Person in this family
John Fitzgerald
This entry is about John Fitzgerald (Born 1 January 1859; death not recorded). For other family members with the same first and family name, see John Fitzgerald (about 1833 – 20 April 1903), John Fitzgerald (5 October 1900 – 14 September 1971), John Fitzgerald (Dates not recorded), John Joseph Fitzgerald (2 September 1913 – 14 March 1981).
Born 1 January 1859; death not recorded
A Caheratrant farmer's son who married Bridget Fitzgerald at Ventry on 12 February 1889 and appeared with her in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.
Proved by a record
John Fitzgerald, born at Caheratrant in 1859, married Bridget Fitzgerald at Ventry in 1889 and belonged to a County Kerry farming family.
Born at Caheratrant, Ventry, County Kerry, Ireland
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Gina D. Cacace’s no relationship found in this archive
Abigail Ann Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s no relationship found in this archive
Kevin Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
Life
John Fitzgerald was recorded as born at Caheratrant, Ventry, County Kerry, on 1 January 1859, the son of Maurice Fitzgerald and Johanna Griffin. He belonged to a farming household in the Ventry area.
On 12 February 1889 he married Bridget Fitzgerald in the Roman Catholic Chapel of Ventry. The civil record is headed:
"Marriage record for John Fitzgerald and Bridget Fitzgerald. Date of Event: 12/02/1889. Roman Catholic Chapel of Ventry."
This archive identifies three children of the couple: Patrick, John, and Mary Fitzgerald. Bridget's census records place the family at Caheratrant in both 1901 and 1911 and describe the household as a farming family.
John's death has not been found. He is distinct from the full-age John Fitzgerald who married Margaret Fraher at Kildorrery in 1870; no record connects the two nuclear families.
How we know this: His parentage, 1889 marriage, and household are supported by records, but his death and parts of his children's lives remain unverified. [1][2]
Family
Parents
Siblings · birth order
Spouse
Children
See this family in the family treeWork and occupation
- Farmer
Where they lived
- 1895: Caheratrant, Ventry, County Kerry, Ireland
Use the place list first. The map below is optional.
Places listed on this page
- Caheratrant, Ventry, County Kerry, Ireland
- Ventry, County Kerry, Ireland
- County Kerry, Ireland
- Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland
- County Kerry, Ireland
The map could not load. The complete place list is above it.
The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 2 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.
Timeline
Born
Caheratrant,Ventry,Dingle
From our family tree - no record found yet
Still 'farmer's son' at forty
The 1901 census of Caheratrant lists five people: Maurice Fitzgerald, 66, farmer; John, 40, entered as farmer's son; Bridget, 40; Patrick, 5; and John, an infant. At forty, with a wife and two children of his own, he was still recorded under his father's occupation, because his father still held the land.
Proved by a record
Farmer at last
By the 1911 census John, 53, is entered as farmer and his father Maurice, 78, as retired farmer. The household is John, Bridget 50, Maurice 78, and the three children — Patrick 16, John 10, Mary 8. He took the farm in his fifties.
Proved by a record
Original records
Tap to open a larger copyCivil marriage register, John Fitzgerald and Bridget Fitzgerald, 12 Feb 1889, Ventry
Civil registration means an official government record of a birth, marriage, or death.
What the records say
1 of 2 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
Irish civil marriage register — John Fitzgerald and Bridget Fitzgerald, 12 February 1889, Ferriter chapel, Ventry
Civil registration means an official government record of a birth, marriage, or death.
Proved by a record
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Marriage record for John Fitzgerald and Bridget Fitzgerald | Party 1 Name: John Fitzgerald | Party 2 Name: Bridget Fitzgerald | Date of Event: 12/02/1889 | SR District/Reg Area: Dingle | Roman Catholic Chapel of Ventry, | Bridget Fitzgerald formerly Fitzgerald
Record exhibit
Baptism of Johannes (John) Fitzgerald, Dingle, 7 January 1859
This is an entry in a church book, often naming a child, parents, and godparents.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Historical context
These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.
What Sponsors and Witnesses Can Tell Us
Catholic registers often preserve the people standing just outside a family photograph. A baptism normally names the child, parents, date and sponsors or godparents; a marriage normally names the couple and wit…
Reading Irish Civil Registration
The year 1864 is the dividing line in this family’s Irish paper trail. Civil registration began in 1845 for non-Catholic and civil marriages, but from 1 January 1864 the law required registration of all births,…
Farmers and Labourers in North Cork
Two words in the Cork records—“farmer” and “labourer”—describe different positions in the same rural economy. When John Fitzgerald married Margaret Fraher at Kildorrery in 1870, the register called John, his fa…
Islandeady and Derrycriff, County Mayo
Islandeady is not an island off Galway. It is a rural parish between Castlebar and Westport in County Mayo, set among lakes and low hills in the shadow of Croagh Patrick. That distinction solves a long-standing…
What we still don't know
- His death date and place
- Civil birth records for children John and Mary
- Any relationship to the separate Kildorrery and Cullane Fitzgerald family
- [FROM THE REGISTER] He married Bridget Fitzgerald at Ferriter chapel in the Ventry district on 12 February 1889, a farmer of Caheratrant, son of Maurice Fitzgerald, farmer — which corroborates his Dingle baptism of January 1859 independently. Both he and his bride signed with marks.
- [NOW DOCUMENTED] His baptism at Dingle on 7 January 1859, under the Latin Johannes, names Maurice Fitzgerald and Joanna Griffin. He is the eldest of the family and the couple's earliest record.
- Keep this Caheratrant/Ventry man separate from the John Fitzgerald who married Margaret Fraher at Kildorrery in 1870; no record links the two nuclear families.
- This is the John Fitzgerald baptised 1 January 1859 at Caheratrant, Ventry, County Kerry, son of Maurice Fitzgerald and Johanna Griffin. No record links him to the Cork/Limerick family of the 1870 Kildorrery groom.
- [DISCRIMINATOR] The two John Fitzgeralds can be told apart by their hands as well as by their counties. This Ventry man made his mark in 1895; the Kildorrery groom of 1870 signed his own name in 1870, 1872 and 1875. That is not proof they are different men on its own, but it runs the same way as every other piece of evidence and against any merge.
- [RESOLVED] The family is complete at three children. The 1901 and 1911 censuses of Caheratrant agree: Patrick, John and Mary, and no others. Both children's birth registers have now been read and match. There is no missing Ventry sibling to look for.
- [COULD NOT WRITE] John Fitzgerald signed with a mark on his marriage register of 1889 at Ferriter chapel, entered with his mark, so he could not write his name. Of the twelve people in this archive whose registers have been read, some couples both signed, some both marked, and in three of them one partner signed while the other did not — it followed schooling and trade rather than family or sex.