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Hello - I'm hoping for some help connecting my 3rd great-grandmother Honora Moriarty with Tralee Parish.  Honora married my 3rd great-gradfather Laurence Meehan in 1810 in Templebredin.  My entire extended Irish family is from county Limerick, however I couldn't find any Moriarty family connected with any of the RC parishes my family was part of.  

Since I know Honora and Laruence were married in 1810, I searched based on an assumption of age and found an Honora Moriarty from Tralee Parish born to John Moriarty and Margaret White in Sept 1779.  The rest of the Honora/Nora Moriartys I found would have been way too young (or I suppose older and wouldn't have had a parish record).  Honora and Laurence did have children named John and Margaret, so it seems possible that this could be my 3rd great-grandmother.

Would appretiate any help talking through this.  Would it be unusual for someone to travel that far at the time?  It certainly did not seem like any of my other family travelled far from their family parish until they emigrated.

Thank you for the help!  -Chris Meehan

Meehan

Thursday 8th Mar 2018, 02:03AM

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  • Dear Chris, could Honora Moriarty have been from Tralee? Well it's not entirely beyond the bonds of possibility but records for that time frame are so patchy I would be slow to assume that the Tralee Honora is your Honora. I once found a Kilkenny man married to a Kerry woman. We discovered later that he drove a Bianconi coach and that is how he ended up in Kerry. But that was quite exceptional.

    I would be very interested in the Moriarty people, John and Johannah who were Margaret Meehan's godparents. It is some time since I did any research in the Pallasgren/Templebredon, Co. Limerick area but I seem to remember that we solved a major brick wall when we looked in the records of the adjoining Co. Tipperary parish of Solohead.The family had only moved a mile up the road but they then came under the jurisdiction of a Co. Tipperary RC Parish. We find this too for people from the North Kerry/Limerick border whose records are in Limerick although they lived in Kerry.

    My internet is slow tonight so I cannot access nli.ie which has some microfiche of church records. If you haven't checked this resource yet I would suggest that you do that and look for additional children and/or townlands which might assist you further. https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0279

    Failing that, an autosomal DNA test is the only thing that would confirm the connection with your Moriarty ancestors homeplace.

    I hope you find this helpful Chris and not disheartening.

    Warm wishes

    Martine Brennan

    PS do let us know how you get on

    Martine, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Thursday 22nd Mar 2018, 11:28PM

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