Clutching at straws

Searching for the origins of an elusive Byrne ancestor in Ireland is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Who am I kidding? These days, there are tools to make that search easier. Searching for my Byrne ancestor is more akin to searching for a specific blade of hay in the haystack - one with little to distinguish it from any other blade of hay. To make matters worse, my paternal great-grandfather was blessed with the popular name Michael and his parents with the even more fashionable names, John and Elizabeth. When that last clue came to light, an ancestral sleuth with any sense might have chosen a new hobby!

Michael’s occupation was of little help in narrowing the field of potential candidates, for, like so many of his contemporaries, he worked as a labourer, and sometimes as an agricultural labourer. The only saving grace, if indeed anything can rescue this search from near-certain failure, was his father’s occupation – John Byrne was said to have been a butler. I’m not suggesting ‘butler-ing’ was an uncommon profession then – just not as common and, together with everything else, it possibly could serve to shorten the list of potential candidates. 

If the 1901 and 1911 census returns are anything to go on, Michael was born between 1868 and 1870, or, as early as 1866, if you believe Peter Dignam, Michael’s son-in-law, who registered his death in 1927.  But, in my experience, Irish people in the past were very prone to ‘losing a few years’ off their age, especially as their lives progressed. I’d have happily lost a fair few years by now too, if the modern-day preoccupation with form-filling wasn't constantly reminding me of my true birth date. So, using the RootsIreland index to identify all (as in, all those in their index) the potential baptism records for my great-grandfather, I set the search parameters to include those born, in all Ireland, between 1856 and 1876. 

A list was made of all those Byrne (+variants) children, with names beginning with the letters ‘MI’, born to a father whose name began with ‘JOHN’, ‘JON’ or ‘JOA’ and a mother whose name commenced with ‘ELI’. Surprisingly, this resulted in only five Michaels, three baptised in Co. Wicklow, one in Co. Dublin and one in Co. Carlow. Perhaps one of these Michaels was my great-grandfather.

Date               Birth Place                            Father                      Mother

Feb 1858        Kiliney, Co. Dublin               John Byrne                Eliza [not recorded]

Oct 1862        Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow    John Byrne                Elizabeth Byrne

Oct 1863        Killaveney, Co. Wicklow      John Byrne                Elizabeth Kavanagh

Oct 1865        Arklow, Co. Wicklow           John Byrne                Eliza Dempsy

Sep 1868        Bray, Co. Wicklow               John Byrne                Elizabeth Toole

Although the father’s occupation was seldom recorded in Irish Catholic baptisms, it was normally available from the child’s birth certificate. Unfortunately, birth registration only commenced in Ireland in 1864, meaning the birth of at least three of these five children was not registered. If the father happened to be a butler by trade, it might only be confirmed by checking the birth register of one of his younger children - born after 1864. Laurence Byrne was the son of John and Elizabeth (Kavanagh) Byrne, baptised in Killaveney, Co. Wicklow in 1868, and was likely the younger sibling of the Michael baptised there in 1863. However, it is far more difficult to identify a sibling for Michael Byrne of Killiney, 1858, without the maiden name of his mother, so I’ll have to skip him for now.  I’ll also have to skip Michael Byrne of Bagenalstown, 1862. His parent’s marriage seemingly took place in that parish in 1861, confirming his mother’s maiden name was truly Byrne, but no subsequent children were found born to this couple in Co. Carlow. 

When I was checking the online birth indexes for the details necessary to order the copy birth registers from the General Register Office, a sixth potential candidate was identified. This Michael Byrne was born in Finglas, Glasnevin, on 15 June 1864, to John and Eliza (Kilbride) Byrne.  Glasnevin is only about fifteen kilometres from Malahide, where our Michael married my great-grandmother Elizabeth Mahon in 1892, and is in agreement with Michael’s own assertion that he was born in Co. Dublin.  So, I ordered a copy of his birth registration, along with those for the Michael born in 1865 and 1868 and the Laurence born in 1868… and guess what… the fathers’ occupations were gatekeeper, dairyman, labourer and labourer - not a domestic servant in sight! 

… so, back to the drawing board… or maybe… could a gatekeeper have been promoted to butler in the twenty-eight years between his son’s birth and my great-grandfather’s marriage? This was the Michael born in Glasnevin.

Sometimes, it feels like I’m clutching at straws!

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