Re: Michael Festus and Winnefred Bannon 1807
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In reply to:
Michael Festus and Winnefred Bannon 1807
Sharon Bannon 2/06/08
Hi Sharon:
I research the Irish Family History Foundation's database. It contains 12,000,000 surviving rcds for abt 65% of Irish counties. Rcds are increasingly sparse B4 1840, rare B4 1800.
Note 1 - Without a KNOWN county, the chance of an ancestor's rcds NOT being in this database is AT LEAST 35%.
Note 2 - Only 1/2 of Co. Cork's rcds are in this database.
Note 3 - The RC church kept control over most parish rcds from Tipperary (north). These are ONLY available thru the Tipperary Family History Research center at a substantial fee (regardless of outcome).
For the "Festus" part of the name, Irish rcds rarely included the middle name until late in the 19th century. I found no evidence of it in ALL the Michael Bannons in the database.
It appears your Michael entered the U.S. at a young age since son Cornelius apparently didn't marry until abt 1869. This would have made Michael roughly 16 to 24 yrs old in 1840. Therefore his B date would be 1816-1824. Searching this range, I found 7 rcds: 1817 Kilkenny, 2-1817 Westmeath, 1819 Louth, 1822 Kilkenny, 1824 Sligo, and 1824 Longford. Father's forenames for these rcds are Michael, William, William, Michael, Michael, Michael, and Owen respectively.
Google the Foundation's name to lead you to this database. Register, opt to be notified as rcds are added and browse. Pls post your search results to my genforum msg.
Hope this helps. Good luck.