Blessed Trinity RC Church Record search - Moone

Hi Mel1

The Church of the Blessed Trinity Moone is part of the parish of Narrahmore.  See http://narraghmoreparish.org/ for further information.  I'll gladly give the parish office a ring for you to see what information might be available and how you might acquire it.  They might require proof of your relationship to the people in question and a direct email from you but I will find out and get back to you asap.

Regards

Linda Magee

Kildare Town Parish Liaison

Hi again, if possible can you attach copies of the death certs you have so I have details to give to the parish office if they ask any questions.

Thank you.

Linda

Kildare Town Parish Liaison

thank you    i have attached two documents    one is the death certificate for Teresa MURPHY DOWLING; the next attachment contains the death certificates of Dennis DOWLING and Patrick CASEY.  The birth certificate for my grandfather, Richard DOWLING is also part of the second attachment just because that is the way i recevied the doc from the GRO.

I previously wrote the Narraghmore parish and received a standard reply that they aren't able to do individual genealogical research, which I understand.  That's why I was hoping there might just be an individual in the area who is interested in doing some volunteer searches .

Mary Lowrey

georgia

Hi Mary

Thank you for the information, however, I didn't receive a death cert for Denis Dowling.  If you have one could you send me a copy and if you don't mind can you email a copy of your family tree so I understand where everyone is in it.  I see Patrick Casey was 85 when he died which puts his death at around 1829 so I just want to be sure of where he is in your tree.  Hope that's ok.

Thank you.

Linda

Kildare Town Parish Liaison

Thanks for looking at this for me sorry about the confusion with the attachments. Am (trying to anyway) attaching Pedigree chart from my mother (Kathleen Dowling) backwards. Guess I am truly very confused -- looking back through my records I don't seem to have a death certificate for Dennis after all. I'm thinking now, that when I tried to locate him in the Family Search Irish Civil Index, I was not able to find a reference and therefore didn't try to order a cert from the GRO. I will need to do more research to get that. From family notes and pictures, I do know that he died in 1936 and was living in Ballitore Hills at the time; and I have pix of the Dowling plot in the cemetery of Blessed Trinity - unmarked with an iron celtic cross and railing (he was a blacksmith); it is beside the O'Toole plot and next to the outside perimeter of the cemetery to the right if you are standing in the cem looking at the back of the church.
mary lowrey

Hi Mary

Thank you for the pedigree chart.  It's really helpful.  I can help you fill in another name on it.  Denis Dowling's mother was called Mary.  She appears on the 1901 census living with Denis and his family.  According to the return she is 83 years old making her year of birth around 1818.  Her place of birth is Kildare and she is a widow.  As she does not appear on the 1911 census return you can assume she died some time between 1901 and 1911.

I spoke to the parish secretary in Narraghmore today and she passed my details on to Peter who rang me and took all the details I had from you.  He is going to look at the burial records he has for the Blessed Trinity Church and get back to me.  I wonder how sure are you of the burials being in this graveyard?  You mentioned some photos in your last message, perhaps you could forward them?  If Peter cannot find the burials in that graveyard I wonder should we look elsewhere?

Finally, while searching online for further information on your ancestors I have come across 3 maybe 4 other people also researching the Dowling family in England and Canada.  It appears that your Grandfathers brothers and sisters also emigrated - James and Annie Teresa to the UK and Mary Anne to Canada.  Have you come across these researchers and are you in touch with any of them?  If not I can let you know were I found them.  Most of their posts date from around 2009 but you might still be able to make contact with them.

I will see what else I can find for you and get back to you as soon as I hear from Peter.

Bye for now.

Linda

Kildare Town Parish Liaison

Hi Mary

Just been looking over the certs you sent me and they can give you some extra information.  The marriage cert for Denis Dowling and Teresa Murphy states that their fathers were both living at the time of the marriage.  I am unable to find them on the 1901 census so you can assume they died between 1876 (year of above marriage) and 1901.  Also, the National Library of Ireland holds parish records for Dunlavin Church where they married and if a record of the marriage could be found it might hold addtional information such as the mothers names.  I am hoping to get up to the NLI soon and would be glad to look this up for you.

