Hi,
Thank you for your message.
Unfortunately it may be difficult to find information on John without a more specific place of origin, preferably a parish. Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a specific location within Ireland, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.
Things are made more difficult by the fact that Culhane is quite a popular name in Limerick:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=
Do you have any documentation pertaining to the family that mentions any place names at all? This can include wills, marriage/death records,census records, letters, diary entries etc.
There are some places where you can search online, however it may be difficult to discern whether the results are relevant to your family or not without more information:
www.familysearch.org has a huge database of genealogical records including some church records for Ireland.
www.rootsireland.ie have a large collection of Irish Church records, however you have to pay to use this site.
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ have begun a project to upload Irish church records to their site free of charge. However so far only Counties Dublin, Kerry, Carlow and parts of Cork have been covered.
Do you know their parents names? If you do and if they died after 1864 which is the year civil registration began you should be able to find their death records in civil records which may help narrow down place of origin. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:
http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You can search the indexes to these records online at:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
Some other websites that may be helpful are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
Genealogy Links Limerick:http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/limerick/index.html
Genealogy Links Kerry: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/kerry/index.html
Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/index.htm
Family Search: www.familysearch.org
Remember to post any new information that you find here. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
