Author Topic: Looking for Honorah O'Donnell  (Read 1328 times)

Online Forfarian

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Looking for Honorah O'Donnell
« on: Thursday 29 June 17 11:05 BST (UK) »
A relative of mine, William Bell (1819-1881) was variously a pilot, spirit merchant and ship carpenter. I have not found him in any census except the 1871, when he is listed in Leven, parish of Scoonie, Fife, aged 51, with wife Honorah, aged 35, born Clare, Ireland.

There is a gravestone in Scoonie kirkyard saying that Honorah O'Donnell, wife of William Bell, was born 25 December 1833 and died 21 December 1873.

Her death certificate says that she was 40, and that her father was Terence O'Donnell, but does not name her mother.

I would like to know her mother's name, when and where exactly Honorah was born and baptised, and when and where she was married. I have searched www.irishgenealogy.ie without success.

What are my chances of finding this information, and where should I look for it?

Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Sinann

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Re: Looking for Honorah O'Donnell
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 29 June 17 14:41 BST (UK) »
If she was RC you can look in the parish registers
http://registers.nli.ie/
Not all parishes will have surviving registers for that early a date, and without knowing which parish to look in it will mean a lot of searching.
You could try the free search on Ancestry it won't tell you the parish (unless you have a sub) but you can at least see if there are any likely matches in the county.

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Re: Looking for Honorah O'Donnell
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 29 June 17 19:02 BST (UK) »
Thank you for that.

I have no idea whether she was RC. I am fairly sure her husband would have been Presbyterian, but that means nothing.

Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.