I am looking for any information on Thomas Collins who was born in Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick about 1830. He married Anna Leane in 1853 in Duagh, Co. Kerry. They emigrated to Australia about 1860. They had 3 chiildren whilst in Ireland, Johanna, Michael and Patrick.
Christine, there is a Thomas Collins born in Abbeyfeale to a Thomas and mother Mary Moloney, date of baptism 6th June 1832, witness Johanna Collins.
Bad news is there are two others to different parents and we cannot pick the correct one, other are .March 1833 fathere Patrick and mother Mary Collins, probably priest entered married name, 1st March 1829 father Patrick mother Margaret McCarthy, you should be able to see the entries here https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0855 search by event year and month. Searched 1829 to 1833 only.
I do not see the marriage, there are two Anne Leane born in Duagh, 15th August 1829, father Patrick and mother Margaret Dillane; and 2nd Nov 1832 father Patrick mother Margaret Larkin, always a chance the first mother and child died and father remarried.
Take your pick, odd I cannot see the marriage as Duagh has the records on the site above. There is a gap from August 1852 to April 1853 unlikely they had no marriages so may be missing with that gap.
Good Luck
Pat
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Hi Pat,
Thank you for your response. I will try and answer your information systematically.
Anne Leane/Lane's parents are Patrick Lane and Margaret 'Peg' Larkin. Patrick was married previously and we think it was to Anne Collins. She had two children a son and a daughter. The son joined the Army and was in India. I don't know what happened to the daughter. It may be that Ann and her daughter died in childbirth, I have no name for that child either.
I have been doing some sleuthing using the Irish patronymic naming system and as the pattern was to name the first daughter after the previously deceased wife then that accounts for Patrick's first wife being called Ann.
I haven't found any marriage certificate for Thomas Collins and Ann Lane, but like you, I also found the missing dates and assumed there was damage to the original paper record that appears on the nli.ie website.
Thomas and Ann's children's names were Johanna, Michael, Patrick born in Ireland. Patrick was an infant who died on the voyage to Australia. Mary, Thomas, John, and another Patrick (died at 5 yrs of age) were born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. So I'm fairly confident that Thomas and Ann followed the traditional naming patterns. Please correct me if I am wrong but wouldn't Michael Collins be the name of Thomas' father? Michael was the first born son and he called his first son, my Grandfather, Michael as well.
As Johanna was Thomas' firstborn daughter, I assumed that was the given name for Thomas' mother. But I don't seem to have hit the jackpot there as I was unable to find a marriage for Michael Collins and a Johanna.
I'm open to any other suggestions you may have of where I could search next.
Regards, Christine Collins
Hi Christine, at the point you are at you rely on church records primarily so if they do not exist you are almost out of certain options made more so by the fact the priest rarely included the parents names on the marriage record, I have been told they did on occassion but usually when the family were perceived as important etc meaning they paid more. To this end you should look at the registers NLI site to see what records and gaps they have, this can ruin your research if there are records, i have noticed that Roots Ireland has records for the Catholic church not on the Registers site if you want to subscribe you can for a month and search the hell out of it.
Duagh is a small enough place still although it is 40 years since I was there, (knew a lady from there when I was a lot younger) you can see if there is a local history group who may have documented stories, McLysaghts surnames of Ireland says Leane or Lean is a variant of Lyne, other wise land records if you are likely to hold land.
Catholic emancipation came about in 1829 and there were restrictions on catholics prior to this in the 1700s so often churchs did not keep records if they had a building at all. If your ancestors worked on a large estate the National Archives may have the papers but they are currently undergoing a merger with the National Library and not all papers are fully catalogued where they exist etc
Finally there are private Facebook groups doing local history and genealogy in each county or even are area of one often linked to DNA but matches at that remove are small enough and you are hoping that someone has more information on your family than yourself, only ever came across one at that remove as some migrant had written down his ancestry when he was in his 80s and realised no one knew where he was from or why he migrated. Basically Christiine everyone in the area will be stuck where you are. You are lucky as some parishes have records only beginning in the 1850s or later.
You could try Griffiths to see if the family name is there and get a plot number and map etc see if they were neighbours as they hardly travelled too far to meet unless they worked on the same estate. You would see who the landlord was in Griffiths but only head of house. https://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/ ;
Kerry church records are on this site https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ Only 3 counties on it, it is a free site but click on church and enter location, Kerry, from 1864 civil records are on it too.
Good Luck
Pat