James Brien and Bridget Kavenagh marriage 1864

Hello Carol,

Since you have a marriage date there are a couple of options open to you.

You could start by trying to find a church or civil record of the marriage. These would give you the couples fathers names and also possibly the name of the townland where they were living at the time. : Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is - http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ‘browse’ an overview of available records per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possible assistance.

Civil registration records are available from the General Register Office (GRO). These start from 1864. You can access the website here: http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

To go back further you could try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp  or the later Griffith's Valuation (1848-64) http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuationThe Tithe Applotment List might be of use to you, or at least interesting for you. These lists constitute the only nationwide survey for the period, and are valuable because the heaviest burden of the tithes to the Established Church, the Church of Ireland, fell on the poorest, for whom few other records survive. The information in the Tithes is quite basic, typically consisting of townland name, landholder's name, area of land and tithes payable. Many Books also record the landlord's name and an assessment of the economic productivity of the land. The tax payable was based on the average price of wheat and oats over the seven years up to 1823, and was levied at a different rate depending on the quality of land. For Parishes where the registers do not begin until after 1850, this information can be useful, as they are often the only surviving early records. They can provide valuable circumstantial evidence, especially where a holding passed from father to son in the period between the Tithe survey and Griffith's Valuation.

You could also use the 1901 and 1911 census to find information for family members still in the area at those times. I see that there are O’Briens in Tullabeg in 1901.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1901&surname=o%27brien&firstname=&county=Wexford&townland=tullabeg&ded=&age=&sex=&search=Search&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=

Best regards Michael.

Hi Carol,

My ancestors were Kavanaghs from Rosemary Hill Ferns!