More O'Learys?

Back in September, I started looking through the Irish Census records and the church records that are available on line for County Cork to start piecing together some of the O’Leary branch of the family tree. I started first looking for my great great grandparents Jeremiah O’Leary and Mary O’Looney. When I found them in the 1901 Irish Census, I culled the information available and added it to my database. Similarly, when I combed through the baptismal records looking for my great grandmother Lizzie O’Leary and her siblings, I added the information found there to my files.

Those searches gave me approximate birth years for my great great grandparents and possible aunts and uncles for my great grandmother. Using that information, I went back to the Irish Genealogy site that has the pre-1900 church records for Counties Cork, Kerry, and Carlow to see if I could track down more information on that group of ancestors. I started with Jeremiah O’Leary. According to the 1901 Census, he was 76 years old which means he was born in about 1825. I plugged his name and approximate birth year into the search engine for the Cork & Ross diocese church records, and up popped 34 baptismal records. Not all were for a child named Jeremiah O’Leary, so I immediately eliminated them. That left me with five possibilities, only one of which was in Ballinhassig (the parish where my great grandmother and her siblings were baptized.) The other parishes I found were Kilmurry, Ovens & Aglis, and Cork South Parish. I looked at the record for the Jeremiah (Jerry) O’Leary who was baptized in the Ballinhassig parish first. His parents’ names were Timothy O’Leary and Joney Neville, so I used that information to see if I could find any siblings that matched up with the names I had found as godparents to my great grandmother and her siblings. I didn’t find any certain siblings. Hmmm. If my guess that the godparents for my great grandmother and her siblings were aunts and uncles, I needed to find a Patrick and Edmund O’Leary. Mary O’Leary was another possibility, but as she and Edmund were both godparents of my great grandmother’s brother (also named Edmund) I suspect Mary is Edmund’s wife.

What I needed was a map. While I’ve visited Ireland, I am not familiar enough with the geography beyond a general knowledge of where the various counties are. The parishes (both civil and religious) and towns are harder to identify without a map. Unfortunately, the Irish Genealogy site doesn’t have a map of the various parishes, so I had to go search for one. I was able to find a variety of maps at the Irish Times. It would be easier to work out which parishes border each other if the Catholic parishes map weren’t broken into three regions, but from what I could work out Ballinhassig parish is bordered by Ballincollig, Innishannon, Clountead, Douglas and Carrigaline parishes. None of those turned up in my search for Jeremiah, but I did notice the parish Ovens located next to Ballincollig. I had a Jeremiah O’Leary baptized in the parish of Ovens & Aglis in my search, that seemed like a good one to check out, so I clicked on his record. His parents were John O’Leary and Joan Mulcahy. I searched again using those options and found an Edmund O’Leary whose parents were named John O’Leary and Joannah Mulcahy who was baptized in the Ovens & Aglis parish in 1829. Hmmm. Joan and Joannah are fairly close, and Edmund O’Leary was one of the godparents I found.

While I’m not completely certain I’ve found the right family, it’s a strong possibility, so I noted down all the information in both baptismal records for Jeremiah and Edmund. I’ll have to do some more digging to see if I can confirm this find, which will definitely be challenging without census records, but hopefully some of the census alternates will prove helpful.

I had no luck searching for a Patrick O’Leary who was about the same age as my great great grandfather Jeremiah. There were several, but none with the same parents or in the same parish.  Perhaps Patrick was a cousin instead of a brother or maybe the record is missing. I don’t have enough information to know either way yet.

Having had reasonable luck with Jeremiah, I turned to my great great grandmother Mary O’Looney.  According to the 1901 census, she was 58 years old which would have her born in about 1843. Nothing turned up with that information, so I looked at the 1911 Census record. The Mary O’Leary I found there is a 73 year old widow which would have her born in about 1838. I tried that date, again no luck. I tried searching with out a date, which gave me many more options and the ability to filter by parish and decade. I found a Mary Looney baptized in February 1835 in Ballinhassig parish. This might be a possibility. Her parents were named Timothy Looney and Lydia Johnson.

As I did with Jeremiah, I did a search on those two last names to see if I could come up with any of the suspected siblings. I came up with 6 names – all children of Timothy Looney and Lydia Johnson in Ballinhassig parish: Mary Looney (17 Feb 1835), Lidia Luony (24 Jan 1837), Timothy Luony (15 April 1838), Eliza Luony (31 March 1841), Margaret Looney (13 June 1847), and George Looney (30 Nov 1852.)  I had found an Eliza Looney in the baptismal records as the godmother of my great great grandmother’s brother William.

Again, I’m not completely certain I’ve found the right family, but it is a strong possibility and I’ve noted all of the information I found. I definitely have some digging to do this year to see if I can find any other information that will support these finds.

I’ve yet to do the same kind of searching on the Colemans, but have that on my to do list for this year as well. That to do list is getting longer by the day!