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Whelan's of Queens County

My great great great grandfather John Whelan was born in 1831 in Queens County to Michael Bryan Whelan and Margaret Dunn. John's siblings were Catherine Black (born 1822) who emigrated to the USA, Patrick (born 1824), Eliza Hyland (born 1834), and Narah Courtnay (dob unknown). I have the records (death & marriage) for John and Patrick. I know nothing else of the parents or siblings.

Patrick, then John with Eliza emigated to Victoria Australia, Patrick in 1853, he must have said that he was doing well in Australia because John and Eliza emigrated to Portland Victoria in 5th September, 1855 on the "Cairngorm".

I cannot find any birth records for Michael and Margaret Whelan or their children. I was wondering if anyone had been reseraching records for County Laois? Marriage records for Michael or Margaret? I hope I have provided enough information.

Greg Whelan

Greg

3 replies

Greg:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Like you, I could not find the marriage record for Michael and Margaret or baptismal records for children. Five of the RC parishes in Co. Laois do not have records back to the time period of your interest. Possibly they family belonged to one of thos parishes and the records were lost.

I did check the Tithe records from the 1820s and there were 16 Michael and four Michl Whelan records in Co. Laois. You could use those records as possible leads http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/index.jsp  of where they lived.

You may also want to consider autosomal DNA testing.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi,

I have a James Whelan (my great grandfather) born (according to his army records) in Rathdowney in 1837.  On his marriage in 1880 (after getting out of the army in 1879) he names his father as Timothy.  I have not been able to locate his birth.  On other records he just names Queens County as his place of birth with DOB ranging from 1835 to 1839 but mostly 1837.  He is 20 when he enters the Army in 1857.. Most of his army service was in India.  Grateful for any help thanks. Bev Mclernon

 

 

 

bevmclernon@gm…

Hi Greg,

not sure whether this is still relevant after so long but my maternal grandfather was Thomas Whelan, from Queens County (Laois).  His father was also Thomas Whelan who married Elizabeth Connolly in New Zealand in 1885.  On the marriage certificate it lists his parents as John Whelan and Elizabeth Dunne.  From New Zealand they went to Bega, NSW, Australia where their 5 children were born between 1889 and 1895 before returning to Ireland where they lived in Maryborough.  At some stage after 1911 my grandfather returned to Australia before enlisting in the army during WW1.

Anne Baker 1

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