Thomas and Bridget Cooper (nee Lelis). Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.

Dawn:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I searched on the subscription site Roots Ireland which has Enniscorthy RC records and found four siblings to Richard: Anne 1868 Thomas Joseph 1871 Ellen 1873 Thomas 1876  There was also a John in 1878 where the mother's surname was spelled Lawles but I presume the same family. I did not find the marriage record. 

I also searched on the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie for a civil birth record for Richard with no success. I did locate the civil record for John and the family was living in Moyne townland in St. Mary's Enniscorthy parish. Actually there are three Moynes: Lower, Middle and Upper.

I located Bridget in the 1901 census in Moyne Upper. She was a widow living with her married daughter Ellen and unmarried son John.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Wexford/Enniscorthy_Ru…

Thomas died in 1895  https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

I did not find the Coopers in the 1911 census in Moyne and also did not find a death record for Bridget

Roger McDonnell

I located the church marriage record for Thomas & Bridge on the 23rd May 1863 in the records for the Catholic parish of Marshalstown which is located to the north west and adjacent to the parish of Enniscorthy. See the entry on the top of the right hand page at this link.   

Richard was baptised in Ferns parish to the north east of Marshalstown, and the remaining children all baptised in Enniscorthy parish.

Thank you so much for your replies and searches.  It has given me a lot more information. to continue with and confirmed they are my ancestors.  

I have searched and found that there were lots of Coopers in County Wexford which suprised me as I didn't think of it as an "Irish" name.  Do you think they could all have originated from the same ancestors?  Also I found that there were a lot of Quaker Coopers.  Is that an area I should search further?

Another search found a Thomas Cooper accused of murder in 1858 at Scarawalsh.  Do you think this is my Thomas Cooper? 

Hope this isn't all too much to ask.

Dawn Beange.

Scarawalsh is not too far from Enniscorthy, about 6km (c4 miles), so certainly in the right area, although in a separate Catholic parish to Enniscorthy or Marshalstown. I would have thought that your Thomas would have been born in around the early 1840s, so age early 20s when married - this Thomas is shown as age 30, so a little older born c1828. This Thomas Cooper is shown as a "Smith" so occupation matches -so possibly a family trade... maybe he's related - father, cousin uncle ?

The Thomas Cooper mentioned in the prison records was sent to the Assizes due to the seriousness of the crime, so if convicted could have ended up with quite a lengthy sentence.