I'm not sure if you have these details but I found the following civil certificate details:

Marriage of Patrick Casey to Bridget Powell, 1872, Boyle Districk, v9 p49

Birth of Mary Bridget Casey, Oct-Dec 1884, Baltinglass, v2 p376

Marriage of Mary Loughlin to Denis Dowing, Apr-Jun 1892, Baltinglass, v2 p359

I believe these certificates can be purchase online and sent to you by post or email.

Hope the above is of use.

Linda

Hi

Wow -- you are a wonder, thanks so much.   Had trouble getting the picture of the cemetery down to a size that I could attach.  Think I have been successful and it is attached.

My cousins are most likely the people you have found also searching these Dowling / Casey lines.  My grandfather, Richard Michael had three siblings.  James Joseph Francis Dowling emigrated to England first and remained in England, Annie Teresa Dowling also emigrated to England and married into the Houchin family, Mary A Dowling emigrated first to England and then to Canada where she married and raised her family.  Her daughter Bertha Gellow is still alive and has shared what information she has with me.  I have also been in touch with the Houchin descendants. 

As far as the burials in the Blessed Trinity  cemetery, it is all based on family lore.  Through the years, family members have visited Moone and brought back pictures of themselves at the cemetery - showing the grave site with the iron work as the Dowling plot.  Most recent non-familoy corraboration was from Mary Crosby (deceased), daughter of Biddie O'Toole (theirs is the grave plot next to the Dowlings).  Biddie and Mary Dowling were childhood friends who remained in touch through mail.  Mary's daughter, Bertha Gellow visited in the (I believe) 80's and met with Mary Crosby who pointed out the grave to her.  Thus, we are confident that it is the Dowling gravesite -  which Dowlings are actually buried there remains in question.

All of Patrick and Bridget Casey's children emigrated to the US.  In 1920, my grandmother - Mary Casey Dowling - returned to Ire with her 5 children to visit with her widowed mother, who I believe was living in Ballitore by that time, near Bolger's market.  The family remained in IRE until 1922, when they all returned to the US, bringing Bridget with them.  My aunt and uncle  Dennis and Mary Dowling both attended school at Blessed Trinity during their time in Ireland.  I have no sources regarding Patrick's burial in Blessed Trinity, it is just a "best guess" since that was the family's church home for all their lives in Co Kildare.

This is probably more than you really wanted to know, but spinning our stories seems to be an integral part of this whole genealogy thing, right?

Mary

Hi Mary

That's great information to have and should help me narrow down the search.  I hope.

Heading to the cemetary this Saturday to meet Peter (parish contact) who has very kindly offered to help me with the research.  If there is anything else you think of that might help with the research before then please let me know.  I'll get back to you this weekend.

Linda

oh I can't believe this, you are fantastic and thank you so much for going to this trouble for me !!!! I hope you live nearby. I would so love to do an "ancestry com thing" and just fly over there and go with ya'll..... I do know that my families were somehow related / connected to Byrne(s), Bolger, families. See an attached pic of my Aunt Mary (Peggy) Dowling on her trip to Ireland in the 70's.
Great Grandpa and Grandpa (Dennis and Richard DOWLING) owned/operated a blacksmith shop in Moone - I feel reasonably confident that the shop was located in the rear/side of the building directly across the road from the post office and church Much of the ironwork in the area was supposedly done by the Dowlings. -- They lived on the Shackelton property in Ballitore Hills near the Moone High Cross. -

According to the 1911 census Bridget CASEY had 11 children born alive, but only 6 living children. It is possible that some of those 5 n0-longer alive children may be buried at Blessed Trinity as well. Although the family had lived elsewhere earlier on in their lives.

