Ireland XO
Back to Message Board

Family of Timothy Donavan and Mary Sullivan

Cork

Hello,

I'm inquiring to see if the famly of my 2nd great grandfather Timothy Donavan came from Co. Cork.

He was born about 1825 and was married to Mary Sullivan, born about 1827. They had a daughter, Mary Donavan born about 1852 in Ireland prior to their emigration to the US in 1853. Timothy ws a Blacksmith by trade.

Timothy's parents are Timothy Donavan and mother is Julia, mn unknown.

Also, it appears that Mary Sullivan had an older sister, Catharine born about 1830. I've looked online many times for Timothy and Mary, and there are so many with the same names I haven't been able to identify any one of them with certainty.

Part of my family is planning a trip to Ireland next year, and I'm hoping to find places of origin of our Irish ancestors for them to visit. There are no records I can find here in the US that identifies the place of origin for this family.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards, Tim Jones

satman2012

3 replies

Tim:

As you indicated, the two surnames are extremly common in Co. Cork. On the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie I found a marriage on April 21 1850 at the Cork South parish ( in Cork city) also known as St. Finbarrs between Timy Donovan and Mary Sullivan. They had a daughter Mary who was baptized on July 20 1851. One of the baptismal sponsors was a Catherine Sullivan.

I can't guarantee that these records are for your ancestors but the dates and names match.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Mr. McDonnell,

This is amazing! Thank you so much for finding these records.

As you mentioned, the names and dates all fit with the records I was able to find on them. So for the first time, and thanks to you, I can confidently say I know where they came from. I'll look further to see if I can find anything on Tim's father and mother.

Thanks too for showing me the irishgenealogy.ie website. I have 5 sets of 2nd great grandparents coming from Ireland and I haven't had much success in finding any places of origin for them until now. So maybe this site will help in that way. I have to say that the original record entries are not that easy to read. So whoever indexed the records must have had a sense that helped them along.

My sister is planning a visit to Ireland in May and was wanting to see some of the places where our ancestors came from. I'm sure that St Finbarr's will be on her list.

Thank you again and Best Regards,

Tim

satman2012

Tim:

Coincidentally, my wife's paternal ancestors came from Cork city and they attended St. Finbarr's. We visited the church in 2015. The church building goes back to the late 1700s ( available records go back to the late 1700s also) and does not look like a church on the outside. Here is a link to the Facebook page for the parish  https://www.facebook.com/St-Finbarrs-South-Church-577874335698942/

There is also a Church of Ireland St. Finbarr's church not far from the RC church and it is a much more impressive church building so make sure your sister goes to the St. Finbarr's on Dunbar St.

A little more background on Co. Cork RC records and the www.irishgeneaogy.ie site. There are two dioceses in Co. Cork: Cloyne and Cork and Ross. Cloyne covers the north and east of the county and their records are only on subscription sites like Roots Ireland, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Cork and Ross covers the south and west of the county and their records are on the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie ;  

irishgenealogy.ie has church records for Cork and Ross, all the parishes in Co. Kerry and also Dublin city churches. There is a separate tab for Civil Records which has all the civil birth records from 1864-1920, marriages from 1864-1945 and deaths from 1864-1970 (1864-1870 are only index records for now).

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.