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John Fair born Clonakilty C1805

CorkKilgarriffe (Cork)

I am looking for information about my 3 x great grandfather John FAIR who was born in Clonakilty C1805, joined the British Army (94th Regiment of Foot) at Manchester in February 1826, probably married Eliza Jane CAREY, ended up with Army in India where he was discharged in 1848 and died in Madras (Chennai) in 1852. The person whom I believe may have been his daughter Eliza,married James JACKSONin India and came to New Zealand in 1864. I plan to visit Ireland in mid-August this year and would be most grateful for any information, or contacts, or suggestions re sources or accommodation etc etc ......

Deirdre Dale

IrelandXO member

4 replies

Deirdre:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

You don't mention the religious denomination for the Fair family but if they were Roman Catholic, the records for Clonakilty start in 1809 http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0033   I checked on www.irishgenealogy.ie and did not see any baptismal reocrds for possible siblings to John in Clonakilty. I also checked the Tithe listings for Kilgarriff parish and there were no Fair/Phair records.

Any other clues? Have you considered autosomal DNA testing?

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Roger    Thanks for your speedy response.    The family were Roman Catholic.  No other clues unfortunately.     I have done the FTDNA test (including autosomal) some years ago but there is no Fair in my matches - nor any mention of Clonakilty.    I'll take another look at the Parish records.     The birthdate of 1805 was an estimate from when he enlisted in the British Army in 1826, he put his age as 21 years.         Deirdre

 

IrelandXO member

Well, that was a great idea.   I looked in the Irish Catholic Parish Marriage records and FOUND Eliza Carey married to a John Far (but the image definitely looks like Fair to me) 20 Feb 1824 - at Bandon.    And that's about 23 km from Clonakilty.   Very exciting!    I've been looking for that for more than 30 years.     I've also found a John Fair 24 July 1851 Griffiths Valuation transcription - in Ballymacowen Townland, Kilnagross Civil Parish.   Might that be another Parish to check?    Deirdre

IrelandXO member

Deirdre:

Ballymacowen is only 11 miles from Bandon. Also, the RC parish for Kilnagross civil parish is Clonakilty. Ballymacowen is about 2.5 miles from Clonakilty.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

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