Kilkenny marriage of James WILSON and Ann MURRAM? in 1855

[cattao]

Wonderful, James lists himself as a gardener on the church baps for his Australian born children - St Peters Church of England records in Anc. just another clue. That map looks interesting will chase it up. Many many thanks

[gaffy]

Even better, Griffiths Valuation shows someone with the uncommon name of John Merlin living in the townland of Duninga (you can see it in the OSI historical map link that I posted), the local print date was 1850, the lessor was John Handy (the Handy's owned / lived in  Barraghcore House), John Merlin was recorded as being in the gate lodge of all places, so Dathai's marriage is looking very good indeed.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

There is a civil death registration for John Merlin who died on 26 December 1881, he was recorded as a 75 year old married caretaker from Barraghcore and the informant present at death was his wife Rachel Merlin of Barraghcore.

Edited to add: To follow up on Dathai's marriage, the 'irishgenealogy' website shows a James Wilson marriage registered at Kilkenny district on page 299 of volume 6 for Q1 of 1855, the same website shows an Anne Malin and an Anne Meelin on the same page, if you want to see for yourself everything written in the original registration, you can either wait for that website to digitise the civil record online (for free viewing - a work in progress) or order a research copy from GRO (fee).

[gaffy]

... There is a civil death registration for John Merlin who died on 26 December 1881, he was recorded as a 75 year old married caretaker from Barraghcore and the informant present at death was his wife Rachel Merlin of Barraghcore ...

Now some pure speculation, but given how relatively uncommon the name is I'm just wondering if Rachel wasn't John's first wife, this marriage over the county border at Dunleckney was only 7 miles away (the 'irishgenealogy' website has the record indexed, but not digitised online yet):
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGXV-P1N

Also a purely speculative punt on the name, but there is this listing of a marriage licence bond for a John Merlin and Jane Bedlow in 1833 in the Diocese of Ossory:
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/dm/IRE_DIOC_007246538_00092.pdf

Both references are worth no more than noting for now in case of future leads, you can always discard them later as needed.  I'm afraid you may struggle on the James Wilson side unless you obtain more detail at the Australian end to point back more specifically within Ireland, the name is much more common.

[cattao]

Many thanks for all the info received. I found out the RR in the shipping is remittance received, so whether it was paid prior to leaving Ireland or by someone already in the colony is another avenue. Our NSW state records have these docs but difficult for me to access and they won't go looking for me! I'm tipping the boss of the House where he worked as a gardener may have helped. Like my Limerick family who were assisted by the local landowner. May be worth a subscription to RootsIreland, will put it in the melting pot.
Thanks again