No idea where to start!

[probertresearch]

I am trying to find information on my ggg-grandmother Mary Callahan born July 1853 in Ireland. Unfortunately that is all I know. She immigrated to the United States in 1871 and married Austin (August) Thomasson. They had 8 children and ultimately ended up in Missouri.

I have the family pretty well documented in the US, but have no idea how to find anything beyond that. The family believes she was from the Dublin area, but no proof of that. Any ideas? 

[shanew147]

The place to start is with US records - e.g. marriage and death certs etc, as these often give useful clues such as names of parents. 

Mary was born before the start of civil records, so you would need to check for church records for a possible baptism. You usually require a detailed location to start this search - i.e. the name of the town, townland, or parish this Callahan family lived.

see : Introduction to Irish Records
         My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?

p.s. The more common way to spell the surname here would be as Callaghan

[probertresearch]

Thank you so much. I was able through your links to locate Mary's death certificate. This provided some more information. Mary was born 3 July 1856 in Castle Bar (probably Castlebar), Ireland. Her father's name is John Callahan  (It is spelled without the g everywhere I have seen it, but that may well be the original spelling). Now where do I go? Hopefully this will be a better start.

[shanew147]

No sign of a mother's name of any of the certs for your Mary ?
If you have parents names you can sometimes get the search started by locating younger siblings (i.e. born after 1864) in civil records.

You didn't mention a denomination for your Callaghan/Callahan family but if they were RC and Mary was baptised in for Castlebar then the name of the parish to check is Aglish.

Callahan is a reasonably common surname so there are a number of potential matches showing up on the index on Co. Mayo parish records on RootsIreland (pay-website). None seem to be in exactly 1853 or 1856 (both mentioned above?) , but you have to allow a few years either way when searching, as dates of birth, ages etc  given on later records are not always accurate.

One of the baptisms showing up on the index is a Mary Callahan in 1851, in Aglish, father's name seems to be matching on John - so might worth following up to see if mother's name, siblings etc agree with the clues you have from your US research.

There is a closer match by father's firstname and the 2nd date you mentioned, with a baptism of a Mary Callahan in 1858, but not in Aglish/Castlebar aprish.

An RC baptism from that timeframe would usually include full names of the father and mother, name of the child, date of baptism plus the names of two godparents. Sometimes a place of residence - possibly the name of a townland, or in this case might just have 'Castlebar'

(Note the RootsIreland website may not have all available records for the county, and the index is sometimes incorrectly showing Gallagher as a possible variation)


Moderator Note : moved post to Co. Mayo as that where Castlebar is located.

[greeneyedgirl]

Hi! I have come across the births of 6 Mary Callahan(Callaghan)s in South Mayo. The years are 1851(3),1855,1857,1858. If you go onto mayoancestors you will find all of these.As immigrants,esp the Irish,the years of birth for the most part were generally off by several years and 3 of the Mary births had mom's with B..... as first name. More than likely on these the mom's first name was Bridget(Brigid). With this is mind,I found a marriage for John Callahan to a Bridget Ward in 1850 South Mayo and this also corresponds to an 1851 birth of Mary Callahan in South Mayo which is where Castlebar is.Hopes this helps,Kim