fitzgibbon family

Hi,

Thank you for your message.

One of the main pieces of information that you need when researching your family history in Ireland is a location. Most Irish record sources- church records, land records, census records- are based on specific locations. Until you know a specific location within Ireland, preferably a parish or placename, it may be difficult to do anything more with these records.

You may be able to find Rebecca?s birth records seen as you have the parish that she was born in. Most Catholic records are held locally. One website which you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For Inishcarra parish follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Cork%20North-West&parish=Inniscarra&churchid=60

For Church of Ireland records check http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. 

Regarding John, you may be able to use his RIC records to find his place of origin in Kerry. Excellent personnel records were kept from 1816. These can be found at the UK National Archives here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/royal-irish-constabulary.htm

There are microfilm copies at the National Archives of Ireland, The Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). For each recruit it includes a brief service record, date of marriage and wife's native county, and the name of the individual who recommended him. This is important to identify an exact place of origin, because the recommendations usually came from local clergymen or magistrates who knew the recruit personally.

There is a book by Jim Herlihy called, The Royal Irish Constabulary: a complete alphabetical list of officers and men, 1816-1922, 1999. This supplies the Service Number needed to use the Registers quickly and easily.

You can also search for Church records online at www.familysearch.org However, these records are incomplete.

As John and Rebecca were married in 1875 you should be able to find their marriage certificate in civil registration records. (Civil registration only became mandatory in Ireland in 1864)

These records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records here:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

For more information on Civil records check: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-civil-registration.html

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm

Irish Military Archives: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/

Police History: http://www.policehistory.com/museum.html

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/cork/index.html

Failte Romhat www.failteromhat.com

Remember to post as much information as you can with regard to the people you are researching. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,       

Genealogy Support

Hi!

I saw your posting this morning, and have included some information that may be useful

John Hickson - 19895

John Hickson - 28226

These are the RIC service numbers for these two Hicksons. They might be useful for your research. The records are not, as yet, available online - you'd have to go to Kew, London, to view them! The ledgers, which I have looked at, are detailed - have a look at the webpage posted in the previous message!

I have Hicksons from Kerry in my family tree, and quite a few Hicksons are listed in Jim Herlihy's book (mentioned in the previous posting).

I also found this - It may be relevant! Perhaps you have it already!

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/560dd70023679

Lastly - Check out  www.hicksons.org - huge website on the family!

Good luck with your quest!!

Kind Regards,

Barry