Catherine Hogan (O'Brien) - Catherine's birth place

Hi Colin.

Yes I have found the same problems trying to identify Catherine. My assumption is that Catherine was born in Limerick only because this was were they married and had their first two children. What is documented is that from Patrick's army record he says he was born in Knockea (this is a townland within the parish of Cathernorry, as it was then called). Looking at Google maps, Knockea is about 10km from the centre of Limerick.
The marriage record for Patrick and Catherine records they were married on 10 June 1857, at St. Michael's, Limerick, Co. Limerick, Ireland. (from the rootsireland.ie site). St. Michael's church in Denmark St Limerick appears to be near the centre of town. Son Thomas and daughter Mary Jane were both baptised at St. Michaels.

As I said, I have given Catherine a Limerick birth place simply because this was where she was married and the children were born. We may never know the correct answer.

Ian

Well there you go, thanks for providing that info... I agree that there are some things we just don't seem meant to know. I have not used the rootsireland.ie site. I have other irish ancestors I would like to research! How have you found the website?
Colin

HI Colin

The rootsireland website has to be one of the essential sources if you are serious about researching Irish ancestors prior to the formal registration of births, deaths and marriages.

Positives
- they have more than 15 million church records and extensive lists of all the different parishes and the range of records indexed.
- you can limit your results quite easily by county, date range, parent name, etc.

Negatives
- there is no subscription option - when you first register you get 100 free searches of the indexes, but when you want to look at a record it is on a pay per view basis. Each record costs 25 credits (5 Euros will give you 25 credits, however if you buy bigger quantities of credits the costs come down).
- there are no images to view - you have to trust the indexer correctly recorded the details.

If you want to look at a few records trying to decide which might be the correct one you can go through you money quite quickly.

I am always checking if the records may have been indexed elsewhere, such as Familysearch and the irishgenealogy websites which are free but have a limited range of records.

Ian

Hi Ian, I wondered if I might be able to have a copy of your records for Catherine/Patrick and their children as relates to Knockea, I believe you had some records via Rootsireland.ie. It's my intention to provide a source to eliminate confusion due to the common names of both Patrick and Catherine.

Hi Colin

From Patrick Joseph Hogan's army record (click on the media tab on the profile and the link to the scanned copy of the record is to the right) he was born in Knockea. When I checked the Rootsireland.ie website a year or more ago I couldn't find a suitable baptism record. Like many others, I am waiting for 8 July 2015 when the National Library of Ireland is to publish on their website the digital images of the parish records in their collection which have been microfilmed, so I can check myself, as the rootsireland records are just index records, no images. The marriage record on rootsireland for Patrick and Catherine just has their names; Patrick's father's name was Hogan and Catherine's father's name was O'Brien and they were married at St Michael's, Co. Limerick on 10 June 1857. I don't know if the father's names in this index record were automatically generated from Patrick and Catherine's names or if they were actually written in and if there is anything else in the record which wasn't indexed. Certainly from the images of the English and Scottish parish records I have viewed, there is usually much more information in the image of the record than what was indexed.

As I mentioned earlier I had made the assumption that Catherine was born in Limerick simply because that was where they were married.

The rootsireland index records for the baptism of children Thomas and Mary Jane are similarly limited to their names, their parents names and the date of birth and that they were baptised at St. Michaels in Co. Limerick, so again I look forward to checking the images to see if the 'date of birth' is actually the date of baptism or if both dates can be ascertained. St Michaels is in the centre of Limerick with other parishes around the city, so I would assume it was their local church and they were born near the centre of Limerick.

Anyway all the best with your research. As you said, with common names like Patrick Hogan and Catherine O'Brien it is difficult to track down the right one.

Ian

Yes I understand what you are saying and have myself read about the National Library publishing images in June. I had not realised that the records on rootsireland are index's only. As you say images usually contain more information. Thanks for getting back to me anyway. I find a lot of false information in other peoples trees on ancestry.com, I think the shaky leaves idea gets abused. Haven't had any joy with these names on Family Search at this stage.
Regards,Colin