Dwyer-Houlihan marriage

Duplicate message.

Hi

Its possible no link at all but I thought I would mention it. I have my relatives as John sullivan and Mary Dwyer in 1794.  They had 6 children and one who is my decendent Mary born 1805, had her baptism in June 1805. The priest is listed as Rev J Huolihan.  From the information given to me very kindly on this site their last child seems to be Catherine 1808. From there i have not found any information on John sullivan and Mary Dwyer.  Hope you did not mind me leaving a comment  .

A quick look at the Kerry Chruch Records on the free site Irishgenealogy.ie shows the baptism of Timothy Houlihan, the son of John Houlihan and Mary Dwyer in 1848 in the parish of Sneem, County Kerry. Even today Sneem is about an hour's drive from Killarney so while It's possible that your Mary Dwyer came from the parish of Killarney, more likely she was from Sneem - certainly in the 1840s Killarney would have been the landmark town from people from a smaller place like Sneem. However, from a quick look at the records, it appears that both Dwyer and Houlihan are names local to Sneem so far more likely John Houlihan and Mary Dwyer were from that parish. A cursory look at the records did not turn up a marriage record for them in either Killarney or Sneem - had they married in Killarney in the 1840s I suspect the record would exist, but I have no idea as to the state of the Sneem parish records. Nonetheless if Sneem was not on your radar screen before, I would suggest investigating is as your ancestors place of origin.

Thanks i will check that name as its not one i have heard from. Another gentleman posted a lot of information for me which seems to place them in Killarney but i will keep hunting . Good luck with your research

Thanks Edward--I do find a record for the baptism of Timothy Houlihan, child of Mary Dwire and John Houlihan, in Kilcrohane parish. St. Michael's would be the local Catholic church, I assume.

Ellen Houlihan

Ellen, not sure why you would be looking in the Parish of Kilcrohane which is in West Cork, if you are certain of a Kerry origin for the Houlihan/Dwyer family and the Parish of Sneem would be much closer to Killarney than Kilcrohane. This is the Sneem record and I wouldn't dismiss simply because of a date variant between 1847 and 1848 unless you know that the family had already left the country before 1848. People often didn't know or recall their exact birthdates.

NameTIMOTHY HOULIHAN

Date of Birth5 August 1848 (BASED ON OTHER DATE INFORMATION)

AddressNR

Father JOHN HOULIHAN

Mother MARY DWYER

Further details in the record

Father Occupation NR

Sponsor 1PATRICK HOULIHAN  Sponsor 2  ELLEN DWYRE

Priest REV. P. HAMPSTON

Thanks Edward.  Somehow I had understood that Kilcrohane and Sneem were located close to each other. I did contact the diocese of Sneem and the above is all they could find. The person who wrote me (secretary to Fr. Liam O'Brien at St. Michael's) says I should try the Registrar of Births/ Deaths and Marriages in Killarney and Kenmare, but didn't have email addresses.

--Ellen

Hi Ellen,

My apologies - Apparently the Catholic parish of Sneem is located in or at least partially in the Civil parish of Kilcrohane. The Kilcrohane I am familiar with is a town in West Cork and not associated with the Civil Parish in Kerry called Kilcrohane. I know it can be confusing distinguishing between the Civil Parish, which is an old governmental designation once used and the Catholic parish which usually does not have exactly the same boundaries. But again my apologies for possibly confusing you.

I'm sure the parish secretary meant well in directing you to the Registrar of Births and Deaths but if your family left before 1864, when registration for Catholics began, it will not have direct information for you. However, most of those records are online now and available free under the Civil Records tab at irishgenealogy.ie so you might want to peruse the Houlihan and Dwyer records for the Sneem parish area in the 1860s - it might give you a sense of the townland where your family once and perhaps still lives.

Best,

Ed