Hi! I am looking for my ancestors that migrated here in approximately 1848. Martin J. Monaghan, born in approximately 1825, married Nora McMenamin (likely sometime before 1843, as they had a son, Patrick Henry Monaghan in 1843). They were from Belmullet, and settled in Minersville, Pennsylvania, likely due to the available work in the coal mines. There, they had my 2nd great grandfather, John J. Monaghan in 1856. I found most of this information from Patrick's obituary. Patrick and John became fairly prominent citizens in the area, and Patrick actually won the Medal of Honor for his bravery in serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War. I am not sure if Martin and Nora had more children before leaving for the US, but they had at least 3 other children besides John after they moved to the US. I am a little uncertain of the parish system, but it looks like their Roman Catholic parish would have been Belmullet, and the civil parish would have been Kilcommon/Erris. I am pretty sure they were Roman Catholic as Martin's funeral, John's marriage and funeral, as well as all of John's children were recorded in a Catholic church record in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, and they are buried in the church graveyard. I would really appreciate any information or guidance you could give me. Thank you so much!
Saturday 7th Feb 2015, 04:18AM
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Dana:
I checked the Roots Ireland indexes and could not find the baptismal record for Patrick or the Martin/Nora marriage record. There were four RC churches in the vast parish of Kilcommon Erris parish and only one Belmullet has records back to your time period. Their records start in 1836 for marriages and 1841 for baptisms. I can only surmise that your ancestors went to another church where records don't exixst back to the 1840 period.
I know Martin and Nora had left before 1856 but here is the link to the 1856 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Kilcommon. http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/mayo/kilcommon.htm
There are quite a few Monaghan and Monahan records. I did not see a McMenamin record but there are McManmon records.
Let me know if you have any other info or have questions.
Roger McDonnell
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
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Thank you so much for looking into this! I have gotten more information on when Nora died, so I am going to see if maybe her parent's names are on the death record - that may help narrow down the search. I'll let you know! Dana Jacques
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Thank you so much for looking into this! I have gotten more information on when Nora died, so I am going to see if maybe her parent's names are on the death record - that may help narrow down the search. I'll let you know! Dana Jacques