Rita - the fact that Matthew & Mary's third son was named Matthew (there was no third daughter's name) suggests that you may be right on about the parents. That would make Matthew's parents be John and Bridget, while Mary's would be Thomas and Margaret! It's a place to start anyway - thank you! - Phil > Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:49:52 EDT > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [IRL-LIMERICK] Dwyer/Martin > To: [email protected] > Message-ID:<[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > Since you found the baptismal records of Matthew and Mary's children in > Croom you might at least get a hint of their (Matthew and Mary) parents' > names. At that time the naming pattern was fairly strong in that area. The > first son was named after the father's father. The second son was named > after the mother's father and the third son was named after the father himself > (if it wasn't already used). Similarly, the first daughter was named after > the mother's mother, the second after the father's mother, and the third > after the mother herself. Since you seem to have the names of 5 children, > you might get some strong hints out of it. > > In my family, the pattern seemed to be followed. My only problem was that > the oldest child died before his name became part of the records. > Baptismal records don't exist any more and that is mention of a son, but no name. > He was dead before the 1851/2 Canadian census which named children. > > Good luck. > Rita