Hi Shane, thanks again.
I think I was thinking in terms of number of people, or number of parishes which might fall within those labels, but your reply based on acreage helps a lot. The problem is that I don't know what level of land division is involved. I just have some place names. I know that O'Malley is a Mayo name and I expected too much information rather than the dearth that I have found.
I hadn't come across Kilcoleman and Tagheen before, so more parishes to look for next time I get to NLI.
I think the question is really, if someone says they are a catholic from Islandeady, say, then if they were not baptised at that parish, where would they have been?
I'm trying to connect a big family who were born in a number of different places, from what I know I think that the early ones were born in Mayo and later in Dublin. Apart from one child that I can't prove was the same family but had the same parents' names, born in Dublin but did not survive very long, I can't find any of them. And, if the father was in the military or similar occupation before he became a policeman then it could all be much more complicated than that.
These are definitely a catholic family and I started with the one from Islandeady, as he is the most consistent as to where he came from, also has the most consistent reports of date of birth (within a couple of years) across all other records for him and I knew the names of his parents, but he's not in the Islandeady RC baptisms.
Interesting as to Claremorris being called "Clare", as another one I am having lots of difficulty with, as to whether he belongs to this family or not has "connections to Mayo and Clare" marked on his police service record and I couldn't find any connection to Co. Clare so that was beginning to look like negative evidence. There are other issues that complicate that one but a lot of circumstantial evidence that he is connected.
Another issue that has come up in my research into families from Mayo is the number of parishes that have marriage registers but no baptisms or huge gaps in the baptism records. A genealogist at the NLI suggested that perhaps the priests took the baptism registers with them rather than leaving them with the church. Does that mean that they are now gone for ever? or is it possible that they are still in one of the parishes or some depositary out in Mayo?
I'm hoping to go look for these places in a few weeks time, so trying to get as much information and build up a picture of the places, in preparation.
