Touhy of Scarriff

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Rhonda OKeefe
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:46 am

Touhy of Scarriff

Post by Rhonda OKeefe » Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:46 am

I have just joined this group and am sending out a "please help" from Australia.
My Gr. Gr. Grandparents Patrick Tuohy & Honorah McNamara lived in Scarriff in 1848,
as their daughter Margaret was born there (info gained from her death certificate).
In 1852 the 3 of them came in Australia on board the Wanata as assisted British Immigrants.
Once they arrived here the spelling changed to Toohey - I assume that was because of the phonetic sound of the name as Patrick couldn't sign his name - on Margaret's marriage certificate he only left "his mark".

I have no knowledge of how to research where/when/what date any of them were born.
Going by their respective death certificates I only assume that Patrick was born in ~1810 & Honorah ~ 1818 ... but we all know counting backwards from this source isn't always correct :(

I guess just because it states that Margaret was born in Scarriff doesn't necessarily mean they always lived there!!
Patrick & Honorah's death certificates both only state that they were born in Co. Clare

Any help or ideas greatly appreciated .... Rhonda O'Keefe

smcarberry
Posts: 1281
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:31 pm
Location: USA

Re: Touhy of Scarriff

Post by smcarberry » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:20 pm

O.K., I'll wade in on this, since my Patrick Carberry (b.c. 1818)was an East Clare contemporary of Rhonda's Tuohys and there are Tuohys (Jeremiah and Michael) in my family's RC records in the parish of O'Callaghan Mills . Father Darby
(Jeremiah) Tuohy was in fact parish priest there, just before Patrick Quaid, who was so active in the post-1850 era.

Here are general directions to take: use the databases on the Clare County Library website, which has an entire section
devoted to genealogy. Although your Tuohy family left before the 1855 Griffiths Valuation, you might want consult that
anyway, to see the distribution of Tuohys around Scariff and then more broadly around upper to mid East Clare. If you
want to see the daughter Margaret's baptismal record, you can likely find that by locating the right parish and ordering
a film at an LDS centre near you. You can then determine siblings or parents of your couple, since those usually stood in
as sponsors. Your couple's birth years are too early to appear in parish records, but double check that for a likely city if
you believe that a birth occurred in one. Be sure to have a hard-copy geographical map for the area and know how to use the online one on the library site; become familiar with both civil and church parish boundaries in upper East Clare.

As to how to use particular resources, every library in its 929 (Dewey decimal system) section has a guidebook on Irish
genealogy, but here is one uniquely available in Australia:
County Clare records for researching Irish ancestors by David A Larkin
Publisher: [Burpengary, Qld. : Larkin Clan Association], 1999.
OCLC: 22265544
Available at:
State Library of Queensland S Brisbane, QLD 4101 Australia
Northern Regional Library & Information Service Moree, NSW 2400 Australia
National Library of Australia Canberra, ACT 2600 Australia
State Library of Queensland John Oxley Library Canberra, ACT 2600 Australia


Good luck with that. As I review my Tuohy-related materials, I will try to keep your couple in mind.

Sharon Carberry USA

Rhonda OKeefe
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:46 am

Re: Touhy of Scarriff

Post by Rhonda OKeefe » Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:28 am

Sharon - that you so much ... what a wealth of info you've given me.
The only mention of a town is Scarriff on Margaret's marriage certificate.
All other registration/certificates here in Australia only state that they all came from Co. Clare - no other information.
So, Scarriff it is.

I have also recently learned that a Michael TUOHY who was very much involved in the Eureka Uprising here in Australia in 1854 also came from Scarriff. Below is a link to him you may be interested in reading
http://www.hereticpress.com/Tuohy.html

Many thanks ... Rhonda

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