Irish Ancestor Help

[Kernan]

I am looking for the parents of O'Brian (O'Bryan or Bryan) Kernan who married Jane (Maiden Name Unknown) sometime around the 1790s. They had a son in Ireland called Peter Kernan who was born around 1798. Peter Kernan married in dunboyne to a Lady called Jane Neil. They had more children until moving to the US in 1871. Peter Kernan died on October 30th, 1881. Here is his Death certificate which has O'Brian & Jane listed as Peters' Parents.

I don't know alot about them so I need some help. I would appreciate any information or advice.

Thanks Ahead of Time,

Lucas Kernan

[Janet in Yorkshire]

I wish you lots of luck, Lucas. Unfortunately "Ireland" alone as place of birth is not of much help. As Peter's birth was way before civil registration you will need to rely on parish records, but sadly these have very little detail other than forename of child and both parents. Some parish records are indexed and online, but many more are not. So, just finding a record online might not be the one one is searching for! The parishes in rural communities often covered quite a large area and may have included several small hamlets and a number of individual farmsteads. Have you any family papers or family stories which narrow the search down to anything more specific e.g. a county?

[Elwyn]

There’s a Dunboyne in Co. Meath. Assuming the family were RC, the good news is that the parish records start in 1798 (many Irish records start a lot later). So you may be able to find your ancestors baptisms there. The records can be viewed free on the nli site:

http://www.nli.ie

The records have also been transcribed on to the Rootsireland site (subscription).

[kylejustin]

In my personal experience, irish people really had no idea how old they were compared to the english for example. This comes from australian bmd's where ages were recorded on all records. So if you do find a baptism he may be much younger than expected. Or perhaps older.

i do find though, information about parents and other relatives is very accurate.