My great grand mother was born Margaret O'Keefe in Kilkenny in 1854. She arrived in Brisbane via the ship "Darling Downs" on 5 November 1874. To the best of my knowledge no other family members accompanied her. On 8 February 1879 she married Andrew Moanson in Brisbane. The marriage certificate shows Margaret's birthplace as Kilkenny Ireland and her parents as Martin O'Keeffe, a farmer and Margaret nee Murphy.
I would like to trace Margaret's family and place where the family lived. If anyone can advise me how to find the answers to these queries without costing the earth I would really appreciate it.
regards
Mark Paten
Canberra, Australia
email: mpaten@homemail.com.au
Friday 20th Jun 2014, 05:27AM
Message Board Replies
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Hello Mark,
I went to www.rootsireland.ie and searched for and found a baptismal record for Margaret O Keefe, father Martin O Keefe, mother Margaret Murphy in 1854 in Co Kilkenny. I searched further and found that this took place in the roman catholic parish of St. Marys Kilkenny.
I went back to the main menu and typed in both parents names, but left the first name blank. This would show all children that were born to that couple. It came up with four children all baptised in Co. Kilkenny.
O keefe Johanna, baptised 1842
O Keefe Margaret, baptised 1846
O Keefe Marian, baptised 1849
O Keefe Margaret, baptised 1854
You will notice that there were two Margarets born to this couple. It was common if one child died to call a new baby after that child. I would guess thaqt the first Margaret died during the famine.
This site is free to join and search but you would need to pay about €5 to view each record. Hopefully the records will tell you more.
Kind regards,
Anne Dennehy
Friday 20th Jun 2014, 03:13PM -
Hi Anne
Many thanks for the fast & thorough and facinating reply to my query which now gives us a firm direction in which to investigate further.
The search goes on
regards
Mark.
Saturday 21st Jun 2014, 02:18AM