Hi Beverly,
Thank you for your message.
I did a search for Beamish and Swetnam in the two land records pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century.
The earlier one is the Tithe Applotment Books(1823-1838). The following results were returned for Beamish in Lahanacht:
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?surname=beamish&firstname=&county=Cork&parish=drinagh&townland=Lahanaght&search=Search
No results for Swetnam
The later record is Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) Results came back for a Eleanor Beamish and a Margaret Beamish who were both renting land from a Stephen Swetman in 1853, which seems to tie in with what you were told:
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&familyname=swetnam&firstname=&offset=40&countyname=CORK&parishname=&parishname&unionname=&baronyname=&totalrows=43&PlaceID=0&wildcard=
It does seem as though you are looking in the correct place.
Catholic church records for the area are actually available online for at http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/
You can use the Irish TImes websites to see what records are available in the parish, records here start in 1817:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Cork%20South-West&parish=Drimoleague&churchid=46
To see what churches are in the parish of Drimoleague/Drinagh follow this link:
http://www.corkandross.org/parishes.jsp?parishID=27
Also, civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 so any births, deaths or marriages in the family after this date would be recorded in these records. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:
http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You can search the indexes to these records online at:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
Some other websites that you may find useful for your research are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/cork/index.html
Family Search: www.familysearch.org
Failte Romhat: www.failteromhat.com
Finally, we have recently added a link to the top of our page for those who are planning on visiting in 2013. It takes you to a short web form. We would really appreciate it if you could take a moment to complete it. Thank you!
All the best,
Genealogy Support
