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Hi, I am looking for information about Lawrence Doolan, who was born in Ballyboy in 1802 and enlisted in the 28th foot regiment at the age of 18 in 1820. Lawrence married Margaret Digan and had 2 girls in Ireland (Mary and Margaret, around 1831 and 1833), and came to Australia with the 28th regiment in 1835 on the Norfolk. His wife and daughters travelled to Australia with him. He decided to stay in Australia when his regiment was posted to India, and was discharged around 1841-42. He may have been given land in Australia, and he worked as a police constable in Tamworth, and we think he died in 1855. Unfortunately, I don't have any record stating who his parents were. I would be grateful if anyone has any information about Lawrence and his family in Ballyboy. I am not sure if Margaret Digan also came from Ballyboy. Kind regards, Donna

Donna Buck

Sunday 17th Oct 2021, 03:54AM

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  • Donna:

    The RC Parish for Ballyboy civil parish is Kilcormac. Records for the parish start in 1821 https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0903

    However, when I searched on the subscription site Roots Ireland (for all of Ireland), I failed to find any baptismal records for Doolan children of Laurence Doolan and a wife with the surname Digan or Dignan. I also did not find a marriage record. Likely the marriage and the baptisms were held in another church which no longer has records back to the 1830s.

    Have you considered DNA testing?

    Roger McDonnell

     

    Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Sunday 17th Oct 2021, 04:36PM

  • Hi Roger, 

    Thanks for responding so quickly. I had checked the parish record and saw there was no record of the marriage and the births (it was nice however to see that there are so many Doolan's and Digan's in Ballyboy at that time!).  I think I'll need to get his military records to see where he was posted at different times to find out where he was married and where his children were born. The daughter Margaret's death certificate says that she was born in Ireland, however if the family were following Lawrence on his postings they could have been born outside of Ireland and the family in Australia may have just assumed they were born in Ireland. I was wondering if there were other records for Ballyboy that may be helpful? Would there be a local historical society in that area? Or are there any historical books about the area that would be useful to read?

    I have done my DNA and have found a 4 distant-cousins recently who are descendants or Lawrence and Margaret are who are living fairly close to me in Australia. It would be lovely to find cousins in Ireland!

    Kind regards, Donna

    Donna Buck

    Monday 18th Oct 2021, 02:20PM

  • Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Tuesday 19th Oct 2021, 02:55PM

  • Hi Roger, thanks very much for these links. Kind regards, Donna

     

    Donna Buck

    Thursday 21st Oct 2021, 11:46AM

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