Alice Maguire - Tyrone or Armagh?

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Hoping for some advice or help in finding information on my 3 x great granny Alice Maguire.

She came to Victoria, Australia as a bounty immigrant on the 'Lysander' leaving Plymouth 15 July 1841 and arriving Melbourne 22 Oct 1841.  She was listed as age 17, a housemaid, Roman Catholic and native place given as Tyrone.

Next official record was her marriage to Thomas Best at Portland, Victoria on 31 July 1844 no other info on her other than she married with the 'consent of the local guardian of miners'.  Presume this means she was aged under 21.

Her death certificate has the following info - died aged 66 25 Jul 1891, father was Philip Maguire, a tailor and mother was Catherine Maguire, maiden name unknown, born Armagh, Ireland, had been in Victoria about 50 years at time of death and that she married at Portland aged 19.

Age from shipping record would mean born about 1824 and age at death would mean born about 1825.  Her grand daughter's birthday book gives her birthday as November 4th.

I've had a look for possible Alice, Philip and Catherine Maguires on RootsIreland indexes but nothing looked likely for Tyrone or Armagh. 
I'm a total beginner with Irish stuff so any help or advice would be great.

Mo 

[shanew147]

You would need to know a bit more detail on exactly where your Maguire family lived - i.e. which parish or townland. It's quite a common surname in the area.

It's important to remember that not all RC parishes have records back as far as the 1820s

see :

   Introduction to Irish Records
   My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?





Shane

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Thank you for the links and info, Shane.  Unfortunately I don't know the parish or town she came from.  All the info I have is what I posted 

Except for the family stories that she had sisters (number and names unknown) who went to America together while she chose to come to Australia on her own.  She was in touch with them in later years because she would get her grand daughter to write to them (Alice could read but not write) and embelish how well she was doing in Oz 

Mo

[shanew147]

To give you an idea of the number of parishes involved, and the dates for which records are available - have a look at the RC Parish maps on the Irish Times Website :

  Co. Tyrone RC Parishes
  Co. Armagh RC Parishes

(click on the individual parishes on the map to see the details.)


Shane

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Once again, thank you, Shane.  I feel quite overwelmed now!  I wish her home parish had been recorded somewhere    Very much like a needle in a haystack without it.

Anyway, at least now I have a much better understanding of what genealogy research involves in Ireland and hopefully one day, by a stroke of luck I'll find Alice and her parents.

Much appreciated,
Mo

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Well, it took me over a decade but I found Alice's birth place, her sisters in the USA and her parents. I even have her four grandparents because her Mum and Dad ended up in the US too!

So, thanks to the Victorian (Australia) civil registration being enacted in time record Alice's last child's birth, and after I bought that record, I learned Alice was born in Omagh, County Tyrone 

The US records have been very helpful for building out her family (via Ancestry) and it was on an 1850 census record that I found her mother and father, and little sister, living with their oldest daughter, her husband and new born baby.

I'm probably shouting this into the wind, so I'll finish now, but if someone is ever looking for Alice's Irish/American family they are:-
sisters Mary Ann Maguire married Owen Donnelly, Catharine Maguire married Peter J Lattemoor and Bridget Maguire married Cornelius Daley.
Her parents were Philip Maguire (born 1 June 1786 Drumduff, Fermanagh died 10 Jan 1879) married Catharine McAleer (born abt March 1793 died 25 Sep 1869).
Philip's parents were Owen and Mary Ann Maguire.
Catharine's parents were Cormick and Alice McAleer.

Marlene (hoping these names are googled and found one day!)