Connecting from Australia back to Ireland.
My great grandfather, Terrence Slattery, had his place of birth listed as Tipperary on his marriage certificate in 1879 when he married Anastasia Hennessy of Enniscorthy, Wexford on a gold field in North Queensland, Australia. His father was Patrick Slattery, farmer, and his mother was Mary Murphy. According to that certificate, he was 28 years old then, making his year of birth approximately 1851.
However, his death certificate indicated that in 1916, he was 68 years old. That could mean he was born in 1848.
Anastasia and Terry had four children - Patrick John who died in infancy, Anne who died at 1 year old, and Mary Ann and Sarah who survived, married and had children. Interestingly, Terry has identified Kilbenny (sic) Limerick as his birth place on Mary Ann's birth certificate. His age in November 1885 was 35 years old, which could indicate he was born in 1850.
Terry had a brother John who was also a miner in North Queensland. His death certificate says he was born in Limerick . He was 57 when he died in 1904, so he was born in approximately 1847. John did not marry, according to his death certificate.
Given that Slattery, Patrick and Mary are very common names in Munster, does anyone have any suggestions ? This web site has given me the fact that there were 270 Slattery families in Tipperary , 101 in Limerick and 91 in Clare in 1851-52 so it could be quite a task to work out which family is the correct one and very expensive too. The family was Roman Catholic.
As an extra comment, Slater's Comercial Directory of Ireland - Munster 1846 listed two stone masons in Mitchelstown - Martin Slattery in New Square and Thomas Slattery in Robert St. Goodness knows if they remained in Tipperary.
On the off chance, as Martin hasn't popped up frequently as a first name, I checked on the Queensland BDM. Sure enough, there was a Martin Slattery, son of James Slattery and Julia Flattery, who died in 1926 in Brisbane. Might be the same person, might not be, but it could be a start for someone.