Hi Paddy,
Thanks for your message. I'm afraid I don't have many answers to your questions. I received the family information in the records of the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly through research conducted for me by the Tipperary Family History Research office. They are the ones who gave me 2 separate families with similar children's names and dates but with different parents' names. All of them were in the Thurles parish.
Through Ancestry.com I have been able to contact some other descendants of the family who also live in the U.S., and they are just as confused as to which family to follow as I am. I'm afraid none of us know anything about knicknames to identify the families. Some of the people in the Ancestry.com list later died in the Grange and Mullanbrack areas. I don't know if this is any help.
There are so many John, William, Thomas, Margaret, Ellen, and Bridget names that it is hard to keep them straight. I know our great-grandmother Margaret Ethel Birmingham Burke always went by the name of "Maggie" and her mother, Bridget Nolan Birmingham was listed on the immigrant ship records as "Biddy". In the baptismal records, the mother, Margaret, was sometimes referred to as "Peggy" and the father as "Frank" instead of Francis. I'm sure these are not the knicknames to which you are referring as they are pretty commonly used by everyone.
If you are able to come up with anyone there who may know something about these families, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, if needed, I can email copies of the baptismal records given to me through the research. I did not get any certificates, only a listing of the information in the Archdiiocese records. Perhaps the sponsors for the baptisms could help with identification.
Thanks again for your message. I appreciate your willingness to try to help.
Darline Burke