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David O'Connell

We are looking for 19th century links to a David O'Connell who was born in 1816. His US naturalization papers say that he was from Limerick but does not specify whether this refers to County or City (We were glad to find this much as for years every document we had said only that he was from Ireland.).  David emigrated in the mid-1840s (Still searching for vessel and route) and wound up in western NY State. By 1851 he was married to a Bridget Tracy; they definitely married in the US but we do not know if they were previously known to each other. They had 7 sons. The third of these sons was my husband's g-grandfather.

Any leads or suggestions for searching would be helpful since this is our first venture back to Ireland.

Thank you.

OConnells from Limerick

4 replies

David's Family:

The subscription site Roots Ireland has four David Connell baptismal records in Co. Limerick in 1814 1815 and two in 1818. We don't know if your David is represented by one of these records. We really need his parents names to see if we can find the correct record. Do you know the first name of his oldest son?

Roger McDonnell

 

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Roger

Thank you for the prompt reply. His eldest was named John but I need to point out that John was also the name of David's father-in-law. His other sons in order were David, Michael, James,daniel, Michael and Peter.

We looked in the usual places for parents' names but even on his death certificate his parents are listed as "O'Connell". My daughter and I found this odd as his wife was still alive and we might have thought she could have provided this info but she does not seem to have been more informative. Given that the birthdate he gave on official documents now seems off if your findings include him,  I guess all this is of a piece.

The area where he and his wife, Bridget, were married was served by a itinerant Catholic priest and we are trying to find which of two dioceses might have those records. That is a best hope of having something with parents listed. 

Thank you again for your efforts. Perhaps we will be able to find more leads in the future, but after several years searching we just have no more information.

Susan O'Connell

 

OConnells from Limerick

Susan:

One of the 1818 baptismal records had a father John Connell. The mother was shown as Marie Connell which may have been her maiden name. The RC parish was Dromin and Athlacca. Date January 31 1818.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Roger

Thank you so much.  Perhaps with a possibility on your end and more digging from ours we can reach some pictures of David's history.

Susan O

OConnells from Limerick

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