Hi Ireland XO! I really appreciate your site! I'm looking for confirmation or not, of my hypothesis regarding identity of 3X great aunt Catherine Forde b. 1841 New Birmingham (Gortnahoe parish- poorly transcribed record) of Timothy Ford and Mary Common or Cummins. Female sponsor is Catherine Doyle. She may have changed her name to Barbara from Catherine.
Your latest NEWS article mentioned a child could be baptised with one name and use another. I'm thinking this must have happened with Catherine whose name through DNA matching with myself and 6 close cousins/1 sib and descendant (Ellen Contarino) of 'Barbara/Catherine' living currently in Florida. We all match between 16 and 66 cMs with Ellen whose ancestor was: Barbara Ford.
I am thinking Catherine and Barbara were one and the same. Why she changed at some point from Catherine to Barbara is a mystery. My 2X great grandmother Ellen Ford-Morris 1849-94 New Birmingham, Co Tipperary was youngest sister to Catherine/Barbara..She named her 2nd daughter Barbara (none of her 4 daughters were named Catherine). Barbara is not a common Irish name in the 1800s I've been told. We have NO Catherines in our Irish line until 1929. No other Barbaras in Gortnahoe parish records until my 2x great aunt Barbara Ford-Morris was baptised 1879 New Birmingham.
Ellen Contarino from Florida said she got her information about her grandmother/great grandma? Barbara, from her headstone in Mobile, Alabama...."Barbara McGrath m. P. McGrath Born 1842? New Birmingham, Co. Tipperary, Ireland." No other records for her exist except she had gotten the name Ford from family lore...nothing on the marriage certificate to Patrick McGrath (Am Civil War times...like now!)
So maybe her Godmother Catherine Doyle was her aunt on her mother Mary Common side (I can't locate anything about the Common/Cummins family as I think parish records were destroyed in 1820s when Mary and Tim Ford married? Their first child was Bridget b. 1830 in Cappa White. (oldest record I have). They then moved to New Birmingham to be National School Teachers.
Research: Catherine Ford was named after someone on her mother's side (3rd daughter)...maybe Catherine Doyle? Then at some point her name changed to Barbara and she emigrated to America (Mobile) to help Patrick McGrath with 2? small children whose mom had died. She and Patrick went on to have 2 daughters (Mary and Catherine) and 2 sons. Barbara passed in 1898 in Mobile and is buried there.
I know we're related to Ellen Contarino as DNA proves it! (among 8 relations through GED Match).
Hypothesis: Catherine and Barbara are one in the same. (does my rationale bear out? Any other comment?)
Thanks for your opinion or confirmation!
Katy (kathleen) Valdez, Oregon (counties tipperary and Galway from Ford(e), Common/Cummins, Bourke, Morris, etc.