Hi, Kevin,
As you likely realize (which is probably why you are posting the question), yours is a big area to cover: tracing an O'Brien family back from Limerick into Clare in order to determine the circumstances under which they left a particular place in perhaps the early 1700s. I see it as quite possible, depending on how prominent your O'Brien ancestor was. I can say this based on my own experience with my Donnellan line, a family of ever-more humble circumstances in Clare of the 1800s but descended from a prominent Galway family which inspired an easily-accessed pedigree chart showing how my line came to be in East Clare. This chart also shows several other lines and goes back to the most famous Donnellan, a bishop living in the 1500s. So I know this research is feasible.
A lot depends on the level of confidence you have that your line is already traced back to the first O'Brien family in Lough Gur. A recommended first step is to collect substantiation for each of those generations, as well as confirming the likelihood that Michael O'Brien's birth family lived in Ballinalacken and, if so, in what capacity. Ballinalacken back in the 1600s was the site of an O'Brien castle; the genealogy of that O'Brien family is likely written in some heraldic-type book or at least in a manuscript or chart such as the one I located for my Donnellans in the Genealogical Office (Dublin), now consolidated with the National Library. However, if your O'Brien family was merely working the land around Ballinalacken as relatives of the titleholders, the chances diminish that the family members are included in a written history. If your O'Brien ancestor was one of the wealthy ones, then you need to determine which of the several such lines of O'Brien in Clare was his (see the image below, describing the Inchiquin Papers).
If you want the fastest way to research Ballinalacken, there are two sets of books to consult at the Registry of Deeds on Henrietta Street in Dublin: one set indexing deeds by surname and the other set with indexing sorted according to place name. "Deeds" include documents by which title and land occupation passed, whether by outright sale or by lease or marriage settlement. Familial relationships were often detailed in those, and overall the deeds go back to 1708.
A similar attempt to follow how a family's land passed along the generations can be done with wills and memorials (abstracts) of wills, although the loss of Irish wills makes this a less efficient way than other methods. One resource for that approach is:
Indexes to Irish wills
By William Phillimore Watts Phillimore, Gertrude Thrift
Published by Genealogical Pub. Co., 1970
My recommended step is to make use of the advisory service at the National Library in Dublin, which requires a visit in person. However, with the wealth of written family histories at the disposal of that institution's staff, having an expert there determine the best manuscript to consult makes eminent sense. For more information:
http://www.nli.ie/en/genealogy-advisory-service.aspx
Some of the books that the National Library staff may recommend that you consult are:
Historical Memoir of the O'Briens, with Notes, appendix and a Genealogical Table of their Several Branches (published by Hodges, Smith and Co., 1860)
A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. by John Burke [and books by Bernard Burke covering the aristocracy and landed gentry]
The county families of the United Kingdom, or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland : containing a brief notice of the descent, birth, marriage, education, and appointments of each person, his heir apparent or presumptive, as also a record of the offices which he has hitherto held, together with his town address and country residence
by Edward Walford
London: R. Hardwicke, 1864
A resource closer to you is the Clare County Library's copy of Rosemary ffolliott's Index to Biographical Notices in Newspapers of Limerick, Ennis, Clonmel and Waterford, 1758 - 1821, which is sorted by surname. This "index" actually contains an abstract of all the most important genealogical information contained in news articles, which follow all the vital events and important property transactions of a prominent family.
I should stop here, except to show you that your target period of time was well studied, even for Clare locations, here are two more resources:
Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (see image below of one mention of the Ballinalacken O'Briens)
History of Clare and the Dalcassian clans of Tipperary Limerick, and Galway by Patrick White
http://ia310933.us.archive.org/2/items/ ... ituoft.pdf
Chapter upon chapter of land confiscations and re-taking throughout the centuries, including the below image on a non-war-related distribution of a prominent O'Brien's land
I wish you the best with that, and I hope this serves as an encouragement.
Sharon Carberry
(not related to Lady Carbery, author of the Lough Gur book)
- Inchiquin Papers description
- Inchiquin Papers indexing by Brian Kirby.jpg (64.81 KiB) Viewed 20752 times
- Ballinalacken and O'Brien.jpg (34.01 KiB) Viewed 20752 times
- Patrick White book p. 296
- Patrick White book p.jpg (53.54 KiB) Viewed 20752 times