Trust, but verify; or There goes 1/16 of my family tree

(Protip: Just jump straight to "verify." We can "trust but verify" on Cold War relations and Iranian nuclear deals, but not genealogy!)

I received the death certificate of my 2x great-grandmother, Mary King O'Hara, a couple weeks ago. I had wanted it for years, but had always put off jumping through the Department of Health's hoops. Big mistake.

A relative interested in genealogy had sent me Mary's presumptive birth record years ago, and I took it at face value. It was, of course, a real birth record, for a real person named Mary King, but it no longer seems likely that she was the correct Mary King. There goes 1/16 of my family tree!

Lesson learned. Always verify the research of those who have gone before you. (I always knew that I should check this particular piece of information, but took it as a "starting point" until I could do the research myself. Nothing lost but time, I suppose.) (Also, don't take online trees as gospel, either, because mine is out there and it's (at least) 6.25% wrong.)

I had for years operated under the assumption that Mary King's parents were Michael King and Bridget Hopkins, and that she was born in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland, but her death certificate puts her parents as Patrick King and Bridget Fadden. I'd like to confirm that with a birth certificate that matches, of course, but right now, I don't know where to look. I've contacted the relative who sent the first birth record to see why he thought that that Mary King was our Mary King. If it was, for example, because Mary (whom he knew as a child) had talked about her childhood in Claremorris, then at least that's a place to start. If it was just because the dates matched on an index search, then I have all of Ireland to search. I'm waiting to hear back from him.

I have Mary's death notice, and it does not include a place of birth.

Mary was born in the 1870s (3 December 1875, according to her death certificate), and the civil registration indexes available for free online in this time period do not include mother's maiden name. Otherwise, this could be a pretty easy search. Other than browsing the registers of every Catholic parish in Ireland at the National Library, I'm not sure how to find Mary's actual birth place and birth record and confirm her parents. I might have to stoop so low as to subscribe to RootsIreland, despite my serious misgivings about the service they offer.


What are your best suggestions for locating an Irish town of origin? 

Claremorris, County Mayo Records

Some time ago, Uncle Jack gave me this information about Grandpa JJ (John O'Hara)'s mother, Mary King O'Hara:

Birthdate - June 21, 1874

Place - Carraconnor, Ballindine,Claremorris, County Mayo

Father - Michael King

Mother - Bridget Hopkins

This evening, I was playing around on the Ireland GenWeb site, looking at the Mayo records, which include transcriptions of parish registers from Claremorris, and I found the following citations:

Marriage
26 Mar 1865 Michael King to Bridget Hopkins-pt-Thomas Conry, Catherine Roache

Baptisms
11 Sept 1842 - Michael of Nicholas King and Margaret Conoly-sp-Michael King, Mary Conoly
25 Sept 1837 - Henry of Nicholas King and Margaret Creary-sp-Henry King, Margaret Creary
25 Dec 1837 - Henry of Nicholas King and Margaret Conry-sp-Henry King, Margaret Conry(?)
15 Sept 1844 - Pat of Nicholas King and Pegy Creaby-sp-Pat King, Mary Creaby
26 Nov 1846 -Thady of Thady Charles and Mary Judge-sp-Nicholas and Mary King--Cuilmore(?)--
26 Nov 1846 - Ann of Nicholas King and Mary C.(?)-sp-William McGah, Mary King--Cuilmore--
9 May 1853 - Honor of Nicholas King and Margaret Curraby-sp-John King, Catherine Curraby--Cloonmore--

If these are accurate - and the microfilms are now on my list for whenever I make it a Family History Center, so I can check - it looks like my great-great-great-great-grandfather was Nicholas King, and my great-great-great-great-grandmother was Margaret C-----y. There appeared to be a couple related King families in the area, but only one Michael King that I came across. I found a couple Hopkins families, but not a Bridget Hopkins other than in the marriage record.

It looks like Michael King had siblings Henry, Pat(rick?), Ann, and Honor - he being the second oldest - and possibly aunts and uncles named Michael, Henry, Pat, Mary, and John. It also looks like one of the witnesses at his wedding may have been a relative on his mother's side, but I'd really like to see the handwriting myself to see if I can gain any insight on Margaret's disputed maiden name - and to check whether these are, in fact, all the same Margaret.

I included one citation up there that's not of a King child - but on the same day as Ann King was baptized, "Nicholas and Mary King" were godparents to another child, Thady Charles. This could be either Nicholas King and his wife Mary C. King/Margaret Conoly-Creary-Conry-Creaby-Curraby King OR Nicholas King and the Mary King who was Ann's godmother, potentially a sister or cousin.