BALFE: Patrick and CRONEN: Eliza

Hi Michelle,

Welocome to the challenging world of Irish genealogy!

I looked on ancestry.com at the public member trees in the hope that someone may have done all the work but no luck - you have gone back further than they have.

A site you may want to try is rootsireland.ie. On that site I searched for Walter born 1842 + - 3 years in Roscommon but got no matches. I then tried for the marriage of Patrick & Eliza but no luck there either.

I searched for Walter without parents' names entered and with no year specified and got a Walter Balfe born 1835 in Roscommon. I went through all the Roscommon parishes and found that this Walter was born in Athleague RC parish.

I then tried searching for Cronin with no first name in the years 1820 + - 3 years as I thought Eliza would have been born about then in order to have Walter in the 1840's. Sure enough there was a match for Elizabeth Cronan born 1818 Roscommon.

Next I searched for Patrick Balfe Roscommon born 1815 + - 6 years and got a match - 1817.

So if these are the correct Patrick & Eliza, they would have only been about 18 when the above Walter was born - possible but less likely.

rootsireland.ie is a pay site so it will cost for the records but would give you Patrick's parents and the parish of his birth so that you could go back another generation maybe.

If you did get Patrick's parents and a parish you could have a look at the Tithe Applotments which are free to search. There are 36 Balfes in Roscommon on the Tithe Applotments (no Patricks) which were done 1823-37 although some of the years in the Balfe records are 1853!

Griffiths Valuation 1846-64 (Roscommon 1858 also free to search has lots of Balfes including a few Patricks and one at Athleague.

I hope this isn't too overwhelming. Feel free to ask for clarification.

Col Cafferky

Michelle:

In addition to Col's research and suggestions, I found this article regarding the Balfe family. Looks like the estate was South Park two miles east of Castlerea.

Roger McDonnell

http://www.scribd.com/doc/106952600/Balfe-History

The Elphin Census 1749;

----

Walter Balfe; Baslick-Glanvella Roscommon.

-----

Index to Irish Wills;

Walter Balfe-1804; Heathfield Roscommon

=============

Jack Mc Donald

Hi Michelle,

The Balfe family was large and very promient in Ireland particularily in Roscommon County.  The Landed Estates database http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=622 gives a brief history, but an extensive bibliography.

The Balfe name shows up in numerous records including land, taxation, and census records.  You can have some serious fun sorting them all out!

Good luck,

Nuala

Sorry I know this was posted a very long time ago, but have you ever found out anymore information, I'm related to Michael william balfe he was my dad's great grandfather by 4 grandparents we think.
We know our family come from Ireland but majority of our family did end up in Manchester.

Would love to know what you found out as I've been wanting to find out alot about my family, I literally grew up only know my great grand parents and my dad's parents none of his other family were in our lives. Thankyou :)