Leary/ O'Leary

Hi Robin,

Thank you for your message.

Have you tried looking in church records to see if you can find more information? If you could find Michael and Mary?s marriage certificate it may list their fathers? names, even better you may be able to find their birth records.

You can see what Catholic records are available in the parish on the Irish Times website:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Kerry&parish=Ardfert&churchid=648

Irish Genealogy have started a project where they are uploading church records to their website free of charge. Only a small number of counties have been covered so far but this includes Co. Kerry so hopefully you should be able to find more records here: http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/

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 up until 1958 online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

You could also check for record of the family in the land acts pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century. There are two:

The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Have you tried searching for the family in the 1901/1911 census records? These can offer lots of useful information:http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Some other websites that you may find useful 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

Family Search: www.familysearch.org

Genealogy links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/kerry/index.html

You could also try contacting the Local Studies Department of Kerry Co. Library to see if they can offer any assistance. Here is their webpage:

http://www.kerrylibrary.ie/local.asp

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support