John Cosgrove Castlebar

I am descended from a John Cosgrove who was a tailor in Castlebar when his daughter Mary was born in 1836. The 1855 Primary Valuation of Tenements shows the only John Cosgrove in Castlebar lived at 63 Spencer Street. Mary grew up during the Famine years and when given the opportunity of escape she married Michael Kitson, an ex-Revenue Policeman 24 years her senior, and left for Australia in 1858. Michael and Mary were married at Castlebar Roman Catholic Church.

I know a great deal about their life on the Australian gold fields but the above paragraph holds most of the information I have about Mary's life in Ireland. I would love to learn more about the Castlebar tailor and his antecedents. I do know that Mayo was hit particularly badly by the famine and that John's wife was named Elizabeth Brown.

Christine Lawrence