Michael Joseph O'Connor, 1860s birth record

[ocolumn]

I'm hoping that someone can help me find a birth or baptismal record for my grandfather, Michael Joseph O'Connor, son of Jeremiah O'Connor and Catherine Fitzgerald O'Connor. Records here in the U.S. are very confusing as to his age, but I tend to believe records that would place his birth around 1868 in Ballinskelligs, County Kerry, or some place close by.

Family members told me, as a child, that he earned his steerage as a laborer on the Donald O'Connell Cathedral and that means that stories that he came to the U.S. in 1888 are credible.

I'm estimating his mother's birth year as 1842 but have no idea as to his father's. Catherine Fitzgerald's brother, Edward, emigrated to Connecticut and was the scion of a politically powerful family in New Haven.

I've searched the online records available through Ancesty.com and have had no luck.

Any help, at any time, would be greatly appreciated. And, of course, if anyone is familiar with my great-grandparents, Jeremiah and Catherine, I'd love to hear it.

[Sinann]

There is a baptism for a Margaret Connor 1873 (the O' is often not used by families at this time in Ireland) with those parents in Prior Parish variant name Ballinskelligs
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01kdo/
so at least there is a couple of that name in the area

[aghadowey]

Civil registration of births started in 1864 and some early births just didn't get registered. So, if you don't find a certificate don't be surprised.

Other possible siblings?
John (1865) https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FR43-B82
Mary (1869) https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPY5-FQD

[ballydw]

Marriage of Jeremiah O  Connor & Catherine Fitzgerald 14th Feb 1863 Address Ballinskelligs
RC Parish of Prior -  Witnesses John O Connor & James Fitzgerald

[Sinann]

If you look at John Grenhan's site it looks like there are baptisims from 1853 https://www.johngrenham.com/records/rc_church.php?churchid=0684&parish=Prior but if you search only Prior on Irish Genealogy with no name just year by year there are a lot of years in the 1860s with no baptisms.

[ocolumn]

Thank you for all of this help, and so fast. I'm new at this, just four months into the project, and am learning every day.

I'm fairly certain that Margaret Connor is my grand aunt, one of six. She married a David Conway in the U.S. and had six children.