Joanne, if you search at the IFHF website http://ifhf.rootsireland.ie <http://ifhf.rootsireland.ie/> for any Hanrahan children whose mother's surname was Cleary, you will find these two, in County Tipperary: Civil Birth Hanrahan Bernard 1866 Co. Tipperary fa: James mo: Mary Cleary Civil Birth Hanrahan James 1869 Co. Tipperary fa: James mo: Mary Cleary It is very possible that the child called Bryan was registered as Bernard. Do those dates of birth look approximately correct? (The year listed is actually the year the birth was registered, which of course happened some time after the birth. There were penalties for registering late, but people sometime got around those by lying about the date of birth. You will sometimes find records for children who were somehow "born" after they were baptized! (Not really, of course.) To get search results such as above, which are free at the IFHF website, you must first register, which is also free. The name of the child and year of birth as above will be displayed when you select the Standard Search option. However, to search on mother's name, you must select the Advanced Search option, which does not display the child's name or the year. Hence, you must toggle between using both as you further refine your search in response to the hits you get. I searched on Cleary for mother and Hanrahan for father and then refined my search to determine that the 2 "hits" were for a father with first name was James and mother Mary Cleary. The listings above are only the index entries, available free. If you click on the magnifying glass image at the end of each entry at the website, it will take you to the website for the Heritage Center with which the record is associated, in this case Bru Boru, which covers southern Tipperary http://tipperarysouth.rootsireland.ie <http://tipperarysouth.rootsireland.ie/> Once at that local Heritage Center's website and using the Advanced Search again, with Cleary for mother's maiden name, you can cycle through the choices for Parish/District (selecting only those marked CP, which are for civil registration records, as indicated in the index entries) and will discover that Cashel (CP) is the name of the Registrar's District (not parish!) in which both births were registered. To see the names of the children and the dates, you must be use the Standard Search option. It is more complicated to explain it than to actually do it once you are familiar with the website! If you want to see a transcription of the civil record at the IFHF website (not an image of the original civil record) you must pay. However, I know the same civil birth records are on microfilm at the Family History Library, and that some of the information from those records has been extracted and is available online free by searching at the FamilySearch website: http://search.labs.familysearch.org <http://search.labs.familysearch.org/> The following extractions from the civil birth records appear there: Name: Bernard Hanrahan Gender: Male Birth Date: 18 May 1866 Birthplace: 0534,CASHEL,TIPPERARY,IRELAND Father's Name: James Hanrahan Mother's Name: Mary Cleary Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C70128-8 System Origin: Ireland-ODM Source Film Number: 101127 >>>>>>>> FHL film number Collection: Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881 Name: James Gender: Male Baptism/Christening Place: 454, CASHEL, TIPP, IRE Birth Date: 17 Aug 1869 Birthplace: Cashel, Tipp, Ire Father's Name: James Hanrahan Mother's Name: Mary Cleary Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C70139-4 System Origin: Ireland-VR Source Film Number: 101192 >>>>>>>> FHL film number Reference Number: 2:HW3MQ3 Collection: Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881 The original records can be found on the FHL film numbers above. The two films above can be ordered at a local Family History Center near you and you can view them there. A third option for getting these records is to order a copy of the civil record from the GRO in Ireland. The original record should have the father's occupation listed, and perhaps his townland of residence or street address, and the name of the person who reported the birth and their qualification for reporting it (e.g., parent). You will not find civil records of birth for the earlier children because civil registration of births in Ireland did not begin until 1864. You will not find baptismal records for any of the children at the IFHF website (if they were baptized at Cashel) because it is in the Diocese of Cashel and Emly, which offers its own research service (TFHR) and does not participate in IFHF. Regards, Geralyn Wood Barry in Oregon, USA On 7/12/2011 7:21 AM, Joanne Novarro wrote: > Am seeking the place my Hanrahan clan came from. James, wife Mary Cleary > Hanrahan, and their children: Edward, Bryan, Dennis, James, Mary Ellen, > Patrick. They arrived in NYC in 1870 and settled on the Lower East Side. > James was a shoemaker. > > I've checked tithe applotments and Griffith's but there are many many > Hanrahans. Don't know where to go next. > > Thanks, > > Joanne Novarro >