Searching for the Carey Family

Hello Theresa,

Birth, Marriage and death records only started in Ireland in 1864, however there are baptismal and marriage church records going back to about the early 1800.  Each parish started recording at different times.  The protestant records seem to go back to late 1700 but roman catholic records were later.  

If I could give you any advice on the start of your journey it would be to keep an open mind.  People who emigrated were generally  uneducated and often didn't know precise information about themselves.  Most records on landing in foreigh parts were phonetically recorded by ships masters and immigration officials.  Many people couldn't spell their names or the places from which they came.  So keep an open mind at all times.  Start broad and gradually refine your search.

You could start by logging on to irishfamilyhistoryfoundation.  This website holds many of the church records.  Its free to join and trawl through, and you only pay for a particular record when you want to view it.

I looked for an Elizabeth Carey in Offaly for the year 1852 but couldn't find her.  However if you type in E Carey with a date range of plus or minus 2 years you will find an Eliza and some others.  I tried to narrow it down to Birr but couldn't find her.  However I have found through researching my own family that people usually gave the nearest largest town as an address and its worth looking at the surrounding little parishes for your ancestor.

If you go onto the irishtimes website they have a whole section on getting started and list all parishes and townslands.  Ireland is made up of hundreds of parishes and townlands but look at the ones for around Birr.

I think it would be worth opening the records nearest your dates and see what parishes are involved.  Bear in mind that these are transcriptions from local parish registers and usually only contain the childs name , parents name, godparents names and sometimes an address(though not always) and sometimes a fathers profession (though rare).

The fees involved are quite reasonable and vastly cheaper than Ancestry (who don't have all parish records)

I hope this may start you on your detective journey.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask and I'll help if I can.

Kind regards,

Anne Dennehy

Thank you Anne for these wonderful suggestions. I hope I can make the connections. I'd love to travel to Birr and see where my ancestors came from--maybe soon!

Thank you Anne for these wonderful suggestions. I hope I can make the connections. I'd love to travel to Birr and see where my ancestors came from--maybe soon!

Hi Theresa,Another resource that I've found that's been very useful in researching my ancestors in Birr is rootsireland.ie  You do pay to use it, however, you don't pay a membership fee, just for the information you want to access.  I did do a quick search and a church baptism record for an Elizabeth Carey in Co. Offaly from 1855 came up (would have had to pay to see the exact information.)  If she was in fact from Birr, and Catholic then she most likely would have been baptized at St. Brendan's Roman Catholic Church.  Also, remember that birthdates are somewhat fluid.  It was not as important for them to remember the exact date and often times decided upon a year depending upon how they looked!  (If the looked old they tended to add a few years and shave a few years if they looked young.) Also, the tradition was to name children for grandparents - first born son was named for the paternal grandfather; first born daughter for the paternal grandmother; second born son for the maternal grandmother and second born daughter for the maternal grandmother - so Elizabeth's second born son may have been named for her father.  (Of course exceptions are when both grandfathers or grandmothers have the same name.)  However, this practice  gives a possible clue in your search.  Also, many children were given names of deceased siblings if they were born after their sib had died. I did visit Birr a couple of years ago and stayed with cousins there.  It was wonderful to be in the town of my ancestors.  Hopefully you will get the chance to visit as well. Good luck in your search,Eileen