Filling in the blanks just got way easier

Only last month I published a chart summarising all I knew about the children of my great-great-grandparents, Francis Byrne and Margaret McGrane. Many blanks remained, despite it being the product of over five year's genealogy research. Then, just last week, the Registrar released our copy birth, marriage and death registers - for free, online - and look at all the blanks now filled!

	Child’s Name	Birth date	Death date	Spouse, marriage year
1	Myles Byrne	15 Jan 1873	2 Nov 1928	Elizabeth Bethel, 1897
2	James Byrne	18 May 1874	29 Jul 1948	Christina Devine, 1897
3	Francis Byrne	21 Feb 1876	14 Dec 1950	Maryanne Drennan, 1896
4	Charles Byrne	6 Mar 1878	12 Apr 1879	None
5	Margaret Byrne	15 Nov 1879	25 Jul 1932	James Fay, 1920
6	Mary Ann Byrne	about 1882	6 Mar 1960	William Vickers, 1901
7	Jane Byrne	3 Aug 1883	17 Mar 1919	James Fay, 1916
8	John Joseph Byrne	21 Dec 1885	15 Jan 1930	Margaret Burke, 1910
9	Michael Byrne	21 Oct 1887	10 Jan 1889	None
10	Patrick Byrne	10 Mar 1890	26 Jul 1923	Catherine Mills, 1916
11	Paul Byrne	18 Sep 1891	8 Feb 1959	Kathleen McDuff, 1916
12	Kate Byrne	13 Jul 1893	11 Jun 1931	None
13	Ben Byrne	21 May 1896	1966	Annie Porter, 1918
14			before 1911	None

Birthdates for Jane, John, Patrick, and Kate are known. However, baptism records are available for the older children and it's clear the Byrnes sometimes delayed registering their newborns' births. For example, at Francis’s baptism on 28 February 1876, his birthday was said to be 21 February. 21 April was the date later registered. He was certainly not baptised before he was born, so the register must be wrong. And, if it's wrong for Francis, it may be wrong for the younger children too. Bear in mind, a penalty was charged for late registration, which the family could ill afford to pay. Maybe it was easier to give the wrong date and avoid a fine.

I also found out what happened to Patrick, the son who died young and shares his parent’s grave. He was born at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, on 10 March 1890 - likely a more accurate date, given the hospital registered his birth. On 3 September 1916, he married Catherine Mills in the Pro-Cathedral. They lived in Upper Rutland Street. Patrick died of heart failure at St Vincent's Hospital in 1923, following an intestinal stricture. 

Historic Irish death registers contain little identifying information, other than the deceased's name and last address, and the possibility the informant might be recognised as a relative. With common names, it is often difficult to know when you’ve found the correct record. Myles Byrne, Francis's son, registered his death. Our Francis had a son called Myles, born in 1903, so this record probably relates to my great-granduncle. Kathleen Byrne, an unmarried soap maker, just a year off our Kate's age, died at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, aged just thirty-six years. She gave her last residential address as Lower Jane Place, where our Byrne family lived. This was probably my great-grandaunt, though further research may prove me wrong.  

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© Black Raven Genealogy