Thomas R Roach and Catherine Dowling, trying to find more information about them.
I joined the group because I am hoping to find out more about my father’s maternal grandparents, who came from Ireland. We have not found much information for Thomas R. Roach, M42D-4LY, other than that he was born, in Limerick, Ireland (according to the death certificate my grandmother filled out), he immigrated in 1848, through New York, and died 24 February 1914, in Minnesota. He is buried in Stephen Catholic Cemetery, Stephen Minnesota.
He married Catherine Dowling, M42D-4GN, on 18 September 1871, in Kane, Illinois. Marriage records says surname is Doylan and Dooling. The 1885 Iowa Census says she was 45, it also says Thomas was 50. 1895 Census says she was 55 and Thomas was 65. She emmigrated in 1861, from County Kilkenny, Ireland. She died 1 April 1927, at about 99, in Minnesota.
I am not good at researching. I would like to get some suggestions on how to start looking. I heard about some videos on different counties in Ireland I would be interested in viewing, but do not know how to locate them.
Any help would be appreciated.
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The first document you'd want to try and find is his naturalization. This will hopefully mention where he came from. "Limerick" could either refer to County Limerick, which has hundreds of towns, or the city called Limerick, one of the larger cities in Ireland. It's extremely important when doing Irish genealogy not to get mixed up between two people of the same name. The Irish had only a limited number of both first- and sur-names (and often didn't use middle names) leading to many people alive at the same time having the same name.
For most of Ireland there are surviving Catholic records from 1828 onwards. If you can find the town where Thomas came from, you should be able to find a baptism for him, and perhaps a marriage for his parents. If you're lucky, the town's Catholic records may go back further than 1828. There are no vital records for Catholics before 1864 in Ireland, and 99%+ of 19th century censuses were destroyed. If this family was well-off other sources such as newspapers and the registry of deeds may be helpful, but the priority for you should be to look at his US naturalization, an obituary, and the Irish Catholic records.
You can find the US naturalization records on Ancestry.com, and the Catholic records at either the National Library of Ireland (https://registers.nli.ie/), Ancestry.com or FindMyPast.
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A van Helsdingen,
Thank you for the suggestions. I appreciate them.
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I was able to locate the Birth Record on Thomas Roach (Roche) on Rootsireland
Name: Thomas Roche
Date of Birth: 09-OCT-1809
Parish/District: St. Michaels
County: Co. Limerick
Denomination: Roman Catholic
Father: Richard Roche
Mother: Kate Mahoney
https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000635022#page/20/mode/1up
This is the record that I believe Rootsireland indexed. Next to No. 9 3rd and 4th line.
Thomas Roche born in 1809 is the person who immigrated in 1848 to New York?
His age should be listed as 39. The New York ship's manifest for 1848 lists 8 people. the last one on the list I discounted based on the spelling on his last name. No. 7 on the list is a boy of age 6 Years, No.3 no matches for Co. Limerick 1822-1824. The 5 left were all born in Co. Limerick. The oldest person was born in 1814 making him age:34
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Really? Born in 1809 but married in 1871 and died in 1914. Sounds unlikely.
Especially in Irish genealogy, you can't just find someone with the right name and confidently say that this is the right person. There were so many people with the same name.
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Thank you @TimothyMc and @A van Helsdingen for your comments. The only date we know is correct for Thomas Roach is his death date. I believe my grandmother, who filled out the death form, was guessing on birth date, as some of the people in his area suggested his age. She likely knew the names of her grandparents, William Roach and Elizabeth Web, so I will strive to find them .
I will keep searching.
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Good news and bad news maybe
Found Marriage information on Rootsireland.
Date of Marriage: 25-JUL-1808
Parish/District: Croom
County: Co. Limerick
Husband: William Roche
Wife: Elizabeth Webb
Husband's Address: Not recorded
Wife's Address: Ballingary
Bad News maybe: I tried to find children born to both of them, no luck because the first Baptism is for 29-OCT-1828. See: https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0881
I am thinking that the Thomas Roach that died in 1914 is actually the Grandson of
William Roche and Elizabeth Webb. On Ancestry I found a Family tree that says Thomas Roach was born in 1835 in Co. Limerick all the other facts on this tree match https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/87819203/person/352078748530/story
On that tree the 1900/1910 U.S. Census says he was born in 1835.
Tim
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Timothy,
Thank you for the update. I was concerned about the difference in dates. Maybe my grandmother knew the names because they raised Thomas, before he immigrated. The 1835 date was from Iowa 1885 Census also. I will change the record back to the 1835 birth date in FS.
It might be he was named after is father, as there are so many Thomas Roach's around.
The record does not contain the two older children listed in the 1885 Census, Margaret Ann Roach, who is listed as born in Ill. or Mary E. Roach, who must have been born in Iowa, because nothing else was recorded.
It does get me closer to what I need, at least I hope so.
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Found information from 1850 U.S. Census for St. Charles, Kane, Illinois, USA
I would think Michael Roust is Roach all 4 are listed as born in Ireland.
Tim
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Agreed. Coincidently I have just helped a researcher 2 weeks ago trace Roaches in Limerick that also went back to St Michael's potentially. Their branch went to Australia. What was obvious was that at any point in time there were several Roaches of the same first name in the area so jumping back to a record of a Thomas Roach in Limerick is not hard as there are probably 6 of them - proving its yours is another story. Good news is that the RC records for Limerick are quite early in places. But still the best Irish records are outside of Ireland. Suggest you look for records in US that point back to Ireland first. Chain migration may help if you can find people that he knew / was related to that may also have come from the same place in Limerick.
Good luck
Ralph Mackey
(of the County Clare Mackeys)
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Thank you Ralph Mackey. I appreciate the advice, and eventually hope to get a clear, documented path to my Irish ancestors.
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