John and Bridget Mahon(e)y

Hello Trish,

As youcan imagine there are many many families named Mahoney in the records but I have tried searching for yours.

Most of the church records can be found between two sites. www.rootsireland.ie which covers most of the counties.  It covers half of Co. Cork.

The other site is www.irishgenealogy.ie which covers approx 5 counties that the other site doesn't cover.

there are mahoneys on both sites .

I would like to say at this time t keep an open mind regarding dates of birth.  If you got them from a census or a tombstone there is usually quite a margin for error.

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 as much as twenty years in some cases.

The fact that you had some sibling names has allowed me to search www.rootsireland.ie and imput JOhn and wife Bridget.

I found that a man called John Mahoney married to a woman called Bridget had a

son John born 1825 in the parish of Carrigtwohill ,Co Cork   and a

son Michael born 1831 in the parish of Carrigtwohill cCo. Cork  and a 

daughter Mary born 1824 in the parish of Carrigtwohill Co. Cork

You would have to view these records to see any more information but there's a good chance this is the one family.  This site is free to join and search but you pay about €5 to view and print off a record.

It may be worth a look??

Hope this helps a little,

Anne Dennehy

Thank you Anne! I visited the site, then did some additional searches after signing up for some credits. This has helped more than a little!  I was especially exciting to finally learn Bridget's surname, and It appears from the names of their children, this really could be the family!  I even found their marriage certificate.  Thank you for the warning about the dates, some of the them are a bit off, but actually I had a few problems surrounding the dates on Canadian and US records, and in some cases, these dates made more sense.   It appears that the Irish Naming Pattern followed this family when they emigrated to the States.

I am not sure whether I can actually prove it is my family, or where to go from here, but you have given me a great starting point. I had avoided rootsireland.ie because I was a bit intimidated by the concept of credits, but now that I have used it, I am thrilled with the outcome. Again, thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Trish Mahoney