John Kehoe and Mary Funcheon: Clonmel or Ballyneale > Nova Scotia 1849

Hello Jeanne,

I have been helping out with this site for some time now and I have found that the biggest mistake that people make is taking as gospel the inscriptions on tombstones, obituries, census records etc. 

Most people who emigrated were illiterate and undocumented.  They didn't know how to spell their names and hadn't a clue as to what age they were.  At the port of arrival their names were recorded phonetically, their ages were only guessed, and this is the information that followed them for the rest of their lives.

The proof of this occured in 1909 when the old age pension was introduced into ireland.  People had to prove their ages and were forced to go through baptismal records to establish when they were born.  That is why there is such HUGE discrepancies between ages in the 1901 census and the 1911 census of Ireland.  Dates were found to be out by many many years in some cases.

Of course this is your family.  The mother's names is extreemly rare.  They didn't celebrate birthdays like we do today, they had no birth certs and no way of knowing when they were born.  They guessed at the port of arrival and I think John Keogh guessed pretty accurately.  I have seen dates be out by many many years and yet have proved to be the correct families.  When answering the questions at port of arrival, most people gave the nearest large town as their last place.  Clonmel would have been that town. It is 19 miles from Clonmel to Ballyneale.

I would suggest that you go back onto rootsireland and perform a search for a marriage record for John and Maria (Mary).  I can only see one child for them.

Hope this helps somewhat,

Kind regards,

Anne Dennehy

Thanks, Anne!  That all makes perfect sense!  I did go to rootsireland to search for a marriage record for John and Mary/Maria, but none came up.  I assume that means they were married in a parish whose records are not currently online.  Is there someplace I can write to request a marriage record lookup?  

Thanks so much!

Jeanne

Hello Jeanne,

Most church records are online between www.rootsireland.ie and www.irishgenealogy.ie.  there are a few counties still not online but Tipp and Waterford are.  All records are inputted by hand and its possible that a record can be missed now and then.

Civil records only started in 1864 so there will be no record of a birth certificate.  The only place to look is church records, griffith valuation.   The census records from 1821 to 1901 were all destroyed with just a few scraps surviving.

Sorry I cant be of more help to you.

Anne

Hi Jeanne,

Go to www.askaboutireland.ie a free government site.  It shows the renters in 1850's in Ireland.  There is a Michael Funcheon in South Tipperary renting in Ballyrichard in Carrick on Suir.  I believe this is either Marys father or brother.  Take a look.  Go across the page and click on all the icons to see all the information.

Anne

Thanks, Anne! Wow, I hadn't seen www.askaboutireland.ie before.  That's awesome, how it links to the maps!  This will keep me entertained for hours! :)

Jeanne