| 1766 | The 1766 census was authorised by the Irish Parliament in March of that year, probably for ecclesiastical administrative purposes. The House of Lords resolution instructed all archbishops and bishops to direct the parish ministers of their dioceses to return a list of the families in their parishes, "distinguishing which are Protestants and which are Papists, as also a list of the several reputed Popish priests and friars residing in their parishes."
In this census we find in Abington a Papist family under the name of Derby Day with six members in it. Whether this record refers to the Darby O'Dea we have postulated as a result of DNA testing is simply speculation. We include the citation here to note that there was indeed a Darby O'Dea living in Limerick at this time.
We sepculate that at about this time, there would have been three O'Dea families in this part of Limerick: Darby, James, and John. Besides this records for Darby, note a similar record of a James O'Dea in the Parish of Tuogh and Clonkeen. Unfortunately, there is no record of a John O'Dea in Feloree and Boheroe because there are no existing census results from that part of the county. | Abington, County Limerick1 |
