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My great grandfather John O'Brien has been a mystery for some time. The only information I previously possessed was that he came from Clare and that his father's name was Patrick.

There is a town, Clare in South Australia (my home state), but I couldn't find any records of his birth. It was later suggetsed that he came from County Clare (as did my great grandmother - they married in South Australia).

DNA matching has thrown up a couple of hints.

One is to a possible half second cousin once removed who has a grandfather Patrick O'Brien (1840 -1907). The second match is also to this Patrick; a half first cousin twice removed - so the links aren't particularly strong.

The first match has a father Patrick born 1893 to Patrick (1840 - 1907) and Mary. He believes that Patrick snr  had previously been married to Cattherine O'Dea in 1859 and that John (1862 - 1902) was one of their three children. Catherine died and Patrick married Mary Whelan and had a further two children - Patrick and Mary. This DNA match would be John's half brother. He believes that Patrick snr was a tinsmith and that the family lived in O'Briensbridge.

The second DNA match has a mother, Mary born 1895 to Patrick snr and Mary snr, who it appears is Patrick's sister and John's half sister.

There is a record of Patrick O'Brien marrying Catherine O'Dea on 4th March 1859 in Tulla,diocese of Killaloe.

John O'Brien is first recorded in South Australia when he married Bridget Fahy in 1885, so he had left Ireland by this time. There is insufficient detail in shipping records to positivley identify my great grandfather from the other 37 possible matches in the right age group in the right timeframe.

I would really appreciate any help you can provide in trying to establish some verifiable facts about John O'Brien.

Cheers

Kay Newby

kayn

Wednesday 2nd Sep 2020, 02:40AM

Message Board Replies

  • Hi Kay:

    Thank you for your post to the Ireland Reaching Out message board.  Have you looked at the parish registers on the Clare Library website?  If not, they are definitely worth looking at:  in particular Killaloe (where many O'Briensbridge baptisms and marriages were noted) as well as the records available for O'Briensbridge.  

    The links to Killaloe are here:  http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/killaloe_parish.htm

    Killaloe parish registers begin in 1828 and a volunteer has transcribed these records with great details.

    O'Briensbridge is here:  http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/o'briens-bridge.htm

    Both O'Briensbridge and Killaloe baptisms and marriages are recorded under Killaloe, but each parish has different record sets which you might find helpful.

    Please get back to me if you have any further questions.

     

    All the best,

     

    Jane

    Jane Halloran Ryan

    Friday 4th Sep 2020, 03:24PM

  • Hi Jane,

    thanks for the links but unfortunately I could find nothing that helped in either the baptisms or the marriages.

    There was one interesting entry and that was for a Patrick O'Brien who married a Kate O'Brien on 5 March 1859. Where their residence should have been recorded, the entry read 'Tinker' for both of them. Since I had been told that Patrick was a tinsmith, I'm guessing that means that as they travelled from town to town to earn a living, they had no permanent residence. I had been told that his first wife's name was Catherine and that his second wife was Mary. Even if this Patrick was John's father, it doesn't really help me as John was born around 1842 to Patrick and his first wife.

    Due to the itinerant nature of Patrick's occupation, it would seem that this is one mystery that will remain unsolved.

    cheers

    Kay

     

    kayn

    Wednesday 16th Sep 2020, 02:28PM

  • Hi Kay:  Thanks for your reply with the further information.  

    I am going to defer to the Local Studies Centre in Ennis where one of the librarians may be able to assist you.  Peter is very knowledgeable about local sources for County Clare and he is the senior librarian there.  His email address is:  peter.beirne@clarelibrary.ie  

    If you have any further questions, please let me know.  

    The very best of luck with your research.  

    You might also consider creating Ancestor Profiles on the XOChronicles feature which is located at the top of the page.  These profiles are widely read and you may find others researching the same families.

     All the best,  

    Jane

    Jane Halloran Ryan

    Thursday 17th Sep 2020, 08:35AM

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