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Richard Costello, Born c. 1848

We are searching for our ancestor Richard Costello, who married Marry Ann McCail in 1875 in Stockton-on-Tees, England, and lived and worked there as an ironworks labourer, and died there in 1907. We know that his father was called Thomas Costello (because he appears on the English censuses with his son with an approximate birth year of 1819.) Richard and Mary Ann's children were Ellen, Thomas, Maria, John, Patrick, Stephen, Annie and Elizabeth Veronica and they were all born in Stockton. We know nothing about Richard's life before his marriage in 1875 in England other than he was born c. 1848 in Ireland, but we don't know where in Ireland at all. We also don't know where in Ireland his father Thomas was from, the earliest record we have for him is the 1881 England Census where he is already 62 and widowed. Does anyone have any information that could help?

GMoon

6 replies

GMoon:

Costello was a common surname in Ireland in the 19th century.

I did a search on the subscription site Roots Ireland and came up with two leads shown below. Keep in mind that there were a number of RC parishes that did not have records back to 1850 and also Roots Ireland does not have all the available RC records on its database.

Richard Costello baptized August 8 1847 father Thomas Costello mother Judith Butler RC parish was Moycarkey in Co. Tipperary

Richard Costello baptized May 3 1848 father Thomas Costello mother Jane Fitzpatrick RC parish was Johnstown in Co. Kilkenny

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Roger, 

Thank you so much for giving us a quick reply. This information was helpful and we will keep looking into the Costellos. 

Best Wishes, 

Georgina

GMoon

We have made some developments over the last week about the Costello family, but have now hit another brick wall. Through tracing a relative who was living with Thomas and Richard in Stockton in 1891, we have found their 1861 and 1871 censuses. In 1871, Thomas' wife was with him in Stockton, called Margaret, and we found them further back in 1861 living in Tideswell, Derbyshire. As a result we now have some siblings for Richard: Mary, William, Mary Ann, Catherine and Ellen. The last four were born in England so we were able to look up their GRO Reference and found that their mother's maiden name was Kennedy. So now we know that Thomas Costello married Margaret Kennedy in Ireland, sometime before c. 1841 as this is when their first daughter was born, but we can't find a Thomas Costello/Margaret Kennedy marriage anywhere on RootsIreland, Ancestry or Irish Genealogy. We have also tried looking for baptisms of their children in Ireland, but with no results - we only know the approximate years of birth for Mary and Richard because they moved to England and featured on censuses. We've also been looking into Ancestry DNA and based on our current matches, it seems likely that the Costello family were from Connacht, but searching anywhere in Ireland has been inconclusive. Hope you can help.

GMoon

Georgina:

Many of the RC parishes in Connacht (Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo) do not have records back to the 1840 time period which would explain not finding any records. The only record I could locate was a February 2 1839 marriage between Thomas Costello and Mary Kennedy in Lorrha parish in North Tipperary. Likely this is a different couple. They did not have a Mary and Richard.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Roger, 

Thank you for the quick reply. It's sometimes hard to know when searching for Irish ancestors whether we aren't searching enough or if there just aren't records of that particular kind or from that time period. We have lots of ancestors in Connacht, so it's very useful to know that most parishes just don't have records this far back. Does this mean our search has probably ended here, or are there any possible ways around it that might go back to or any further than the1840s? 

Best Wishes, 

Georgina

GMoon

Georgina:

Maybe you search has ended but if you have not tested your DNA, I would recommend that you take a test. You may have matches with 3rd or 4th cousins who have paper records e.g. a Family Bible that identifies where in Ireland your Costellos came from.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

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