To mix or not to mix, that is the question.
Well, I figure a title should give the thrust of the dilemma here, and you have to read this whole thing anyway, no matter how respectably the title summarises the quest.
So let's start with the black and white record. Well, not quite. Open up the .pdf and see the birth entry of first born daughter Eliza Jane Kincade. Now the spelling of Kincade lends itself to some mangling, the alternate list supplied by the search of rootsireland.ie is generous in its length. Just to muddy the waters, as if they ever weren't, Robert Kincade used an alias of Hill, sirname. So he is Robert Kincade or Robert Hill.
The entry for Robert Kincade one has interpreted for me as Kiltyclogher, and that makes for a big problem. It looks more like Kelly Clocher, but what's new? His birth is circa 1838 (1868-30). So, off to the search at http://leitrim.rootsireland.ie, and the blanks come up one by one for a predicted 'respectable' match.
The sticky thing here is that my ancestor Mary Delany, born Templemartin, Kilkenny, 1847, was Catholic. She married Robert Kincade in Geelong in 1867, the birth certificate displays that. (In fact that's a lead I got to follow up, see if they were married in the church, likely they were). The only hits I get on Robert Kincade are not quite 1838, but more importantly, they are CHURCH OF IRELAND. Now how Irish is that? Well, I think not.
question 1. Would a Mary Delany in 1867 in her right mind ever concede to marry a protestant Irishman?
question 2. Does this suggest she really wasn't in her right mind? Hint, she had 13 children to him.
Now I think the answer he lies in the relative shallowness of the records. It appears I may be fishing in a fishless pond.
Now, the final hints. Kiltyclogher exists, it's a CIVIL PARISH. Robert has reported what's listed as a civil parish or region of Leitrim as his place of birth.
question 3. Do the Civil records of bdm in Leitrim really begin only from 1866? If so I'm sunk.
Well, it seems this is the case. Irish records are just patchy. I have his death cert. and on entering his mother and father's names, it draws a blank. The religious aspect aside, it proves I'm fishing for something that just isn't there.
question 4. If so, will this ever be rectified?
question 5. Does this prove he was not a Catholic?
question 6. Is there a parish that corresponds to Kiltyclogher under Catholic rule in 1838? Kiltoghert perhaps??????
Consider this cancelled.
