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Lawless family in Navan

MeathNavan (Meath)

I am researching my family history. Relevant records show Peter Lawless abt.1765 and Jane Bronogue producing children between 1782 and 1792 and with all being baptised in Navan. I am seeking baptism details of another child born abt. 1814 named Patrick Lawless. I am positive that during my research in Australia I found an account of baptism for Patrick naming Peter and Jane as the parents but I stupidly did not record the site information and now I cannot find the information again. It is my belief that Patrick is the much younger sibling to the other children. With the 22 years between 1792 and 1814 births it is fair to assume that the parents may have moved away from Navan and this has made it a lot harder for me to search for information.

Patrick was tried and convicted in Dublin in early 1831 and then transported to Australia where he assumed the name of John Francis Lawless and this name has been accepted by many online family tree owners as true and correct.Ironically, Patrick did have a brother named John abt.1782 and also a brother named Francis abt 1786. Francis was convicted in 1807 and transported to the colony in 1809 where he became quite successful . I have no idea where the 1831 stealing offence took place, Navan or Dublin, but I am hopeful that the court records may show parentage/ residential details at the time of the trial.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Marilyn Kewin nee Lawless c 1950

alan kewin

3 replies

Marilyn, I had a look on Roots Ireland at the baptisms or some of them anyway and could not find a Patrick born to those parents in Ireland but a random thing I noticed was a witness to one baptism was a Sherlock lady and in 1799 in Darver, Louth about 15 miles from Navan there is a Patrick born to a Peter Lawless and an Ann Sherlock with a witness Mary Sherlock, wonder if he remarried. Howver the only marriage I found was not to a Sherlock post 1790. 

Roots Ireland is good for baptisms etc in the church records however there are gaps and the only other suggeestion I can give you is to have your own read of the registers here but not a task I envy you, the registers are here but only searchable by month and year. I now see that it only goes to 1813 and then a large gap. You can look at Roots Ireland to see if they have it or it may be totally lost, https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0955 

Sorry the news is not better,

Regards

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for your reply Pat,

 

I have previously looked through every month and year of the Roots records to May 1813 but without success.The question remains for me as to where I did see the baptism record if not on one of the well known online search sites where I should be able to retrieve that same record again.  Do you have any knowledge if family details were included in the Court documents of a person charged in early 1831 at Dublin CCC?  Patrick was 17 years old in 1831 and I am hoping that the names of his parents may have been included because of his young age.

 

Regards, Marilyn

alan kewin

Hi Marylin, as far as I know there is not too much on the transportation records here, lost in 1922 civil war, however I think if the family wrote for clemency etc they were recorded, the National Archive site had the info. See https://www.nationalarchives.ie/ I do not hold out great hope here.

Also Find My Past has court records and the best place for newspapers is the British Newspaper Archive as it was all British then so to speak. Find My Past also has papers, both are subscription but you can join for a short period. 

There is a Navan History group and they are on Facebook, however history groups are often not too interested in genealogy.

If the baptism is not on Roots and the NLI site does not have baptisms for 1814 they are lost if they were kept, the priest may have left and the next one not bother but that is unlikely as they were diligent it would appear in Meath from early times, Catholic Emancipation only came in 1829 so the Penal Laws were previous but not sure when they ended, must learn here, the established religion was Church of Ireland. 

Regards

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

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