Trying to find a marriage record around 1850-1852
I don't have much to go on to narrow down an area within Ireland. I know they immigrated to the United States in 1852 from Ireland where they were both born and were married before immigrating possibly between the years 1850-1852 based on their ages. Edward J. O'neill was born in 1832 and Mary McCarthy was born in 1836. Anyone have suggestions on where else I could look to narrow down the search?
Best Answer
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Hello Thea,
As the two individuals you are looking for are named O'Neill and McCarthy, it is highly likely that they are both Catholic. Government Records, or Civil Records as they are officially called, pertaining to marriages of Catholic couples in Ireland did not commence until 1864. If, alternatively, they were Protestant, records for Protestant marriages began in 1846.
To confirm this I had a look in www.irishgenealogy.ie which is the Irish Government repository for all Civil Records. I did not find any marriage record for the couple which likely confirms that they were Catholic as suspected.
This same Irish Government website also contains all the Civil Records for births. However, Civil Birth Records in Ireland also began in 1864, thus, there would never have been a birth record (Birth Certificate) created for either of their births.
Given the above, you are left with searching through Church records for their marriage and their baptisms. Irish Church records, and I believe we would be focusing on Irish Catholic Church records here, are somewhat patchy, incomplete, give very little information and if found are often quite difficult to read. In your task, it would be of significant value for you to know in which parish the couple would have married.
The Irish Catholic Parish Registers that exist can be reviewed at the National library of Ireland site as follows... https://registers.nli.ie/
I hope this is of some help.
John.
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Answers
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Thank you John this has definitely helped to narrow down my search.
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The Catholic Parish Registers are on Findmypast, Ancestry and FamilySearch and as they have been transcribed- assuming the marriage took place in Ireland, they should hopefully show up fairly easily. Famous last words!!
Worth a look
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There is no Catholic marriage record for Edward O Neill and Mary McCarthy for around 1851-1853, you will need to find The parish to look up Catholic parish records you may have a chance then.
Sorry more information needed
Anthoneyphilipclarke
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@Hayter David I've tried Familysearch , Ancestry, and Findmypast and haven't had luck yet. I checked Pennsylvania marriage records in case my information was incorrect. I also rechecked through Records from Ireland expanding my year search as well up to 1856. Thank You for your help.
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@anthonyphilipclarke1 I unfortunately have no information. Their death certificates only list their birthplace as Ireland and their is no information on their parents as well. Census records also list Ireland. I've resorted to look though each parish within Ireland.
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@John Curran I found records to confirm they were Catholic. I can't find a parish so I decided to go though the proverbial needle in a haystack and search every single one and have crossed out eleven counties in Donegal so far off my list.
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Youre doing what I would do - search everything. Tedious but sometimes the only way.
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