Finding My McCaffrey Irish Family Lines.

Hi. I am new to the researching. This is what information I have found; My great grandfather according to his death certificate.
 John McCaffrey, Born Enniskillen,Fermanagh.
 Married Helen O'Hea in 1873, special licence, Balmain, Sydney, Australia.
His parents were Patrick and Rose ann( nee McGuire) McCaffrey. John was the eldest in family.
 Worked at a Hotel in Brisbane,QLD,Australia until he died at age 42 years.
 Buried at Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane,Australia.
 Trying to find about his parents and life plus about any other children they had as I have tried looking on the free sites and can't find.
Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions with finding my McCaffrey Irish Lines.
 Robyn :)

Hi Robyn,

A good paper trail is essential when trying to trace family history and a Death certificate is perfect!

As he would have probably been born before 1864, the records would be held as church or parish records and all the surviving records have been sorted into county-based genealogical centres. The one for County Fermanagh would be Irish World who have information for counties Fermanagh and Tyrone.

Indeed Ballymccaffrey is an old townland in Aghalurcher, County Fermanagh so the name is popular with the area. Bally, is derived from the Gaelic phrase 'Baile na', meaning 'place of', so this may be a great place to start looking.

Hopefully, there will be further suggestions from our other members, and please let us know how you progress.

Martin

Thank you Martin for your suggestion. 

Hi Robin: you might also consider creating a post on the Ireland Reaching Out message board. This website is open to anyone and is free to join. One of its aims is to reconnect the diaspora with their ancestral parish. There are a number of knowledgeable volunteers who can assist with you with your research and direct you to additional sources. The website is below www.irelandxo.com

The best of luck with your research.

Kind regards,

Jane

Thank you Jane for your suggestion. Robyn :)

Hi Robyn

Griffith's Valuation (http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation), published 1862 for Enniskillen parish, records 4 households in this parish headed by Patrick McCaffrey; presumably one of these heads of households is John's father. They were:

Patrick McCaffrey, householder on Belmore Street, Enniskillen
Patrick McCaffrey, farming 8 acres in townland of Drumgay
Patrick McCaffrey, farming 11 acres in townland of Stragole
Patrick McCaffrey, farming 12 acres in townland of Tullyullagh

The church registers for Enniskillen can be examined in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. For example, Enniskillen RC registers commence in 1838 and are held at reference MIC1D/10-11. But check out ancestry.com and/or FindMyPast.ie to see if they have digitised and indexed these registers.

The closest match I can find is the Baptism of John McCaffery 23rd August 1851...parents John (not Patrick ) and Ann (not Rose Ann McGuire) in the parish of Devonish. Sponsors Bernard and Bridget McManus . http://registers.nli.ie//registers/vtls000632843#page/1/mode/1up

Hello Robin, 
I'm wishing you well in researching your McCaffrey roots in Ireland! My great grandfather was also a John McCaffrey (John J. and I believe his father was John)...John J came to the US  possibly also with his father) sometime either before or around the time of the potato famine of 1845-approx. 1849. (I need to research the ship records again to pin this down). His family settled in the Bronx borough of New York City. John J. was a realtor who married Margaret Cotter and they had 9 children, including my grandmother Mary Isabel McCaffrey. 
John J. sadly  passed on a year or so after his wife Margaret who died in childbirth with their 10th child. (They  were a striking couple as seen in a photo I have...He had an 1800s style handlebar moustache, and she was a sweet and beautiful soul who was wearing a fur collar in the photo). 
I've spent a lot of time on Ancestry.com in the past year or so...and a few other sources too. One you could look at is www.irishsurnames.com which has a coat of arms and history for each Irish surname, including McCaffrey. It includes a knight on a white horse...There's a town, Ballymccaffrey, which is apparently in the County of Fermanaugh on the border with Tyrone. My DNA profile with Ancestry indicated that I have genetic links with people from southern Tyrone. (The McCaffreys were also associated with the McGuire clan way earlier in history...Google origin of name McCaffrey and some links will come up).For more recent history I hope that we can both find the appropriate parish/es and maybe more facts from the earlier 1800s or even 1700s if they existed). . 
Will update you if if I find out more about local Irish records or parishes. (Ancestry.com does allow you to do some searching too so you might want to join it. There's a 50% off sale on now). In the meantime, best of luck to you with your research.
Sincerely,    Maria V.
 (about 48% Irish...but identify with it and especially its culture and music!)

Robyn, 

I'm brand new to this site and am hoping that my last post will actually show up soon as a Reply to you soon. (I also have a John McCaffrey as a great grandfather although he came to the USA in the 1800s). 
A couple of other ideas: 1. www.IrishWorld is a site for the two counties of Tyrone and Fermanaugh and has resources for them. Or - if you're willing, you can pay some amount and researchers will help you). 
2. I wonder if there's a major Australian Geneology society  since your grandfather moved and worked there. You could probably Google for that info. 
Best of luck, 
Maria V.