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Thomas Francis McNamara 1833-1901 looking for parish

Clare

 Greetings

 My name is Shana McNamara Cardenas and live in AZ. I've been researching my family history for about 20 yrs now.
Thomas Francis McNamara was my paternal 2ndgreat grand father. Born apx 1830-1833 in County Clare, Ireland. He Immigrated to the US in 1851 arriving in New York at Castle Garden. In 1854 he married my 2nd great grandmother. I have documented his life in the US. My issue is that I have never been able to figure out exactly which parish he came from or the names of his parents? My late great aunt wrote some oral history that said his 3 or 4th great grand father might have been John "Fireball" MacNamara? But I'm not so sure, I really don't know. Most of the US records give a dob as 17 March 1833, but I don't believe this is accurate. The documents for his immigration or naturalization give any clues to place of birth or parents names. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Sincerely Shana in Az

 

 

 

 

 

Shana Cardenas

4 replies

Shana:

McNamara was/is a very common surname in Co. Clare. 

Not all RC parishes have records back to 1833 or earlier.

I searched on the subscription site FindMyPast in Co. Clare and located 32 Thomas McNamara baptismal records between 1824-1834 and 5 of the 32 have a father John. The RC parishes for the 5 records were Quin(2) Rath, Kilnoe and Kildysart.

FYI. Age and accuracy of year of birth and birthdays was not as important in the 19th century as it is today. Many immigrants made themselves younger or older when they came to their new country to fit their circumstances. I also always question someone allegedly born on Christmas or St. Patrick's Day.

So we don't know if your Thomas was one of the 32 records I located or if he was baptized in a parish that no longer has records back to 1833. 

Have you considered a DNA test? You may get matches with people who have more info on your McNamara line and where they came from in Co. Clare.

Let me know what questions you have.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you so much for your help Roger

I really appreciate your kindness and looking for records! Where can I see these records? I've always used Ancestry for some 20 yrs with full access. In the past I have looked for help from the Clare County Library.
I have done my Ancestry DNA test, along with several of my siblings and cousins. It's not helped us much in connecting with our paternal side. Sadly my father passed away in 1964 of cancer at age 30.
I've also got our DNA tests on Gedmatch. 
I've always suspected that Thomas dob was made up, because of the date. I'm pretty sure Thomas had no other family that immigrated. I've been able to track each census year for Thomas. They moved from New York to Illinois them to Nebraska where he homestead. They had 11 children, which included 2 died babies. I've documented all the 9 living children. Their eldest child was a male that they named Michael Thomas McNamara born in New York in Sept 1855. My first great grandfather was their youngest child also name Thomas Francis born in 1871. The name Thomas Francis was carried down to the next two generations. Could the name of his first born son be a clue to his fathers name? Do you know of any documented family trees that have been done on Sean Buidhe Mac Conmara, more commonly known as John "Fireball" MacNamara? That documents family further down from him? One more thing is that Thomas married a Catharine Caughlin (sp) in New York she was from County Monaghan with a documented dob of 3 Feb 1836. I'm pretty sure she Immigrated with her parents. And im pretty confident that her parents names were Thomas Caughlin nad a Mary Anna Riley. 
I'd love  to see the records you mentioned. My direct email is cardline1959@gmail.com. Thank you again Shana in Az

 

 

 

Shana Cardenas

Hi Shana!

FYI We refrain from e-mailing posters at their personal e-mail address and we keep our comments on the message board for future reference for anyone searching the same family.

I'm surprised that you did not find the records on Ancestry if you have a World subscription. As background, we normally use the subscription site Roots Ireland for searching for church records. However, their Co. Clare records are incomplete and they don't have all RC parishes. About five years ago, FindMyPast and Ancestry had a joint project to transcribe all of the RC church records found on the NLI data base. For that reason I use FMP to search for Co. Clare records. The Co. Clare Library is a great resource but they do not have an intergrated database of church records.

There was a naming convention in the 19th century and frequently the oldest son would be named after his grandfather. Did this happen in 50% of the baptisms of oldest sons? 70%? No one knows. Possibly Michael was the name of Thomas' father.  I don't know anything about trees for Fireball McNamara.

I searched for a baptismal record for Catherine Caughlin using the parents names you provided but did not find a record. Likely her parish no longer has records back to 1836.

Let me know if you have questions.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you again Roger

Your information is very helpful. Sorry about adding my email. I'll refrain from that. Thank you looking for info on Catherine. I'll keep rearching.... I hope to visit County Clare in the future. Sincerely Shana in Az

 

 

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