Looking for information on the Parents of Henry Duggan

Helen,

I can’t see anywhere named Queensplace in Co. Laois. I suspect it might be a corruption of Queens County which was renamed Co. Laois in 1922, (following the partition of Ireland).

According to the Royal Irish Constabulary records on Ancestry, Henry Duggan joined the police in 1854 aged 20. His RIC service record won’t give his exact place of birth but sometimes you can narrow the search by researching the person who recommended his application. Often that was a Sub Inspector of police or Justice of the Peace in the vicinity of where he lived. So search for where they were living in 1854. That information isn’t visible on my Ancestry site but should be contained in the paper records. (Copies in the National Archives, London & Dublin, the police museum in Dublin and the police museum in Belfast).

It was RIC policy not to post officers to a county where they were born or had connections. So Henry’s service record is likely to show him having served elsewhere in Ireland than Queens. He had to be at least 19 to join the RIC (18 if your father was a police officer), so he’s likely to have been born nearer 1834 than 1837.

You have posted this under Mountmellick parish. If you know that is where Henry originated. The RC parish records go back to 1815 and are on-line so you may be able to find his baptism and perhaps his parents marriage. The RC parish records are on-line free on the National Library site:

http://registers.nli.ie/parishes

Helen:

I looked on Roots Ireland and there were no Henry Duggan baptismal records with a father named John. I did a wider search and found a John Duggan and his wife Elizabeth Kenna who had at least four children baptized in Ballyadams RC parish. Patt 1830 James 1833 Murtha 1837 Elizabeth 1839 The surname spellings were either Duignan or Dugan. So do you know of the names of any of the siblings to your Henry and is it possible that Murtha is Henry?

I could not find a townland close in spelling to Mudubeith. Ballyadams RC parish has two corresponding civil parishes-- Ballyadams and Rathaspick.

The transcription of the baptismal record for Murtha is below.

Roger McDonnell

Name:Murtha DuiganDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:16-Oct-1837Address:MudubeithParish/District:BALLYADAMSGender:MaleCountyCo. Laois
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:John DuiganMother:Elizabeth Kenna