michael and Mary crowley

Hi Val,

Thank you for your message.

Civil registration did not become mandatory in Ireland until 1864. Prior to this all births, deaths and marriages were recorded by the local priest, so the information you are looking for may be in local church records. If you can find Mary and Michael?s birth records it will give you their parents? names. Also it may be worthwhile looking for their marriage record also as sometimes father?s names were recorded on these.

Most Catholic records are still held locally. One website which may be helpful is the the Irish TImes where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For Rathbarry/Ardfield parish follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Cork%20South-West&parish=Ardfield&churchid=7

You may also be able to find some of these records online however. Irish Genealogy have started a project to upload church records to their website free of charge, only a few a counties have been covered so far, including the parts of Cork that are part of the Diocese of Cork and Ross-fortunately this includes Rathbarry! You can search these records here:

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/

BMD?s after 1864 would also have a record in civil records which are available from the GRO in DUblin. Here is their website:

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

You can search the indexes to these records online at:

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

You could also check for record of the family in the land acts pertaining to Ireland in the 19th century. There are two:

The Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838) found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

and Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Finally, have you tried looking in the 1901/1911 census records to see what family, if any, were still in the area at the time? You can search these here:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

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

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

Failte Romhat: www.failteromhat.com (This has some transcriptions from gravestones in Rosscarberry and Arfield cemetries )

I hope that some of these links are helpful. 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