one (who happens to be teacher) who was able to look at  the teachers salary books.  He was successful in finding Michael Reynolds, and also detemined that his wife Isabella was a National Teacher too!  This genealogist was able to locate an entry in the civil records for the death of Isabella O'Farrell's mother (Elizabeth) in 1875,  This is a long wind up to my question!  I believe I read someplace that there is a ongoing project to document all of the tombstones in Ireland, and was wondering if you know anything about that.  If I can locate where she is buried, then there may be other relatives buried near by.  Can't wait until Leitrim becomes more active in Ireland Reaching Out.  Thanks agian for your help and advice.

Kind regards,

Lori Parkinson

Hi Lori,

There are a number of websites which take graveyard details. This is one: http://www.irishgraveyards.ie/index.html and another: http://www.interment.net/ireland/index.htm

There are also lists on the heritage pages of some of the county council websites. So worth looking into this too.

I believe that another member of the parish of Leitrim has school rolls. Take another look at the parish profile page for more information. Perhaps it is the same school you are interested in!

Kind regards,

Sinead Cooney

Genealogist (Ireland XO)

Thank you very much!  Your suggestions are very helpful....
Kind regards,
Lori Parkinson