Catherine Monaghan was my great grandmother. She came from Kinvara to Australia in the 1860's. According to a marriage certificate & thebirth certificates of her children here in Australia, her parents names were - Patrick Monaghan & Catherine Kenealy. Birthplace - Kinvara. I have searched Ancestry.com & Roots Ireland & can find no trace of her origin in Galway. Iwould be grateful for some ideas as where to go from here. Thank You. Denyse
Dear Deneyse
Apologies for the long delay in getting back to you. Have you managed to find out any more about the above?
Best wishes
Clare Doyle
Genealogy Support
Dear Clare, I have only just seen your reply - thank you. To answer - no, I haven't found anything on Catherine Monaghan in Ireland. The earliest record I have is her marriage record which unusually (in Australia, at least) contains no information about her parents or birthplace. The marriage record for her 2nd marriage is my source for birthplace & parents. I'd love some more information about Catherine - she led an interesting life here in Australia. I'm planning to come to Ireland in September this year to visit the birthplaces of 7 of my great grandparents. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
Regards, Denyse
Dear Denyse
I suppose there are at least two issues you could consider: (1) Kinvara RC records begin in 1831 so I would wonder if this is the correct place at all given that you have had no luck. When using RootsIreland did you confine the search only to Galway? I would widen it on the off-chance the family moved and Catherine was born elsewhere.
(2) This might be the parish. There are gaps in these records, meaning that some are missing for whatever reason and this obviously impacts on any search.
You may have to consider what other records you can use to fill this gap and it may well be a case of having to conduct an information gathering exercise so that when additional records become available then you will be in a position to consider what is relevant. It seems that from your lack of success that Catherine was born (potentially) prior to 1864 so there may not be a civil record of her birth. You may find that an actual visit to the place during your trip could yield the best results - even though there was a lot of emigration from that part of Ireland remaining families have a surprising ability to recall the names of older families in the area. I hope this helps.
Best wishes
Clare
Genealogy Support