Margaret Culloty/McCarthy

I’m in search of my great-grandmother Margaret Culloty/McCarthy. I have found information on her, some of it conflicting, and would love to find her birthplace and or her parents.

According to the death certificates of her Ireland-born children, her maiden name was Culloty. I found her marriage to Michael Casey in 1854, recorded in the RC parish of Castle Island on Irish Genealogy.ie This confirmed the 1875 city directory in New Orleans, Louisiana listing Margaret Casey as the widow of Michael. The Castle Island parish records indicate they had the following children:

Catherine Casey bap. 18 Jul 1855, Mary Casey bap. 17 Jun 1861, Johanna Casey bap. 3 May 1863, Eugene Casey bap. 14 Jul1865, Margaret (Maggie) Casey bap. 24 Sep 1867

Eugene and Maggie immigrated with their parent/s(?) and appear in the 1880 U.S. Census with their mother. I have found nothing further on Michael, Catherine, Mary or Johanna, either in Ireland or the U.S. Another mystery surrounds Anne (Annie) Casey b. 1869. According to her death certificate, Michael and Margaret were her parents but I did not find a record for her in Castle Island parish records and she was not included in the 1880 U.S. Census household. She is recorded as my grandmother's half sister and buried in the family plot. Family myth said that Margaret had born a child in the U.S. conceived in Ireland and perhaps Annie was that child.

Margaret Culloty is in and of herself a mystery, both in terms of her age and her maiden name. She married a second time in New Orleans, Louisiana to Michael Bartholomew Lynch (my great-grandfather) and the marriage license recorded her parents as Eugene McCarthy and Mary Fitzgerald. Where McCarthy comes from I don’t know but the now-past generations spoke of McCarthy relatives.

In the 1880 U.S. Census Margaret is listed as 32 years old (4 years older than her second husband) which would put her birth year as 1848. However, that would mean she married Michael Casey when she was 6, highly unlikely. On the other hand, her obituary said she was 47 years old at her death, making her birth year 1838 and 16 at her first marriage, much more probable.