I have hit a brick wall & would love some help. I'm trying to find a Patrick Maher who, according to his obituary, was born in Roscrea, County Tipperary with a birth year of 1841. However, census records list his birth year as 1838. The earliest record for him in the U.S. is marriage record in 1861 in New Orleans. I have been unsuccessful in finding him on any passenger list. I sincerely apologize for the vague information.
Hi Erin . . .
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out . . . and to Roscrea, Co. Tipperary . . .
Searching for Maher's. . O'Meara. . . O'Meaghair . . . etc . . is very diffacult . . needle in a haystack stuff . .
when it comes to Maher's . . especially in the area surrounding Roscrea . . . made much more diffacult as Roscrea sits . . within a mile of three
County boundries . . . i.e. Tipperary . . Offaly (a.k.a. Kings Co.) . . and Laoise ( aka Queens Co.) . . .
So if the family was strictly Roscrea Town born . . not much problem there ( see below )
but . . . as in those years . . many families lived off Farming . . with small holdings . . . could be from areas . . in a radius of (say) 10 miles of Roscrea
In my search . . I found a Patrick Maher born 1841 . . from the Town . . (one only . . see attached ) . . . but . . . there many more Partrick Maher's born 1841 . .
in the immediate area surrounding . . . especially Dunkerrin . . a village . . four miles from the Town . . in Co. Offaly.
In the above search I stuck to your date . . . 1841 . . . using " Roots Ireland " . . a paid-for search engine . . .
Then I searched your other date . . 1838
Where I found two possibles . . (attached # 4 # 5 )
and again . . Dunkerrin . . appears a lot . . .
Take a look at the Maher's of Roscrea . . in the Census of 1901 and 1911 . . .
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?searchMoreVisi…
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http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?searchMoreVisi…
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Yes . . I agree . . Passenger Lists for that period are NIL . . .
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Original entries below . . . are from the the books in the St.Cronans R.C. Church . . . and the picture (below) of the beautiful Roscrea Church . .
which Church was funded . . . in large part . . . by the generosity of the people of NEW ORLEANS . . Irish. . circa 1845 onwards.
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So Erin . . . nothing definite for you . . . but keep searching . . and maybe . . some day . . you will come to visit us here in beautiful Ireland. .
Cheers . . Eamonn
Eamonn,
Thank you so very much for your assistance & reply. The information you have provided will help me immensely!
I was unaware the Irish immigrants in New Orleans help fund St. Cronans in Roscrea. I wonder if there were a significant Irish population in New Orleans from Roscrea. Regardless, knowing that & given the timeframe, It's reasonable to assume Patrick Maher probably immigrated directly to New Orleans.
Fortunately, New Orleans has pretty decent passenger manifests, I've just haven't had enough information to make even an educated guess as to which, if any, "P", "Patt" or Patrick Maher born between 1838 - 1841 & arriving before 1861 is the one I'm looking for.
Another thing that works in my favor is that there were less than 10 families of Mahers in New Orleans during the mid 1800's. Unfortunately the 1850 & 1860 census only recorded the name of the head of household & the number of people living in the house but New Orleans does have very good vital & public records.
One thing I failed to mention in my previous post is the there is a Thomas Maher born about 1832 who lived within a 5 minute walking distance from Patrick. These were the only 2 Maher families who even lived in this (odd) section of New Orleans. I suspect they were probably related but I have not found any evidence to prove or disprove the theory.
Now that I have a list of potential parents, thanks to you, I'm confident I may be able to finally trace my lineage in Ireland!! I'm very excited & cannot express how grateful I am.
As far as visiting Roscrea, I fully intend to do so. I would absolutely love to see my ancestral homeland.
There a few questions you may be able to answer for me without doing research. How is Maher pronounced in Roscrea? Are there other pronunciations varients in Ireland that you're aware of? If so, is the pronunciation varients tied to regional location or is it familial? I have heard it pronounced the U.S. as "Marr" & "Ma-HER" but my family doesn't pronounce our name like either of these.
Thanks again for all your help. I will keep you posted on any break throughs.
Hi Erin . . .
I searched Roots . . . for Thomas Maher b.1832 . . . +/- 5 yrs. . . . Roscrea (only) born . . and found only one hit . . spelled . . . Meagher (below)
Yes . . your theory that those listed in New Orleans . . in those years . . could be related . .
often in Irish emigration . . one family member emigrated . . . did well . . . and funded the other members to do likewise . . .
Question . . . do you have the " Christian " names of the 10 Maher's listed in those years ?????? I could try a comparison search . . .
Are you a resident of New Orleans ??
Cheers . . Eamonn.
Pronounced . . . . ma-HER . . . locally