Boylan/O'Brien

Pat:

Yes, it was the custom to marry in the bride’s parish. What parish and county?

Roger McDonnell

On Ancestry, there is a family tree claiming that an EDWARD Boylan, b. 1818 in Ireland, married in Illinois a Mary Ann O'BRIEN.  A coincidence? Or did you perhaps have Thomas and Edward confused?

Roger and Patricia,

The Boylan's I found were in Athboy, County Meath. Thomas was born Aug 15, 1823. The baptism was Dec 12, 1823.  Mary O'Brien born May 20, 1825. The birth dates are from their headstone in Arlington, IL.  Both claimed to be from Meath.  I'm from Illinois and know this to be my ggrandparents.

I searched for Mary's baptism in Athboy, but did not find one, so I searched in each of the surrounding parishes; Kells, Kildalkey, Dunderry and Bohermeen.  The latter three had no records, no records before 1837 and no records before 1832.  Kells had records and I found what appears to be a Mary, daughter of John Brien and Catherine Geagan(?).  There is a smudge on the child's name but it appears to end with an ry, thus my guess of Mary.  This baptism was in Feb of 1826.

I searched Kells marriage register but did not find a record of their marriage.  Marriage records of that time have witness names more so than parents names.  I guess my next search would be to find the death register's for either parents.  If I find any, would there be obituaries to read for relatives of the deceased?

Thanks again.

Pat

Pat:

From reading your two messages, it appears that you only know that Mary Brien/O'Brien was from Co. Meath. Mary Brien/O'Brien was/is a very common name and she could have been baptized in any one of the 43 RC parishes in Meath. 

Also, date of births in the 19th century were not as exact as they are now. Many emigrants changed their year of birth and sometimes their day and month of birth when they arrived in their new country. So a date on a headstone may not be the correct date and year.

Civil registration of deaths started in 1864 before 1864 some churches retained death information. I searched for an Edward or Catherine Boylan death record from 1864-1880 in the Trim registration district (which includes Athboy) and did not find a record. I also did not find a church record.

Have you taken a DNA test? If not a test would be advisable. You may get matches with 3rd or 4th cousins on this line who may have more info on the origins of the family.

Roger

Roger,

Thanks for the reply. I did AncestryDNA a few years ago and late last year did FamilyTree yDNA. Put the Ancestry data onto three other sites and have been concentrating on the paternal line and just went after the Irish maternal line because of “knowing” they were from Meath.

Pat