RC Churches and Graveyards around Hawkfield, Newbridge, Co. Kildare

[Sinann]

Hawkfield also comes under Morristownbiller.
Cornelscourt and Hawkfield are right beside each other.
There are Byrnes living in Hawkfield in 1911.
In Griffith's Valuation there is an Edward Boland living in Cornelscourt right on the spot where the two Townlands meet.
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

[Sinann]

You should consider getting that marriage LostAndFound posted,
meanwhile I was just  looking at the people living in Cornelscourt, it's interesting- in 1901 there are only 2 families, Bridget Sex and John Boland.
John Boland is 80 and has 4 sons.
In 1911 there are 3 families, Bridget Sex, John Mahon and William Boland.
John Boland probably died but where did all his sons go!

Looking at the details of the houses Bridget has 5 front windows in both.
John Mahon only has 2
John Boland has 4 as does William Boland, it does look like William has taken over John's farm.
Was John his father, his uncle, there has to be a connection.

[Sinann]

The Byrnes in Hawkfield are also interesting.
In 1901 there is only one family John his wife and child.
In 1911 John and wife have been busy having lots of children but his father Patrick and brother are also in the house.
A Bridget Byrne has arrived from England, well all her sons are born England she is born Kildare.

If you get the marriage cert I'd say there is a very good chance you will find William's and Bridge's fathers are on one of these census returns.

[bmeburke]

John Boland, born 1821, is father to William Boland, born 1867.  I believe William's mother is Mary Behan or Beahan  (found this spelling this morning).  From research in the last 24 hours, William's brothers included Thomas, John, James, and Peter.  There is a 9 year gap between William and Thomas (the second oldest), I'm guessing these sons are from a second marriage.  William held the farm until his death in 1955 (I posted 1953 yesterday, but that was the year my grandmother returned for a last visit with him).  After that year, I have a letter from a relative to my grandmother that reads a male (can't remember his name right now) is going to sell the farm.

I will send for the marriage certificate.  I'm very new to this (about 3 weeks now), but I've fallen love with finding and piecing together the history through records.  Do you mind tell me what databases you are using to find your information?  Are you a subscriber or member of specific sites that you would recommend?

Thought you might like to see who you've been researching...one picture, taken around 1899, is William and Bridget Boland and the other,taken in 1953, is William sitting and my grandmother standing just behind over his left shoulder.  I don't know who the other people are, I haven't tried to research them yet.  I'm guessing probable second marriage family.

[Sinann]

Your making great progress, that's great and it's lovely to see the photos.
I'm only using free sites.
The Irish census are free, there can be a lot of info to be gleaned there if you look through all the pages, see the blue links under the results of a search http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie for example I used the House and Building Return when looking at the Bolands and Byrnes.
Click on the word GENAOLOGY at the top left of that link and you will see other resources.
I already gave you a link to Griffith's Valuation this is a list of landowners and tenants from the 1850s.
The marriage LostAndFound gave you is from FamilySearch.
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927084
Have a look at the Ireland Resources board here http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?board=385.0 for more ideas also see the thread for ordering Certs.

Give yourself time to get used to searching these sites and keep asking your family questions, it can take time for memories to surface.

FamilySearch has records from around the world https://familysearch.org/search

[LostAndFound]

Love the photos!  And as Sinnan says, you're making great progress very quickly.

I too use the Census website and FamilySearch.org for free.  Another great free site is http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ which has church records for Carlow, Cork, Dublin and Kerry.  I am also fortunate enough to has subscriptions to FindMyPast.ie and Ancestry.co.uk.

As Sinnan rightly says, start by talking to your family, the oldest ones if poss., to see what they know or can remember.  Look for family documents, certs, letter, mass cards, will etc. etc. as you probably already have.  Then start working back from yourself getting birth and marriage certs when possible for the key people to help identify the next generation back.

As with all Irish research you will find a lot of records were destroyed in the Four Courts in 1922 and you are realistically not going to get back beyond the start of the 1800's (if you're lucky to get that far).

But feel free to ask for help and advice and lookups.

All the best.
LostandFound

[LostAndFound]

A bit of advice when using FamilySearch.org to get to the Irish records do the following:

Click Search on the home page then
Scroll down the page to the list of locations and select United Kingdom and Ireland then
Under the heading Place on the left select Ireland

There are 8 record selections available to search for Ireland with the Civil Indexes 1845-1954 being the most obvious but the rest can be very useful too if you are lucky enough to find ancestors in them.  Note that although the Civil Indexes start in 1845 civil registration for Catholics only began in 1864.  The 1845 start applies to Church of Ireland Marriages only.  These civil indexes will give you the details you need to order copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.

Hope that helps you in your searching.

LostandFound

[Sinann]

There is another site which I'm not keen on recommending because it's only transcriptions and it's pay to view but using the free search there is a result for John Boland Mary Behan marriage 1866 in Kildare RC
http://kildare.rootsireland.ie
The civil cert for this marriage should also be on FamilySearch but I haven't found it yet.