Exploring Cork’s St. Finbarr’s South Parish

Exploring Cork’s St. Finbarr’s South Parish

Susan Sacks and her daughter Rachel Drake, from America, could trace their ancestor William Loony (born 1809) to St. Finbarr’s South Parish in Cork City. They wanted explore the area, learn anything further from the records and walk in the footsteps of their ancestors.

They met IrelandXO volunteer Kieran Jordan who introduced them to the area. St. Finbarr’s South parish church was built in 1766 and is the same building that their ancestors attended. The address given for their ancestors was St. Barry’s. As there doesn’t appear to be a current location called St. Barrys, this could refer to St. Finbarr’s Road or St. Finbarr’s Street, which are in the area. Although these areas are very different than they were in the early 1800s when William was born there, we visited them as it gave a sense of proximity to the church and was an introduction to the general area.

We also visited St. Mary’s Cathedral on the north side, where one of their ancestors was married.

From the records, Susan and Rachel learned that the church records for St. Finbarr’s South are freely available at irishgenealogy.ie. They also learned the importance of spellings in doing a search. For example, different search results were obtained using Looney and Loony. They discovered siblings of William. They also learned William’s mother’s name as Johanna Barry, rather than Johanna Bony.

Susan and Rachel were deeply appreciative of the help and guidance they received from IrelandXO and said that their trip to Cork and the home of their ancestors was a dream come true.