Seeking ancestors of Michael Hemsworth (b. 1819 Loughrea) and Mary Lawless (b. 1827 Loughrea). I believe his father was Michael Hemsworth the cooper with a shop on Bride's St. according to Slater's Directory. Some family lore says his father was Thomas Hemsworth and that Mary has a connection to the Cloncurry line and Lord Valentine Kildare. They emigrated to the US via Canada around 1850. Other members of the family went to Richmond VA with the Wade and Cullen families from Loughrea.
Monday 18th Feb 2013, 07:27PM
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I found a Michael Hemsworth bapt. 1811 in Loughrea RC. Father Michael mother Mary. 4 children in total to a couple of these names Michael, John, Mary and Sabina. The technique I used is below:-
In this example I was looking for a Minnie and Catherine Wiley sisters parents unknown.
How I did it was to use the pay to view site
I did firstly a national search for Minnie which threw up a couple both in Antrim. I then switched to County Antrim.
By playing about with the date range I was able to narrow down the baptism to a specific year. I still have not used the pay to view option yet nor used up any of my limited number of free previews. Once I had a Minnie I had to find her parents first names. I started with father first name a - this would bring up any firstnames starting with "a". Working through the alphabet got me to H when I got a hit adding further letters and worked out father was Hugh. Search then for Wiley children no firstname father Hugh within ten years of Minnie. Got 6 hits and using same technique was able to work out the 6 names - but no Catherine. Minnie is a common nickname so reverted to Catherine. Broad search found two which narrowed down to one in 1868 and one in 1872. Was able to work out 1868 was daughter of John and Mary. Broad search found no other children to this couple. 1872 Catherine was daughter of John and Jane and a broad search threw up 9 children. Plodding through the alphabet got me Alexander, Eliza, Catherine, Eleanor, Francis, John, James, Samuel, Wilhemina, which was more complicated since it is usually spelled WilheLmina. Catherine I knew was 1872, and bit of playing about with date range got me 1881 for Wilhemina. Age gap fits the two sisters although the ages are well out - no surprises there!
You can play about with the dates until you match up the other 7 children. You can refine it a bit more by choosing one child then working your way through the drop down menu of the various parishes until you get a hit. Then you can see if all the other children were also in the same parish. Bearing in mind couples did move about as well as changing churches. It is quite possible that these 9 children were born to more than one couple named John and Jane. Getting one transcript should give mothers maiden name and doing a broad search for baptisms to John and Jane with new surname hopefully should confirm 9 children. However many older records do not list mother's maiden name. Using this technique you can gain a lot of data without using up your limited number of free searches or having to buy any transcripts.
Bob Graham (County Fermanagh XO)
Monday 18th Feb 2013, 08:10PM