Looking for William Francis Cotter and Mary Carey, County Cork

Hello Betsey,

Most of the cork church records are online at www.irishgenealogy.ie which covers one half of cork, and www.rootsireland.ie which covers the other half.

I did a quick search for William and Mary (make sure to keep your date parameters really wide)

I found a baptismal record for a Willian Cotter, father Thomas, mother E? in 1832 in Fermoy Co Cork.

I found a baptismal record for a Mary Carey, father John Carey, mother Johanna ?, in 1842 in Co. Waterford.

both these records are on www.rootsireland.ie

You seem quite certain of your dates, but I would advise from experience to keep an open mind if you got these from a census or tombstone as they can sometimes be incorrect.

Most people who emigrated were illiterate and undocumented.  They didn't know how to spell their names and hadn't a clue as to what age they were.  At the port of arrival their names were recorded phonetically, their ages were only guessed, and this is the information that followed them for the rest of their lives.

The proof of this occured in 1909 when the old age pension was introduced into ireland.  People had to prove their ages and were forced to go through baptismal records to establish when they were born.  That is why there is such HUGE discrepancies between ages in the 1901 census and the 1911 census of Ireland.  Dates were found to be out by many many years in some cases.

We tend to forget that people back then had no social security numbers, and were not tracked from the cradle to the grave as we are today. They didn't celebrate birthdays, as it was all they could do to clothe and feed themselves. So please bear this in mind when researching.

Kind regards,

Anne

Anne,

You make several good points, especially about dates. I have found 16 Thomas Cotters in Griffith's Valuation of 1850, 1852, and 1853. I thought I would work out the corresponding Catholic parishes and write asking for a record search. Does this seem reasonable?

Betsey

Actually, had I paid attention, I could have aswered my own question. Since the church records are now online, I do not need to contact church parishes. Duh.