Lavin / McDermott search

Rita LAVIN · Post by **Rita LAVIN** » Sun Jan 24, 1999 12:12 am

Searching for records/family of Thomas Lavin (born approx. 1878) county Roscommon who married Winifred McDermott (born approx. 1888)in Ireland. Had a son Michael born in approx. 1911 in Ireland. All Emigrated to Canada. Michael married a Joan Bromley (from England) during 2nd world war. Had 3 children ,Helen, Michael and Linda, all born in Canada. Joan and children returned to UK after the death of Michael.
 
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rgall@telusplanet.net OR rlavin@rdtv.wic.ca

Post by **efinn** » Sun Jan 24, 1999 10:48 am

(User Above) wrote: : Searching for records/family of Thomas Lavin : (born approx. 1878) county Roscommon who : married Winifred McDermott (born approx. 1888) Dear Rita,I have seen questions such as yours show up on the Leitrim-Roscommon bulletin board many times in the past, so today was a rainy day here at the Finn homestead and that gave me some "inside" time to respond to your posting in a way that I hope will provide some insight to researches who have a similar situation and can apply the same approach to their research.I will start this outline with a disclaimer....please keep in mind that the Leitrim-Roscommon databases are presently under development and are not complete, HOWEVER, they do contain a considerable amount of data and you could be the lucky researcher who finds your ancestor in the existing databases. These databases are growing each month, and as they grow, your chances of finding an ancestor increases proportionally to the size of the database.Now, with that having been said, let's take a look at the data that you presently have and what existing Leitrim-Roscommon resources you can put to use.You have a Thomas Lavin born approx. 1878 and a Winifred McDermott born approx. 1888. I will submit to you at this point that my research has shown on an average, my ancestors were incorrect in their birth dates by approximately plus or minus 3 years. I would add another 2 years to this for good measure and say that you should accept any displayed birth date that fell within plus or minus 5 years. Once again, I'm sure that there are researchers out there that have had other experiences and could tell you that they have found their ancestors to be off by 10 years (or more), but it is my experience that the average error is less than that.Now that we have decided upon a range of birth dates for Thomas and Winifred, let's start with the 1901 census database. Using your approx. birthdates as the central point of our spread, in 1901 that would put Thomas between the ages of 18 - 28 and Winifred between the ages of 8 - 18.Using the 1901 search engine I would enter the following data: Head of household surname: Lavin Others enumerated: Thomas Sort by: TownlandNotice I don't put in any given name for head of household, as I don't know the name of Thomas' father.Using the already established birth spread, I find 5 possible matches from the above output page. age 25, townland of Cloonmagunnaun, civil parish of Kilnamanagh Age 25, townland of Cloggarnagh, civil parish of Tibohine Age 28, townland of Slieveroe, civil parish of Kilnamanagh Age 18, townland of Ballinphuill, civil parish of Tibohine Age 18, townland of Lissacurkia, civil parish of TibohineWe now do the same for Winfred by entering the following: Head of household surname: McDermott Others enumerated: Winifred Sort by: TownlandUsing Winifreds birth spread we find the following: Age 16, townland of Drumlasson, civil parish of Castlemore Age 11, townland of Lissacurkia, civil parish of TibohineWith the above information there are a few things that can be put to use. Once again, I have to warn you that these' are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, however if you are looking for a lead that will take you closer to finding your ancestors, and you have no other information, then they may be all you have at the present time and well worth the effort spend in trying to further your research.So continuing with this outline we find that we have a Thomas and a Winfred within the right age group who both live in the Townland of Lissacurkia, additionally, if you go to the Tibohine civil parish map and look up the other townlands in Tibohine, you will find that Cloggarnagh is an adjacent townland to Lissacurkia, and that Ballinphuill is only 2 townlands away (an easy walk for our ancestors). Although it is not engraved in stone, and surely there are exceptions, our ancestors tended to marry close to the townlands in which they lived, so the above become very valid findings for followup.Now there are some additional pieces of information that might be very important linking clues that are not mentioned in your original posting. It is possible that you might know the names of some of the siblings to Thomas and Winifred. If this were the case, then you would have some additional qualifiers to use when you brought up the 1901 census results from your search. And without question, should you happen to know the names of their parents, then this would be a MAJOR qualifier for the census results.Just a few additional pieces of information that could be useful to any researcher using the Leitrim-Roscommon databases. It has been my experience that within the boundaries of my research, most of my male Finns were getting married for the first time at an average age of 30. Their wives were generally younger and varied from 2 to 10 years younger. Keep this in mind when you are deciding whether to look for the ancestor being enumerated with their parents, or possibly with their spouse.I hope the above outline will be useful for you as well as any other researchers who read it and may have the same basic research data as a starting point.To all researchers using the Leitrim-Roscommon resources..... good luck with your research.Ed Finn efinn@thecore.com

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efinn@thecore.com

Lavin / McDermott search

Lavin / McDermott search

Re: HOW TO FIND YOUR LAVIN/MCDERMOTT CONNECTION