In July of this year the National Library of Ireland launched their website of Catholic parish registers showing baptism and marriage records for parishes across Ireland, previously only available on microfilm onsite in Dublin (http://registers.nli.ie). This treasure came with some drawbacks – none of the names in the registers are indexed, so finding an entry means paging through the register for the relevant years looking for a familiar name. And some of the pages themselves are deeply unreadable, splodged or obliterated by ink marks, with entries written in close, crowded script.
Nevertheless I had a happy time looking for Molloys in the parish covering the locality of Brownstown or the Curragh, the locations given by the Molloys in Australia as their place of origin. This parish turned out to be called Suncroft, in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
The Curragh, according to Wikipedia, is a flat open plain of 5,000 acres of common land, comprising well drained sandy soil ideal for horse breeding and training. It hosts the premier race course in Ireland and the National Stud is located close by, on the outskirts of Kildare town. The Curragh Camp has been a site of military training and barracks for centuries, historically for the British army and more recently for the Irish Defence Forces.
Brownstown lies to the south of The Curragh, and to the south east of the town of Kildare. In terms of the townland system of civil divisions, there were a number of variants of Brownstown – Lower, Upper, Great and Little.
Ordnance Survey Kildare-Wicklow map, 1985
Registers for Suncroft parish in the National Library collection run from 1805 to 1880 for baptisms and from 1805 to 1881 for marriages. I located the baptismal record for Patrick Molloy, my great grandfather, recorded on 5 August 1840. HIs parents’ names are given as John Molloy and Sarah Byrne, and baptismal sponsors were Pat Walsh and Eliza Doyle. His parents’ abode was given as Brownstown.
His parents, John and Sarah (also known as Sally), were married in 1839, on 23rd April in Suncroft parish, with witnesses John Keegan and Mary Fitzgerald.
Registration of marriage of John Molloy and Sally or Sarah Byrne, 23rd April 1839
Patrick was obviously their eldest child. He was followed by two Molloy children I had not previously known about:
- Mary, baptised 27 May 1842; sponsors were Garrett Byrne and Mary Coman. Parents Jno. & Sally Byrne. Abode Brownstown.
- James, baptised 27 April 1845; sponsors were James Keegan, Mary Byrne. Parents John & Sally Byrne. Abode Brownstown
- John, baptised 6 August 1848; sponsors were Patrick Molloy and Cath. Byrne. Parents John & Sally Byrne. Abode Brownstown
- Eliza, baptised 6 March 1851; sponsors were Martin Doyle and Mary Molloy. Parents John & Sally Byrne. Abode Curragh
- Peter, baptised 8 July 1855; sponsors were Edward and Jane Byrne. Parents John & Sarah Byrne. Abode Brownstown
All siblings except for Mary and James are known to have migrated to Australia (their migration story is in this post). I have not yet been able to find further information about Mary or James. In the parish records, there is a Mary Molloy marrying a Patrick Fitzgerald in Suncroft parish in 1876, when she would have been 34, but I don’t currently have any further information to verify that this Mary Molloy is from our Molloy family.
John Molloy’s occupation was given by his children on their marriage and death certificates in Queensland as either a labourer or farmer. His name doesn’t appear on Griffiths Valuation as a tenant farmer in any of the Brownstown townlands at the time it was published for County Kildare in 1853.
My mother spent a happy time with friends visiting the Curragh area of County Kildare in March 1983, knowing that her Molloy ancestors were from Kildare, a time made even happier by news of the birth of her first grandchild, far away in New Zealand.
In Memory of Veronica Buchanan, nee Molloy (1923 – 2015)
black2buchanan 
My husband, David, has been researching the Molloy family as he is a decendant of Mary Margaret Molloy and Maurice Hart (his great grandparents). Which of Patrick and Sarah’s children is your ancestor? It is an interesting family and I would love to find out more about their life in Ireland. I found the baptism records for Patrick and Sarah’s children that you wrote about and their marriage record. I hope to do some more digging and see what else turns up. Thanks for all of the information on your website.
Pat Magee
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Hi to all searching Molloys. We have Molloys from Wexford i think. One we know of is a John Molloy, married Elizabeth/Kehoe from Wexford. They ended up in Chicago Ilinois. We searched for years and not found any Molloys who married a Kehoe, we also have the name Black in our line. Don’t know much about these.
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Hi Shirley. I had a look and found a marriage record for John J Molloy marrying Lizzie P Kehoe on 20 August 1911 in All Saints Parish, Wallace St, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Would that be your John Molloy? The Blacks are in my husbands’ family, no connection to my Molloys. Cheers, Kate Buchanan
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I havent seen the Black emails on Ancestry messge boards yet, i cant find them,but will keep looking.
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Hi Shirley, nice to hear from you again. I hope you’re able to make some progress with your Wexford Malloys/Molloys.
