#52Ancestorsin52Weeks 30/52 Owen/John McLoughlin ?

 

My maternal grandfather Tom McLoughlin at the end of the back row on the right 1912

This week is going to be a very short post indeed.  Normally I have quite a swag of material about each of my ancestors but this is where my McLoughlin stops as it were.

I wanted to write today about Patrick McLoughlin's father Owen McLoughlin.  I wrote about Patrick back in May here.

Patrick's death certificate says that his parents were Owen McLoughlin and Bridget Sweeney. On his marriage certificate it states that his father's name was Owen McLoughlin and that he was a labourer.

The only birth I have been able to find to a Bridget Sweeney and a McLoughlin is a Patrick to a John McLaughlin and Bridget Sweeney in Templeboy, Sligo as per this blogpost here.  Now - the question is if this John is also known as Owen.  

What do you think? Is it too big a leap?

There's a bit of me that says let's go back to basics and remind ourselves of what the original research question was.

Where was Patrick McLoughlin born?

Two documents state his father was called Owen.

Do I just look up all the Owen McLoughlins in Sligo and try and trace them forward?  I started to do that in this blog post here.

Do I try and order more birth certificates for Patrick's oldest children in the fond hope that they may give me more information about Patrick?  Or even death certificates to try and get an idea of when they came to Australia? At $35 per certificate, it's tricky but maybe I should buy Annie's death certificate as a start because she was the eldest.  

What's required is a team approach I guess.

Part of my research is complicated by my not knowing whether I'm looking at the whole county of Sligo or just the town.

What sources should I use?

I do have John Grenham's excellent book called Tracing your Irish Ancestors. And I have ordered another one from Gould Genealogy called Tracing Your Sligo Ancestors by James G Ryan which is on sale yay!

I have just joined a Facebook group for those searching ancestors in Sligo - correction I joined a Facebook group for those searching for ancestors in Carrownamaddoo. Why? 

Because, if John McLoughlin and Bridget Sweeney who had Patrick McLoughlin baptized in 1833 at Templeboy are indeed the same as Owen McLoughlin and Bridget Sweeney who had my ancestor Patrick McLoughlin, then they chose Michael and Maria Dunn as sponsors.  Which led me to look for Michael Dunn in Sligo and....I found one at Carrownamaddoo.

I also found a John McLoughlin of Carrownamaddoo who died 10 December 1832. 

Then there was a Bridget McLaughlan who died aged 22 of Carrowmore Sligo in 1836.  

So maybe my Patrick was an orphan at a very young age.  

Who would have taken him in and looked after him?  

Am I able to get death records for such early deaths? I think not. So frustrating.

There was also a Bridget McLoughlin of Gortakeeran who died in 1914 and left everything to her husband John - a farmer.  I think we can discount this couple as when I checked the census records for 1901 and 1911 they were too young and born after Patrick was born.

The team

So it will take a "team" of resources to get me there I think.  

More books.  

More certificates. 

I probably need to go to the next Irish Group meeting at QFHS which is on next Saturday 13th at 10:30am.  If you want to come along you'll need to email irish@qfhs.org.au. There will be a presentation, demonstration  and discussion on     Using the 1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland - Dale Fogarty

·      Summary of censuses undertaken and what survives

·      Using the census at the National Archives website

·      Using the census as a gateway to further research

·      And more …

The week

How's your week been?  

Mine has been very busy indeed.  Our society was given 1 month to vacate our shed so yesterday saw me donning gloves, an apron, and a mask to investigate said shed with a team to identify what was in it and what we can do with what is there.  It's a mammoth task but being family historians, we are used to that and are not easily put off.  

This Friday I will be delivering a talk at Arana Hills Library about the joy of geneablogging.

It's Show week in Brisbane and a Public Holiday on Wednesday to celebrate all things Ekka (short for Exhibition).  If you're going to the show tomorrow you might want to keep an eye out for my daughter's horse which will be entered into the Throughbred and Standardbred competition. The horses's name is Dame Retta officially but Bel calls her Allie.  

Have a great week in this our first week of National Family History Month!