Looking for Patrick Bray: Upper Woods, Laois, or Mountharsh?

Gena:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Mountrath is a small town in Clonenagh and Clonagheen civil parish. The RC parish would be Mountrath. I checked on Roots Ireland and the earliest Patrick Bray baptismal record is the 1843 record below. I was not able to find any of the other locations in you note.

Roger McDonnell

Name:Patrick BrayDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:01-May-1843Address:
Parish/District:MOUNTRATHGender:MaleCountyCo. Laois
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:James BrayMother:Anne "n/r"

Thank you, Roger. Although Patrick's age seems to vary on the records, I think a birth date of 1843 would make him too young for the military service he is recorded with enlisting in 1854, so, sadly, I'm skeptical this is him. In looking more closely at a page of his record, I do see that he lists Mountrath as a "nearby" town and that he was born in the Upper Woods Parish. I'll try to attach the page here if it works.

Also, of interest might be that Patrick named his children Theresa Ellen Bray, Mary Ann Bray, and Samuel Edward Bray. They were all born in India.

Any other tips or thoughts on where to search would be greatly appreciated.

Gena:

I did some more checking and found that there was an Upper Woods barony in Queens Co. just to the west of where Mountrath is located. I also think that Mountharsh is actually Mountrath. Also, the county shown as Gurrus is actually Queens.Also, I think he enlisted in 1857 not 1854. He was in the service for 20 1/2 years and was discharged in 1878. 

I don't have any other suggestions for finding church records.

Roger

Thank you Roger. Do you know that f Gurrus is another name for Queens, an older name for Queens, or a typo? I can't seem to find anything on it. 

If you look closely, I think you can see that Gurrus is actually Queens.

Roger

Correct, you are! I never would have read it that way. Well, unfortunately, I haven't been able to turn up anything in Ireland on him. Turning my attention to Ashton-Under-Lyne and will try to work my way back to Ireland from there. There seems to be a cluster of Brays living there. Thank you.