Morgan Meara & Honora Stapleton married 1844

jerseymara:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

We have a parish liaison for Dunkerrin civil parish. I will send an e-mail to alert her to your message. Here is a link to the RC parish register for Dunkerrin http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0762

Roger McDonnell

Thank you Roger! I have seen the parish register; I believe this is where I found the file I attached above.

I was able to find it because I had the marriage date from the transcript I ordered. There may be other goodies buried in these and other registers, but without specific dates it would involve a manual search.

Four years ago I had some discussion via email with Nora Meara of the North Tipperary Genealogy Services, who wrote:

"I have completed a full search of our North Tipperary records for the baptismal record of Morgan O'Meara/Meara/Mara who married in 1844 and unfortunately we have no record of a Morgan O'Meara/Meara/Mara born before 1825.  You will have to contact Offaly directly for the baptismal record of Honor Stapleton."

"We found no baptism of a Morgan O’Meara who married Honora Stapleton.

"We did find four children baptised to a James Meara and Judith Tuohy/Toohey – this James could be a brother of the Morgan O’Meara who married the Honora Stapleton – but we have no way of proving this. We could extract these children for you. We can also supply you with two children to Morgan O’Meara and Honora Stapleton."

I did not order these records; maybe someone here has access to them.

I also have Reilly, Morris, Murphy, Sweeney, McAdam, Norton, Flanagan and Kane to contend with, scattered about the isle ;-)

Looking forward to hearing if anyone has more info regarding my request, thanks!

jerseymara:

I could not find any baptismal records in Co. Offaly but did find one on Roots Ireland in Co. Tipperary. The family lived in Kilgorteen townland in Ballymackey civil parish not far from the southern tip of Co. Offaly where Dunkerrin is located.See below. You may want to consider a short-term subscription to Roots Ireland to search for the other possible family records.

Roger McDonnell

Name:John MearaDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:02-Jan-1847Address:KilgurtinParish/District:TOOMEVARAGender:MaleCountyCo. Tipperary
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:Morgan MearaMother:Honor StapletonOccupation:
Sponsor 1 /
Informant 1:Michael Guilfoyle Sponsor 2 /
Informant 2:Honor Guilfoyle 

Thanks so much Roger, that's a good find!

I know of John and the rest of his life (the family immigrated to NY in 1850 when John was 3; he died in 1908).

However, I never knew of this particular record or exactly where the family lived, other than the marriage record. And I have not heard of these sponsors, only those who witnessed the marriage.

Would it be safe to say John was born in late 1846?

I do already have a (non subscription) account at Roots Ireland, so whenever I wish to do battle with the Irish records, I know where to look next.

Jerseymara, 

Were you referring to John Touhey in your post? My great grandfather, William John Touhey, married to Elizabeth Stapleton. They lived in Oswego, NY. I think he went by John, he died in 1907. Elizabeth's parents, Richard and Penelope (Slavin) Stapleton were born in Ireland. Penelope's parents, Timothy and Mary (Hogan) Slavin, were also born in Ireland.

This is the extent of my information about the Touheys and Stapletons, I'd love to know more.

Meg Touhey Schulz

Roger, I've continued my research into the Meara's of Tipperary (Kilgorteen) and have prepared a long blog post with my findings. Please review and let me know if you have any additions/corrections, thanks!

http://plugsandpixels.com/geneblog/index.php/2018/09/10/the-mearas-of-tipperary-ireland/

jesrseymara:

Excellent work on your family history.

Roger

Hello   my name is Dolores Whyte from Dunkerrin Parish Reaching Out Hereitage Group.   Your comments have come up on our website, and I was just looking at your records for Morgan Meara & Honora Stapleton.   I note that there was a John Meara from Kilgurtin baptised on 2nd Jan 1947 in Toomevara Parish, parents are stated as Maurice Meara and Honora Stapleton.  The name "Maurice" may be a variant of Morgan, as I note that one of the son's later born was called "Morris".   I cannot find any information with regard to this child.  Please let me know if I can be of any further help to you.                                                                                                                                 Dolores Whyte

Thank you Roger! I am still adding material to the blog daily and will do so today as well.

Thank you too Dolores! John Meara is 1847 ;-)

Just last night I found an earlier child of Morgan ("Morry") and Honora of Kilgorteen, James Meara, baptized 10/24/1845. He did not make the trip to America with the others in summer 1850 so I assume he passed young.

The name "Honora Meara" appears on another Kilgorteen baptism record on 10/3/1844 (9 months after the Meara's married) but the rest is unreadable. Maybe this is a daughter who also passed young?

The baptism records, when read carefully, reveal more Meara's and Stapleton's from the area, so I will sort that out and add the info to my blog.

P.S. Dolores, Morris Mara was born in New York City in 1855, 5 years after the Meara's emigrated. Morgan died just a few months before.