My great grandfather, Thomas Cox, was born in County Mayo in 1831, anyone old enough to remember him? OK then, are there any Coxes still living in the region perhaps? He became the Rev Thomas Cox and married a Mary Jane Fisher in Cumbria and they changed their name to Fisher-Cox (her father was James Fisher, who started the world's first shipping line - astute marriage that).
The English marriage certificate should give you Thomas’s father’s name. That may help locate the family in Mayo. Also you don’t say what denomination Rev Cox was but I’ll assume Church of England or Ireland. If so, check in Crockford’s clerical directory. It should list his career details and may give you details of his place of birth and parentage.
Looking at Griffiths Valuation for Co Mayo in 1856 there were 106 Cox households in the county at that time.
Thank you very much for that information, Elwyn. You obviously know the ropes, unlike me. Oddly, my father never spoke about his early life and never mentioned any of his family. The only things he ever told me was that he went to Royal Portora school ( later to Trinity and then Oxford) and that he caught trout by tickling them under the bank of a stream! And that was all. Zilch, zero, nothing else. However, when I try to tell my children and grandchildren about my past life growing up in Africa, their eyes glaze over and they suddenly remember they forgot to do something.
Chris
P.S 106 Cox households in Mayo? Was there nothing to do there in the evenings?!