Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Blennerville, Tralee, Kerry, Ireland, Church and Civil Source Documentation, for the Marriage of Jeremiah Moriarty Born abt 1835 and Mary Griffin Born 1835, and the Birth of 8/9 of their Children.

In my last post I explained how I  found the Civil birth records for four of of my ‘2nd Great Grand Aunts’, in Tralee, Kerry, Ireland. At that point I thought what do I do now? Familysearch.org where I found the Civil birth records, and Ancestory.com, do not have Irish Church records. The Civil records started in 1864, the rest of the family was born before 1864. I hit a brick wall.
So, I did what any person in 2011 would do when they need Info., I GOOGLED it. I typed in,  "Jeremiah Moriarty" "Mary Griffin" Tralee Ireland 1854. According to the USA Census, their oldest child was born in 1855. The first 4 listings on the results where for http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html. Irish Genealogy, This site is hosted by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Ireland.  At present there are 2,030,140 Church records of Baptism, Marriage and Death available to view free of charge on this website.  These records are comprised of Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland Records from Counties Carlow, Cork, Kerry and Dublin City.  These Church records were computerized with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport and through the work of the Dublin Heritage Group and Kerry Genealogical Research Centre.
In 5 min I found the Marriage record and in another hour I found 8 out of 9 Birth records. Each record listed two witnesses or sponsors. Baptism sponsors were usually married, so I also found 18 potential family members, from the same generation as Jeremiah and Mary.

Jeremiah Moriarty Born abt 1835 and Mary Griffin Born 1835, were my 3rd Great Grandparents
John Moriarty B1860 was my 2nd Great Grandfather
The rest are my 2nd Great Grandaunts & Uncles

Blennerville, Tralee, Kerry, Ireland
Blennerville, Tralee 1880 blennerville_windmill_trale_today
The Blennerville Windmill was built in 1800, but had fallen into ruins by 1846. Blennerville Bridge was built in 1751, before the town was named Blennerville. The Blennerville Windmill was purchased by the Tralee Urban District Council in 1981 and was restored