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Boornacoola RC parish in Leitrim

Hello,

I have a great great grandmother, Mary Conboy, who was married in the Boornacoola RC in 1860, and her husband, Patrick Cox, was from Ballymagrine, Roscommon. Going with the idea that a couple was married in the bride's parish, I assumed she was from Leitrim. There is a birth record for a Mary Conboy in the Boornacoola parish in 1845. Is it possible that she married at 15 years old in those days?

Also, according to the 1901 Ballymagrine census that I found on the Leitrim-Roscommon Genealogy page (as it is not in the national archives), it shows her from Roscommon.

Here is my main question...I have DNA matches, and other records to an Ellen Conboy Flynn - her descendants are well documented to my ancestors after immigration to the SF Bay area. The problem is that on the 1901 & 1911 census records for Ellen Conboy Flynn, it states that she was born in County Longford. She too married in the Boornacoola RC church in 1868. I am trying to establish if Mary and Ellen were sisters.

Does anyone know if the Boornacoola church served people from multiple counties?

Thanks!

Carolyn

7 replies

The parish is in the south of County Leitrim and right on the border with counties Longford and Roscommon - one of the Chapels was very close to the border less than 1km, so I'd say very likely that people from other counties attended - see 'Bornacoola' with the red marker below - the dotted line is the county border.

This map from NLI shows the parish and counties :

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Shane,

Thanks for the maps...I knew the proximity of Boornacoola to those three counties, so it seems reasonable that one could be from either of the three counties and marry there. It just doesn't answer my question about whether Ellen and Mary were sisters....too many unknowns!

Thanks for your help,

Carolyn

It's a pity that Mary's marriage predates civil registration, so no clues re father for her - could the witness names for the two marriages, of maybe the godparents for their children give any clues ?

Another possible line of research, although not as certain, could be the names Mary and Ellen used for their children give hints, e.g. reusing names of possible parents or grandparents ?

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Shane,

Yes, I look at the godparent and naming of children avenues when trying to piece things together. What is even more of a pity is that Ellen Conboy marrying Peter Flynn in 1868 did not register their marriage with the civil authorities. I thought it was a law, oh well....their church marriage record does not give their father's names.

Carolyn

Shane,

I'd love your feedback on this situation I discovered that I have never seen before when trying to see who the baptism sponsors were for Ellen Conboy and Peter Flynn's children.

I used Roots Ireland because I can see both the church and civil records. Their eight children all born between 1868 and 1888 in Cloontumpher, Roosky, Leitrim have NO baptism sponsors listed. Only their father Peter is listed as sponsor/informant on all eight records. Does this mean that they were not baptized? I find that hard to believe...especially since their youngest son became a priest. Have you ever come across this? It sure didn't help me find a connection to Mary Conboy, and Ellen Conboy did not appear as a sponsor to any of Mary's children...altough one family lived in Ballymagrine, Roscommon and the other in Cloontumpher, Leitrim. So maybe the distance between the two played a role.

Thanks,

Carolyn

My understanding on sponsors/godparents was that in addition to ensuring the correct religious upbringing of the child they would be a stand-in if the parents were not available or died, so would not make sense for the father to be one - maybe a relative with the same name, cousin etc ?

I've seen various RC baptism records that were patchy or incomplete - e.g. missing sponsors, missing mother's name, some with residence other without, out of sequence, missing child's name etc etc- so nothing would surprise me..

Most of the RC baptism should be on NLI site to view, where you can check to see - thee could be damaged portions of the register, or parts that are faded or illegible..

I had a quick look for these children and located a baptism for a 'Bridgidam' baptised to Petri and Ellene on the 15th August 1875, Bornacoola RC parish - see abt half way down on the left page - definitely both parents name and although difficult to read includes sponsors on the next line, maybe the RootsIreland transcripts for this register are not complete... as an alternative you can use a free account on FMP to search RC records

p.s. I see other mentions of the surname Conboy on the same page

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Shane. I have never used FMP, and see they have a 14 day free trial. I use the NLI all the time, but did not look there because I assumed incorrectly that Roots would have transcribed the sponsor names. I see they did not! Off to check the NLI!

Regards,

Carolyn

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