Looking for where Thomas McCaffrey (1813-1873) and his wife Dorcas Ann Willoughby (1817-1872) came...

Hi Annette, 

Glad you found that information helpful.

With regard to the church records available on www.irishgenealogy.ie, they only cover parishes in Counties Cork, Carlow, Dublin and Kerry. 

Civil registration of all births, marriages and deaths started in Ireland in 1864, non-Catholic marriages were registered from 1845 so that may be why you are not finding any relevant results so as you have suggested, commissioning research may be the best way to proceed.

Best wishes,

Gillian, 
Ulster Historical Foundation

Dear Gillian
Thanks for your additional information. As an established educational researcher I love doing my own investigations and so I joined ancestry to access documents for relatives from England and Australia and have been relatively successful. The McCaffrey/Willoughby line has been a mystery and challenge beyond their arrival in Australia. I will give some thought to commissioning research but it seems like admitting defeat!
kind regards
Annette

Did you have any luck finding information on Dorcas Willoughby.   I have a family of Willoughby's ; Richard, Ralph, Eliza Mary, John and Henry from Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh.   Another Thomas Willoughby, son of a William born in Dung, County Cavan, Ireland.  All of the above came to Canada in about 1822.

Joyce

Hi Joyce
I got as far as Cavan for the Willoughbys and Fermanagh for the McCaffreys but gave up as they left Ireland so long ago (1851) the record trail seems impossible.
Thanks
Annette

Hi Annette and Joyce,

As with all family history traces, similar names can add to the confusion of direct lines going back in time.

With some leaving for Australia and some for the Americas it would be wonderful to find a common family connection.

Please feel free to post some photos of any documentation you have, you never know, you may be related!

Martin