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Hi again, that was a fast reply,thankyou, No im no further with my Malloys,its the different spellings that causes a lot of mix yup. I do think the Lizzie and John Malloy in Chicago is ours. I think they knew family in Chicago ,2 or 3 of Lizzies sibblings were already in Chicago from Wexford, A brother Henry kehoe and a sister Margaret who married a James Aloyious Comerford,he was from Killkenny,Ireland. Henry died young,we dont know how,but its known his sister Margaret was the one who was on his deth certificate,that informed the death, Lizzie and John ,we know up to now,had a girl called Mary,she died 7year old. we dont what of. Id say there will of been more children besides poor little Mary. Lizzies older sister Margaret and James had 5 children imn Chicago,and we heard they moved to Wisconsin, its said they lost their house ,reasons,we dont know. We know the names of the 5 children,but they dont contact us,dont know why. They will have Grandchildren too im sure. I have one little boy,3years pld and so georgous,he looks like a girl he sso pretty. hahaha. A Grandaughter of Margaret kehoe Comerford ,conntacted us a couple of years ago. saying she had seen some of our messages on the message boards on Ancestry, Mikayla Friggon ,husband Ron, Shes a Grandaughter of Margaret and James Comerford .but not heard from her for a long time. She id she was glad to meet distant relatives. And sent 3 photos to my email of herself and husband to put a face to the name she said ,also a photo of Margaret kComerford dressed in a georgouse green dress and hat, looed very posh, and the other photo is of Margaret and husband and 2 sons ,oh another photo with Margaret and some daughter i think it is. ive not at it for a long while. Anyway im done boring you now hahahaha. i wish we could find find more of my Malloysetc spellings of Wexford. Let me know how you get on with yout research,ive loads of surnames to lpook for, besides the ones we know of. i have a few names in Chicago,a few Comerfords too. but dont know where in the USA they are. i just know they are related to James Aloyious Comerford. Shirley x
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Hi again, i cant remember where on the message boards are the surname Black, i cant remember how the name is connected to us. as soon as ai find the Black name emails i will let you know. Shirley
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Hi,hope your all well,just thught id check in to see if your doing alright with your research,we are still no further with that illusive John Malloy and wife Lizzie kehoe Malloy,both of Wexford ,i dont think there s anyone left of my Malloys for some reason, ive looked everywhere. Ionly know about him and Lizzie in Chicago,and one child, cant find anything more of John, I know a lot about Lizzie Kehoe Malloy. keep safe Shirley x
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Hello Shirley, all well here. I haven’t found any further connection to my Molloys, but i had another look just now at your Malloy/Molloy relative. On the Family Search website, I found records for John Joseph Malloy and Elizabeth/Lizzie Kehoe, including his death record for 1938 – died 12 Jan 1938, address 855 W 51st Pl Chicago, buried Evergreen Park, spouse’s name Elizabeth. Date of birth is 20 Feb 1887 in Wexford. Is this likely to be your John Malloy? If so, the record also gives his parents’ names as George Malloy and Jane Furlong. I haven’t yet found his birth record in the Irish civil births, but his parents were married on 13 Sep 1880 in the city of Wexford – George Molloy, aged 23, coach builder, residence Killeens, father James Molloy sailor; Jane Furlong, 24, dressmaker, residence Killeens, father John Furlong, farmer. Contact me by email if you’d like me to send you these records. Cheers, Kate
katebuch@gmail.com
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Hi Katie, glad to hear all is well with you and yours,despite the viruses , I cant believe you have found John and Elizabeth lizzie Kehoe Malloy ,ive been looking for a good while now and found nothing of John in Wexford. I know a good bit about Lizzie,because her father is my gr grandfather. WOW WOW,thankyou so very much for this,im overwhelmed ,i must of been looking in the wrong place in Ireland ,but there are more John Malloys in Ireland,so was hard to fond mine. Thankyou so very much again,you are very kind,I do hope you find more about your Malloys,i cant remember where you saidyour Malloys came from. My children and my cousin will be so glad of this information. Again,many thanks Katie. I know of one child that Lizzie and John had in Chicago. A little girl Mary,who died aged 7 years old and is buried in Mount oliviet graveyard,i dont know what date Mary died,or what she died off. I know she is buried next to an Uncle of hers Henry Kehoe,died aged 22 i think,he is a son born Wexford ,of my Gr grandfather Bartholomew kehoe and mother Mary Hughes. I have a photo of a house in Chicago ,where Lizzie Kehoe Malloy and husband John Malloy,lived with their daughter little Mary,and Henry kehoe and his other sister Margaret kehoe Comerford all lived in the same house. Lizzie and Margaret are my Gr Aunts, Bartholomew is my grandfather. Oh yes i was talking about a email from My Heritage website,saying that we have another 37 people connected to Bartholomew kehoe. so now i have many more surnames to find in Ireland, I am grey haired but i will be after looking for these othe surnames. Please keep safe,Thankyou again for your kindness and help. Shirley xx
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Sorry Katie me again, yes please i would vry much like you to send me these records by email,Thankyou,very much. Shirley xx
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Hi again,hahaha,sorry,i just wondered where abouts you are in the world. I live in West Yoekshire UK x
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Shirley, I have sent you two emails. Let me know if they don’t arrive. Kate (Australia)
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Hello I am from the Molloy family near Uncroft the Curragh but I think the posts here relate to a different Molloy family. My father was James Molloy – his mother – Mary Molloy
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Hi Mary, lovely to hear from you. Would love to chat further about your family. Will email you if that’s OK?
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Yes please do
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That should be Suncroft – not Uncroft
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Hi ,for some reason ive not been able to put another message on here on my PC, i hope this email gets to you. Im still no further with my Malloys/different spellings from Wexford.
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Researching Molloys in Suncroft who emigrated to Australia
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Hi Mary, Have sent you an email. Kate
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