Costigan of Kilkenny

[Lindy46]

Hi - I have been tracing my family of Costigans and have managed to find the one who came over to England from Ireland but can't trace him before that. His name was Thomas Costigan and his marriage certificate says he was born in 1842 in Kilkenny and that his father was called John Costigan who was a labourer. Other than that I have hit a brick wall - I can't find any birth records or who his mother was or any siblings. Can any one help? thanks Lynn

[Waitabit]

Have you tried the IGI Family search. Some of these are listed:

Waterford 1867 9 Page: 429
FHL Film Number: 101250
Waterford 1867
Ellen Galavan - Mary Gee *- Mary Kennedy- Mary M'Carthy - Mary Walsh
Abbeyleix 1874 13 Page: 291
FHL Film Number: 101252
Abbeyleix 1874 =
Catherine Bulger -Thomas Costigan - Elizabeth Delany- Elizabeth Maher

Eliza Reily is the mother of several children to Thomas Costigan in Kilkenny after 1872.

[pattenwalsh]

The only results looking from 1838-1846 on Rootsireland is only 2 Thomas Costigans with fathers name of John.Both are in County Laois,which borders on Co Kilkenny,and are in 1840 & 1845.

[Elwyn Soutter]

The problems you are up against is that there are no surviving censuses from the 1840s and 1850s and that statutory registration of births didn’t start in Ireland till 1864, so you won’t find birth record for him. You might find his baptism but only if you know where he came from. Otherwise it’s a needle in a haystack. The various pay to view sites have some pre 1864 baptisms, but their records are patchy and incomplete.

I assume he was RC. You can see what parish records exist for Co. Kilkenny on the attached site, as well as where copies are now held. You’ll see that there are parishes whose records for the 1840s are lost (or were never kept in the first place). So it is possible that his records are amongst the lost ones.

http://www.
irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/

You really need to try and find some information from sources outside Ireland that tell you exactly where in Kilkenny he came from. Examples are wills, gravestones, poor law records, obituaries and military records. Also check every census in case a more specific place of birth is included.