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Corcoran somewhere in Leitrim 1840 ish

Leitrim

Im trying to trace my 4 times Grandfather this is all the info I have.

His name was Michael Corcoran and acccording to the 1861 Scotland census he was 20 yrs old and born in Leitrim. Now is that County Leitrim or Leitrim town? On his death cert in1885 he is said to be 47 so he was either born in 1838 or 1841, His parents were Lawrence and Bridget Corcoran nee Lynch and Lawrence was a farmer. An interesting twist is Bridgets parents were both Lynchs so a Lynch married a Lynch but Ive no christian names or info on when or where they married. Ive no idea if he had any siblings.

Again refering to the 1861 census he was a lodger with a Charles Kelly and his wife Bridgetboth 36 together with their 6 children and in the same house but on another floor ( tenement ) James McFarlane 42 his wife Mary 46 and their 4 children and all originated from Leitrim. It is remotely possible they all knew each other and lived in the same area of Leitrim then emigrated to Scotland together.

Ive checked Tithe books and Griffiths and I do know a lot of records were lost in tthe 1922 fire.

Leitrim Genology are helping me butthey cannot access any records because of the Covid19 lockdown.

Anyone got any ideas? Thanks for reading this Bill Hughes ( Im in the UK )

billathdt@gmail.com

2 replies

Bill:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I appears that your Corcorans were from an RC parish where records do not go back to the 1850s (there are about eight Leitrim parishes that have late records). I searched on the subscription site Roots Ireland and di not find any useful Corcoran baptismal records with father Lawrence. I also searched for Kelly records and McFarland records with the parents listed and no records came up that fit your time period. I think your view that they came from the same area is likely correct. I looked at the 1857 Griffiths Valuation records and there were four Corcoran records but no Lawrence. The four Corcorans were in four different parishes so you could not draw any conclusions.

You may want to add Michael to our XO Chronicles site and possibly someone will see a possible connection.

Roger McDonnell

https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/ancestor-database

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Roger       

Many thanks for your reply and for the trouble you went to, its more or less what I expected. 

I think one of the main problems when you start looking at the 1850s is most of the population were not literate, and those that were, were using quill pens which left blobs of ink making records difficult to read. Also regarding age in that era what did it matter how old you were ?  Michael Corcoran was proof of that,he didnt know what his date of birth was.

As a post script he finished life as a rag merchant. He recycled them into a twine and sold it to the boatyards to seal the gap between the planks on the wooden ships. He died quite young 47 but left about £100 and a house in his will,  a fortune in 1885. Had he lived longer he would probably have been a millionaire aint life a bitch !!!

Thanks again for you time and trouble and if I get any more info I will post it on here.

Bill

billathdt@gmail.com

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