Dear Maurice
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out and apologies for the delay in replying to your message.
As you can see from the link below, Cloyne is a Civil Parish in East Cork:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/townlands/index.cfm?fuseaction=TownlandsInCivil&civilparishid=17&civilparish=Cloyne&citycounty=Cork
Records for the corresponding Roman Catholic Parish of Cloyne begin in 1791 for baptisms and 1786 for marriages. There are some missing dates, notably between 1793 and 1803 for some marriages records. There are 3 Ballycurrane townlands in Ireland according to the 1851 Index of Townlands. From the link you can see that none of the 3 is in Co. Cork:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/placenames/index.cfm?fuseaction=Simp…
What may be the case, as your farmer friend told you while you were last here, is that Ballycurrane is an area smaller than a townland, perhaps a field name of small cluster of houses. One way to try to locate it would be to take a look at the Ordnance Survey Historical Maps. You can pan across the map and zoom into individual areas. You can use the ?Preview Map Series? panel on the right-hand-side of the map to decide which map you want to view. I would suggest the historic maps listed on the panel. I attach the link here: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,591271,743300,0,10
Have you already looked at the sites suggested below to find further records:
www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ have begun a project to upload Irish church records to their site free of charge. However so far only Counties Dublin, Kerry, Carlow and parts of Cork have been covered.
Some other websites that may be helpful are:
Ask About Ireland: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/ where you can see the Griffith?s Valuation for free
The National Archives of Ireland: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
Remember to post any new information that you find here. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.
Best of luck with your search
Clare Doyle
