Looking for John O'Leary born in 1844

Dear Maureen,

Welcome to Tralee parish. Can you give us some more information? What information do you have about John's birthplace and where did you find it? Do you know his parents names? Do you know if his wife was from the same parish in Ireland?

If you know where John married in Philadelpia his marriage record may identify his parents names and his parish of origin. Sometimes gravestones/obituaries give an exact location. It would be useful to check the details for Jeremiah at the same time as they could lead you to John.

The link for church baptisms online is http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie

Civil Registration of John's birth is unlikely since it was not required before 1864.

The link for burials (incomplete) is http://www.kerrylaburials.ie/en/Index.aspx

Griffith's Valuation, a list of taxable head of households is here http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch John's father might be on this list.

Once we have a place of birth, you can write to the church that holds his baptism records. If it is not possible to narrow down his parish of origin, it may be neccessary to use a process of elimination.

I look forward to hearing from you very soon Maureen.

Martine

Hello martine,

 Thank you for responding and your suggestions on where to search. I'll check the sites you sent me and see what I can find. I only have John's birthdate as Jan or June 1844 from the 1900 US census. I can't determine the exact month because the writing is not clear. Since I have no other information on either John or his brother/cousin Jeremiah O'Leary I know it's hard to find him. The passenger list for John only has Ireland, no townland listed.

  Both men married sisters named Harrigan/Horgan in Phila and raised their families there. I'm trying to use the Irish naming patterns of their children to try and determine what the parents names might be. There were many O'Learys in Phila at that time, in looking through records it seems some were from Tralee. They all lived in the same Phila neighborhood. I have been tyring to locate more info through the Catholic church they attended but they were unable to find a marriage for John O'Leary & Julia Harrigan. I have orded the records for that period from Family Search and will be going to the center this week to see if they are listed.

 John, Julia and Jeremiah used to live right on the river in Phila near the dock for the ships that came from Ireland. Julia used to meet the new arrivals and help them out.

 I have a tape recording from their grand daughter from back in 1977 when she was 83 and she had a great memory and recalled stories of the family. She said both were from Kerry. That family had Julia's name as Horgan where my family had Harrigan. They are hard to find in Kerry too.

 I will check out the sites you sent me and view the marriage records this week. Hopefully I can get back with you next weekend with more information. I appreciate your help, I know my time is running out to find their townland before I come to Ireland in June. Are you located in Tralee?

Thanks,

  Maureen

Dear Maureen, I am just back from a week away. I look forward to hearing from you and to see if anything turned up in your search. You wil find that Horgan can be spelled Hourigan, Harrigan, Horrigan. Sometimes as spelling became more uniform, you may even find different branches of the same family with different spellings.

Although you would be unable to verify the information yet, you might try emailing St. John's RC Parish, Tralee at stjohnscastlestreet@eircom.net with John's name and probable birth date to see if they can find a record of a birth.

I can find only one John O'Leary for Tralee in Griffith's Valuation 

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&Submit.x=32&Submit.y=11&Submit=Submit&familyname=O%27Leary&firstname=First+Name&baronyname=&countyname=KERRY&unionname=&parishname=TRALEE

If John's father was John and Tralee is accurate this could be a lead

Have the family gravestones got any more detail? Or does anyone in your family have old Memorial Cards?

Yes, I do live in Tralee after many years away.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Martine

Hello Martine,

  Thanks for your links for the O'Leary's.  I came up with John O'Leary as being from Tralee from a ship passenger list from Ireland to Phila and the address was near where I had located the O'Leary family living in Phila. There were several O'Learys in Phila from Tralee. This week I reviewed the films I ordered from the Family Search site, but I was unable to locate my great grandparents marriage mainly because the record book and handwriting was hard to read.

 I have tried every site I can locate to find him but have had no luck. There are no family members living that could help me or my cousins in our search and the cemeteries have no birth information on the gravestones, only their names. Their death certificates have no parents names, just the birth year, the information was given by their children who most likely did not know that information either. I can relate to that since none of my cousins or I had written down any family history information except what related to their lives in Phila. What a shame I did not ask questions!

 I am going to continue to search in County Kerry until I leave for Ireland. I will be in Kerry for 2 days near Kilarney so maybe I can search there. Thanks again for your help.

Maureen

Dear Maureen, these are the O'Leary's living in Tralee in 1901

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=O+Leary&firstname=&county=Kerry&townland=&ded=Tralee&age=&sex=&search=Search&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=

I would urge you to contact St John's RC Parish Tralee to see if you can get any lead on John's parents before you come. It may save you from a wild goose chase when you get here.

In the meantime, I will keep searching.

Martine