Patrick Gallagher, Tonatanvally, Achill

Patricia:

Tonatanvally townland is in Achill civil parish. I checked out the 1856 Griffiths Valuation survey head of household listing for Achill parish and there were many, many Gallaghers including a Bartholomew Gallagher, a Matthew Gallagher and a Rev. Michael Gallagher in Tonatanvally townland. http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/mayo/achill.php  There were also three Veseys listed.

You may want to check www.familysearch.org for birth, marriage and death index records starting in 1864. (Achill is in the Newport registration district). With the number of Gallaghers in the area your research may be complicated. If you find a record of interest, you can write to the GRO www.groireland.ie for a copy for about 4 euros each.

Roger McDonnell

Know this part of Achill very very well and there are still plenty of Gallaghers and Vesey's living in the Valley today who may know who these people were. If I were you I'd take a trip out there and ask down at the Valley House who to speak to. 

Some Achill census returns have an additional name on the form when the person has indicated who their father was. Good for tracking someone back in time because these people would have been known locally by their two names to identify/ distinguish different family groups in an area where 'Patrick' and 'Mary' would be very common names.For example, if Patirck was known as 'Patrick John' it means Patrick son of John!

Family search may be useful in identifying when they got married and who their respective parents were but it won't take you back before 1864 (Civil Registration). Another good source is the Catholic Birth Records for Achill compiled by Masterson - do a google you'll find them. These list by family group and are arguably better than family search because it takes the work out of identifying siblings.

But what you really want to do is visit the place.