Hi LIsa,
I wonder if your ancestors actually married in Ireland. It seems somewhat inconsistent that Henry was born in
Berkshire and came to Ireland to marry but went back to
London for them to have their first child? Hawkins is a fairly common name in
Dublin and Ireland and there were nearly two hundred of them in
Dublin City around that time. Keating is a very common surname in
Dublin and Ireland and there are of course at least 100 Mary Keatings in
Dublin during that time.
However there is a Kingstown in County Tipperary, it's near Knockbulloge southwest of
Cashel where the Rock of
Cashel is. Your Mary
Keating could indeed have been born in that Kingstown.
One of the challenges of researching in Ireland is that placenames are often in many counties, some even found in several locations in a county!
I would be very hesitant therefore to say that marriage in
Dun Laoghaire, which was formerly Kingstown in County
Dublin is your ancestor's marriage.
I would recommend that you request Mary Keating's civil birth cert from the General
Register Office in Ireland
http://www.groireland.ie and give them her name, date of birth and birth location in Kingstown, Co. Tipperary. They will get back to you if the birth wasn't registered.
I would recommend that you get Henry's military records which may give you locations where the couple were in their first years of marriage. They're at
Kew in
England in the
UK Archives:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory/?WT.ac=MH...They would give detail about Henry's locations when he was in the British military. It would also include information about his wife, where they were married, etc.
I would also look for the marriage record in
England since that's where Henry was born and where their first son was born.
Also I recommend that you get Henry's civil birth cert from
Berkshire. His birth information will also be in his British military record.
The birth certs for both of course will include both parents names. The marriage cert for them would include the fathers name for each which is another way to verify the connection to your specific ancestors and not some other couple with the same names.
As I said
Hawkins is a common surname in
Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland and there were many families with that surname. Hawkins Street in
Dublin is named after
Alderman William
Hawkins who in 1662 built a wall there from
Townsend Street to Burgh
Quay to enclose the river. He received a grant of the land, and built a street, which was named after him. It was called
Hawkins Quay until more land was reclaimed from the Liffey.
Regards.
Eilis
O'Hara