AnnClare - you're an absolute star!
Thank you so much.
I'd say with 99% certainty that they're the ones.
Edmund stated on his military attestation that he was born "in the parish of Caher in or near the town of Caher", and the age he gave (18 years 3 months on 10th March 1881) would put his birth date in Nov/Dec 1862.
New Inn RC parish is between Caher RC parish and Cashel RC parish.
If he was born in Nov/Dec 1862, Feb 1863 seems quite late for a baptism. 2-3 months wait? Would that be normal?
But they're so close, everything else fits, and I assume they're the only matches. So, like I said, 99% certain.
So now that I have a definite starting point in the parish records, a visit to the NLI Dublin may be in order during my next trip back to the England.
No, I wasn't aware that it was traditional to marry in the bride's parish - I'm learning all the time!
And yes, it's most definitely been worth the wait. I've been pulling my hair out over this apparent brick wall for nearly two years. It's only in the past few months that we've started getting somewhere, thanks in large part to a cousin of my mother's and her research on the American connection.
There's a story that Edmund Brown was born in Regent Street (the big London one) on the site where Galeries Lafayette later stood, but that his family returned to Ireland (Cashel/Caher area) soon after his birth. This now seems unlikely (but not impossible), since John and Ellen were in Co Tipp in mid August 1862, and again in mid Feb 1863. An Irish labourer and his pregnant bride going to stay in Regent Street for a couple of months? Hmmm...
But, from my experience so far, all these stories usually have a nugget of truth somewhere. I'm now even more intrigued about this story (I've got a thread on the London board here
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,419636 to chase up part of it)
I'd also agree that there's probably no direct link between our Fanning lines at this stage. But since you mention Thurles here's a couple of links that you may or may not be aware of (the last two links are mentioned in the RootsChat topic):
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=382672http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-60027031/fanninghttp://fanningknightonfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/Although there's no Bridget, Mary, Amelia Fanning/Tuohy on the tree, I include the links because I've been in direct email contact with the blog author, and she mentioned Holycross.
Pete