Samuel Tanner, b 1855, County Clare

[Stuart46]

Hello, all.

My g-gf, Samuel Tanner, was born around 1855 in Ireland. The 1881 UK census has him born in "Chunal, Ireland;" this appears to be one transcriber's best guess at a completely indecipherable entry! 1871 specifies County Clare. He was the son of an English-born railwayman named Edward Tanner, and from marriage details and birth places of Samuel's siblings it appears that the family was in Ireland for no more than ten years.

Since I'm not familiar with Irish records, can anyone offer anything on the following, please?

1) Are there any internet-based resources that might allow me to track down an exact date and place of birth for Samuel?

2) Since Samuel's father was a railwayman It is possible that he was in Clare, on railway work. Were there specific projects in progress between 1850 and 1860?

Many thanks

Stuart

[gougy]

Hi,

I'm afraid civil registration of births didn't begin in Ireland until 1863, and even then wasn't compulsory. Unless you know exactly where he was born/baptised you're going to have trouble locating him, just like the rest of us vainly searching for Irish ancestors!!

Internet resources for Irish ancestry are a bit thin on the ground - all you can do is Google and hope you get lucky 

[Stuart46]

Many thanks for the reply, Gougy. If any reader fancies a challenge, here's what his place of birth looks like on the 1881:



His is the top one; those of his family below it are for (limited) comparison purposes. That, to someone, is "Chunal;" to me, it looks like something in brackets. Ennis, perhaps?

Stu