Driscoll and Mahony Irish Roots

I made a trip to Ireland this past May, but was unable to get any further information for my Irish great-grandparents.  My Ancestry DNA indicates that my ancestors were born in the Muenster area of Ireland, possibly from Cork County.  My great-grandmother, Catharine (Catherine, Kathryn) Driscoll nee Mahony, was born in 1843 or 1847.  I don't have her parents' names.  My great-grandfather, Cornelius Driscoll, was born in 1847.  His parents may be Humphry Driscoll and Johanna Driscoll.  They may have been married in Green, Dunmanway, Cork.
I have been unable to find more information from Ancestry, Genealogy Bank or any other genealogy sites.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thank you
Dora (O'Brien) Carbone

Hello Dora,

I hope that you enjoyed your trip over to see us in May, was it County Cork that you visited or did you tour the wonderful island of Ireland as well?

We have some wonderful community posts on Helpful Research Tips and a Three-step guide that have some excellent information and links to have a look at to find that all important next step to establish definite connections in the Cork area.

As the dates you are looking for are before 1864, any records will be in the form of church and parish records. As you mention County Cork, all the surviving records have been sorted into county-based genealogical centres. The ones for County Cork are:-

Cork City Ancestral Project,
c/o County Library,
Farranlea Road,
Cork City.
Tel: +353 (0)21 4346435
Email: corkancestry@ireland.com 

Mallow Heritage Centre,
27-28 Bank Place,
Mallow,
County Cork.
Tel: +353 (0)22 50302
Email: mallowheritagecentre@gmail.com
Website: www.mallowheritagecentre.com

I hope this gives you lots of inspiration, and I'm sure your fellow members and some industry partners will be able to add to these ideas!

If you need any more help, just let me know!

Martin

Hi Dora

Prior to introduction of civil registration of births in Ireland in 1864 you will have to rely on church baptismal registers to confirm the birth details of Catherine Mahony born c. 1843-1847 and Coprneilus Driscoll born c. 1847. Dates of commencement and quality of information in church registers vary from parish to parish and from denomination to denomination. Access to church registers, in the absence of indexes and databases, is generally gained through knowledge of an ancestor's parish address and religious denomination. There are 255 parishes in County Cork.

Furthermore, there is no national index to Irish church registers. To date, only the county-based genealogy centres have attempted any large scale, systematic indexing of church registers in their localities. Although RootsIreland, www.rootsireland.ie, is the largest online source of Irish church register transcripts, it must be emphasised that a failure to find relevant birth entries in this database or indeed any of the 'big' Irish databases doesn't mean that the events you are looking for didn't happen in Ireland. It simply means that they are not recorded in the database; for example, they may be recorded in a record source which doesn't survive for the time period of interest or in a source that has not been computerised.

RootsIreland records 79 baptismal entries of a Catherine Mahoney in the time period 1843-1847 and 2 of Cornelius Driscoll in same time period.

If you hold no clues as to where in Ireland, i.e. parish, your ancestor came from you could perhaps consider doing further research through archives and with family contacts you have in US to see if you can find out more clues as to a place of origin of your ancestors.

HI Dora,

I've been researching a lot in the area over the past 8 months for another family and have found many of your family names. 

When I look at www.irishgenealogy.ie all of your records are there.  They were in Dumnaway and if you were in the area in May then you realize how small the footprint is between Clonakilty,  Dumnaway and Drimoleague areas. 

I would love to connect with you on the DNA trail as the family I'm researching does have ties to Hayes, Neill's and Driscolls. I also have a lot of research that was done in the area by another colleague that may be able to help you make the connections if it doesn't connect with my family I am researching. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Thank you,
Ginger

PS I would also join the West Cork Genealogy group on Facebook :-) 

Hi Dora and Ginger.

I've also been researching The Driscoll Family from Dunmanway. I have a Michael Driscoll who emigrated to New York, US. His parents where Humphrey Driscoll and Johanna Donohue. I have his baptism in 1849 in Dunmanway it ties in with his Birth Dates on the census records I have of him while in US and with his NY Marriage Cert which I have, they lived right on the green in the centre of Dunmanway. I also have Humphreys Baptism in 1820 his parents where Cornelius and Mary Hayes. If any of these names ring a bell contact me.

Hi Gerard,

Thank you so very much for jumping in with your research!

It does truly warm my heart to see that there might be a family connection made right here in our community. Even if that doesn't prove to be the case, it's so good to see the ways that stepping into the past can connect us in the present. 

It certainly sounds like you've made a ton of progress in researching your roots and I'm certainly impressed by how much you've learned so far! By any chance, did you use any of the resources Martin or Brian had mentioned above to help find these records, like using RootsIreland or contacting a local genealogical centre in Cork? 

Sharing a bit about your process might help anyone still searching for a wee bit about the Driscoll Family.

If nothing else, I'd be delighted to hear more about your research journey. And, if there are still a few secrets you need to discover, please do feel free to share. Maybe we can help point you in the right direction, as well.

Hi Rochelle

Thank You for your kind words ! I'm currently doing research for my sisters boyfriend in Long Island. Sounds a bit long winded. I've been doing the old genealogy for many a year. I'm still running through the connection double checking as I'm going along. It looks good so far the occupations are matching up father to son, birth naming traits are carrying along from generation. I got the 1860 and 1870 census records from the US, I'm reckoning this was a case of not much work for a butcher in famine Dunmanway so Humphrey Driscoll packed up his family as so many did and headed for a new life. the 1860 census record for the US has Cornelius spelt as Cmcunta Driskel and down as a female but I'm pretty certain this is an enumerators error at the time and then compounded by an indexing error when OCRing + indexing the census record. I'm just going through the city directories at present for each year checking occupations, addresses, names etc. to give more validity to the connection, double checking with census returns A real bonus would be if I could find the marriage record of Cornelius Driscoll and Catherine Mahoney maybe I might be able to get some parent names that could tie in nicely.

Better keep digging here.
Kind Regards
Gerard

Hi Gerard,

That would be wonderful indeed if you could find the marriage record of Cornelius and Catherine!

The folks down at Skibbereen Heritage centre as Rochelle mentioned may be able to help. Most people back then would usually be born in or close to the area, they lived in for their later years. There is also the Mallow Heritage centre who cover County Cork too.

We would love to hear more about your search as it progresses, please feel free to get back to us.

Best wishes,
Martin

Hi folks,

My Driscolls were also from Dunmanway, my great grandfather Daniel Driscoll (b. 1876)  married Mary O'Sullivan from Lisbealad down the road and emigrated in 1906 to Boston.  My great great grandparents John Driscoll and Johanna Kearney remained in Dunmanway. From what I have been able to piece together, it appears to have been the second marriage for both. There was a Mary Driscoll who was Johannas daughter (previous married name unknown) and she preceded her half brother Daniel to Boston by a few years. Their two children were Daniel and Cornelius (b. 1880) who was a butler before enlisting in the British Army for WWI as a officers aide. He went briefly into service in Kent then emigrated along with his boss to Australia, which is where we lose track of him.

The mystery is Timothy Driscoll who shows up as the head of the family on the 1911 census.  We have no idea where he came from, nor did my great grandfather name any of his numerous children after him.  Timothy married Bridget between 1901 and 1911 censuses and I have never found anything on these two except that Bridget's maiden name was likely Leary.

Anyone who has information on these folks, I would be appreciative to read it!