Hello Steve,
Searching for family history can be both frustrating and rewarding!
Before 1864 records were kept in the form of church and parish records; while some of these have regrettably been lost over the years, all the surviving records have been sorted into county-based
genealogical centres. For County Mayo, it will be
North Mayo Heritage Centre in Ballina County Mayo.
In 1864 civil registration was introduced in Ireland, which is when we started seeing the formal registration of births, marriages, adoptions, and deaths. These records have been kept at the
General Register Office of Ireland. As they were married in 1868, this record will be found at their offices and will hopefully give more information on their circumstances.
There is another community post on a
3 step guide to tracing Irish Family which may also be of interest to you in your research for your wife's family. Please take a look and see if there is anything that would help you further.
Have you had an opportunity to visit the chapel in Knockmore?
Speak soon,
Martin