Coley and O'Brien families 1840s and 1850s

Brent:

Unfortunately, the pre-1877 records for the Church of Ireland church in Lucan were destroyed in the 1922 Public Records Office fire in Dublin. So there would be no baptismal records for any Coley or O'Brien children baptized in that church pre-1877. Civil registration of Church of Ireland marriages started in Ireland in 1845. I can't find a marriage record at the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie so my presumption is that Elizabeth Coley and William O'Brien married prior to 1845.

Have you considered DNA testing? Maybe you will have matches with descendants of Cornelius O'Brien or Edward Coley.

Roger McDonnell

Cornelius O'Brien and Edward Coley both appear in the records for the townland of Lucan & Pettycanon in Griffith's Valuation (mid-1800's).

Here's a link to more info about the townland, with a map showing you how Lucan & Pettycanon is situated with respect to the current town (it's all basically a Dublin suburb now):

https://www.townlands.ie/dublin/newcastle/lucan/lucan/lucan-and-pettyca…

There is a separate, smaller townland called Lucan Demesne, which adjoins Lucan & Pettycanon, to which there is a further link at that site (look at the list of bordering townlands).

The page for Lucan & Pettycanon has links to other info, including the Griffith's Valuation records.  The way the link is set up can be a bit confusing in some cases, so here's a direct link to the list of landlholders/tenants shown in Griffith's Valuation.   Cornelius and Edward appear several times in the list (you can page forward and backward at the bottom of the list), so they apparently held several properties/tenancies:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNam…

I didn't see Job Coley or William O'Brien listed, but they may have been sons or brothers who did not hold tenancies.  I suggest that you also consider reviewing the Catholic parish registers, because O'Brien is normally a Catholc surname, and Coley/Colley can also be a Catholic name, so the first marriage you mentioned may have been in the Catholic church, or one or both of them may have been baptized as a Catholic.  If so, then you might be able to establish a link to the names listed in Griffith's Valuation, since the Lucan parish registers go back to 1818, and neither surname appears to be extremely numerous in the list of tenancies..

You can access the registers online at this link:  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0472

Brent:

We have a volunteer in the Dublin area and he did some research on Job Coley. I've copied and pasted his response to me below.

Roger

Found a few small details on that Lucan query... 

Registry of Deeds - 1847 deed between a Job Coley of Coldblow (townland) Co.'s Dublin & Kildare and the 'Midland & Great Western Railway company'.
it's quite detailed and covers more than one page, another townland is mentioned - Collinstown, Co. Kildare and also several other names - might be worth a closer read.

Index - film 008076399 image 639
details - film 008094525 image  733, volume 2, memorial 85
 
link (FamilySearch acc. reqd.) : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJ4-Q953-F?i=302&cat=185720
 
I was hoping there might be a marriage settlement for Elizabeth's first marriage, but no sign of one... there could be earlier deeds for Job or his predecessors in the deeds (quite time consuming to search..)
 

Both the Royal Canal and railway line of the Midland & Great Western run through part of the north of Coldblow townland, with a bridge over both at the corner of the townland and a railway station closeby which was opened in 1847.
 

Coldblow townland is adjacent to the town of Lucan and in Leixlip civil parish, which is split between counties Dublin & Kildare.
 

Job 'Cooley'  is listed in the Tithe Applotment Books with two sections in Coldblow townland, the Leixlip entries are dated 2nd Sept. 1825.

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?surname=co*l*&firstname=&county=&parish=Leixlip&townland=cold*b*&search=Search

Thank you all for this very helpful info and background.

Good point about reviewing the Catholic registers.  I didn't find anything there, but Job Coley's wife, Catherine Dunn, appears to have been baptised Catholic.

The townland map was helpful too.

I have since established from further examination of Thom's Almanac that the Proprietor of the Vesey Arms Inn was William O'Brien in 1850-52 and 'Mr' Lumsden in 1853-54.  So the connection of both men to Elizabeth Coley is apparent.

I'll keep on searching.  If anything else comes to mind I would greatly appreciate hearing about it.

Regards and thanks

Brent