Need help understanding addresses and area's
When I first started looking for ancestors I had a simple goal. It was to find what area of Ireland my great great grandfather came from. I had a clue from my father, Co Cork Ireland he thought. My real goal was to prove we came from Ireland and what town. He also told me we used to have a letter or letters in front of our names. But he had no idea what. It could have been Mc, Mac, O, etc, etc, etc.
Getting across the big pond was the first challenge. Finding what ship (the Superior) only took me to Liverpool where my great great grandfather boarded the ship and that's not Ireland. And that's assuming that he's the right Michael Canty. It was a bank record that I found in the remarks section where we came from. A place five miles from Bantry, Co Cork. I did it, I jumped the big pond I can quit now. Not really because I don't know which direction from Bantry we are from and where it's at on the map.
I have been looking for only two years, I mean really looking. I just started looking again after a bout of illness and a slight depression where I didn't want to do anything for about 6 months. But now my goal has changed to dig deeper and try and become a detective in a way. But I need a lot more information , I need to be educated on Ireland to some degree (a lot).
Hopefully you'll help there. I'm having a slight problem even describing what I would like to know. Reading records and books there are descriptions of places. I know Munster means an area that includes Co. Cork. County Cork is self explanatory. Bantry is a City/Town and can be found on a map. But then a parish is mentioned and things can go no where. Example a parish is mentioned and you look it up on parishes for a county and it's not on the list. Or you put a parish name in and the records refer to it differently. Instead of Durrus the records mention Muintervara. Or you find a record and it gives an address like Killovinough and you have no idea where it's at.
To show why it's important, I'm looking at records from: Area-Cork & Ross (RC), Parish/Church/Congregation-MUINTERVARA looking for just Canty and it brings up a lot of Canty records. Seeing how Michael only seems to be mentioned three times for being a sponsor at 3 weddings I need to find other Canty's trying to place them in an area to see if they are somehow related. Another quick example looking at two records from Area-Cork & Ross (RC), Parish/Church/Congregation-MUINTERVARA show Daniel Canty address as Killovinough and James Callaghan (Mother is Mary Canty) address Coolnohornnan. Are the addresses close to each other? What map do you go to, what book are addresses mentioned. Not knowing the area Muintervara covers, what area a Parish covers and no maps that I know of that shows addresses and not familiar with records, I'm lost.
I hope I didn't lose you in trying to describe a frustration and a road block. I really don't know what Parish to seek out records from. I wrote to the Parish in Durrus and the priest said he would look up some records in a few days seeing how he is the only priest there. The other parishes I have tried to contact have not responded as of yet. My next try will be a snail mail to the parish in Bantry. If I had a better understanding of what the meaning of things actually covered it could possibly help link family's.
I am learning there's a whole lot this old man does not know. What's scary is Michael Canty is only the first I have tried to find. I still have his wife Ann Rogers (no answer from Westmeath as yet), my other great great grandfather Jordan and my grandmother Sharp family and all of them from Ireland.
Thanks in advance
Kind regards
Charlie
