I have some questions regarding my great-grandfather and great-grandmother and hope that someone can help. Their names on their marriage certificate are listed as James Neil and Anne Lowery and they were married on the 21 October, 1883 in the Roman Catholic chapel at Bagenalstown, County Carlow. I have looked on the web and find 2 churches in Bagenalstown. Does anyone know which church they would have been married in at that time?
Also, they were both listed as being resident at Sliguff at the time of their marriage. He was a labourer and she was a servant. How big would Sliguff be? The Google Earth images aren't very clear.
James Neil was born in Newtown and Anne Lowery was born in Ballinkillin. Are there records for either of these places where I might find out more information about their parents? I think that Anne's parents were James Lowery (also spelt as LOWRIE, LOWARY, LOWRY) and Anne Welsh. James' father was also called James Neil. Witnesses at their wedding were James Flanagan and Margaret Lawlor. The priest who married them was the Rev. R Bourke who I think was a curate at the time of the marriage. In the 1881, Slater’s Directory of Ireland, there is a Bourke, Rev. Richard, Bagnalstown listed.
James and Anne emigrated to Australia in 1885, arriving in Mackay in Queensland in the ship Wistow Hall on the 22 August 1885. They settled in the area and, like many others, their surname over the years changed from Neil to O'Neil to O'Neill.
If anyone has any information or places where I could look online, I would appreciate it.