Did I mention that my husband and I were in Ireland in late Nov and we actually drove to Moone, on Sunday the 24. We were able to attend Mass at Blessed Trinity and spend a bit of time talking with the very friendly postmistress at Tom Walls' We weren't really able to chat with anyone at the church about family stuff as they were having a funeral mass for a local gentleman and it just wouldn't have been appropriate. We did get to drive all around the area and take lots and lots of pictures. It's a lovely area and we so thoroughly enjoyed the people and places of Ireland. We flew into Dublin, traveled by trains to visit Cork, Cobh, Killarney,back to Dublin and then to Co Kildare. Loved every minute of it all !!!

ps - the other two pix are Richard and Mary Casey DOWLING wedding picture - 1913, USA; 3 generations of CASEY women (taken in Ireland I think abt 1922) Bridget Powel CASEY, Mary Casey DOWLING, unk woman, children - Mary and Kathleen DOWLING.

again, thanks
Mary Lowrey

Hi All,

Are there any MOONEY families in the Parish of Moone and how far back do they go.

Trying to trace my family tree.

Regards

John Mooney

Hi All,

Are there any MOONEY families in the Parish of Moone and how far back do they go.

Trying to trace my family tree.

Regards

John Mooney

Hi John

I think you may have posted your message in the wrong place.  It has appeared at the end of a thread specific to a different family query.

If you go back to 'Post a Message' and find the parish of Moone, under Leinster and Kildare, you should post your message there with whatever details you can relating to your own family.

Thank you.

Linda

Kildare Town Parish Liaison

Hi Mary

I visited the village of Moone today and met with Peter Devlin, the caretaker at the Blessed Trinity Church.  He is a lovely man and very very helpful.  So, there is good news and bad news.

The bad news is unfortunately the parish records, including the burial records for the graveyard, were all destroyed in a fire.  So I'm afraid at the minute there is no way of confirming who is buried in the plot you have identified as being Denis Dowling's grave.  There are at least 10 other plots with Dowling burials and all with headstones, so maybe some of them are relatives.

The weather was pretty wet today so I was only able to take a few photos (see attached) but will be going back on a nicer day to take some notes and look again at the names.

The good news is that Peter, who I already said is very helpful, has offered to do some research in Moone by asking around (he is from Moone himself) and seeing what he can find out about your family.  I am hoping he might confirm where your GGrandfathers forge was and where Mrs Gray (your Grandmothers friend) lived.  Peter thinks he knows 'the big stone house' you mentioned and that the Gray family are still living there.  So maybe that will bring something of interest.  Peter was also able to tell me that the hall beside the church (photo attached) would have been the school in the 1920's when your grandmother returned and your aunts and uncles attended school.

I have to look again for Patrick Casey's grave, hopefully on a dry day.

Finally, I have been looking at the Kildare Observer which is archived and free to search online (link below) and found one definite reference to Denis Dowling (attached).  Other articles have come up relating to Dowlings but I cannot say if they are related to your family.

I realise I might have missed some of the things you mentioned but I hope this is of help and will do some more research.

All the best.

Linda

Kildare Observer: http://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/olive/apa/KCL.Edu/

Again, what can I say except THANKS !!!!!  that is such an inadequate word sometimes, and this is certainly one of those times.  To think you would do all this wonderful research -- wow

am so excited just to be able to share what you've done and found with my cousins; they are going to be excited too.     I had to laugh at the part about the fire;  in USA it seems that almost every county (similar I think to your parishes / districts) courthouse in the south has had at least one fire in which all the records were destroyed.  So, this is sad, but not totally unexpected news.

How kind of Patrick to take the puzzle on and be willing to ask about my family.  If only I had been interested in all of this 30 years ago when there were still people in the area who were alive who had known my grandparents and their famlies.  But then, that is such a familiar saying, isn't it?  Many of these questions will just have to wait until Heaven when we will meet these folks and learn it all for ourselves. 

Love the pictures you have sent and the newspaper article.  I will spend much delightful time perusing the link to the newspapers.

If you ever have any need to do research in Georgia, please let me know and I'll be thrilled to try to help.

Again, thank you

Mary Lowrey