Genealogy Quest: The case for Maryanne Coyle

Last week, I identified potential candidates for the role of my paternal great-great-grandparents, the parents of Mary Agnes (Donovan, O’Neill) Ellis. They were John Donovan and Maryanne Coyle, who married in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin in 1851. Maryanne gave birth to six children between 1854 and 1862, leaving a nearly too short window for the birth of Mary Agnes, yet, there are many ‘coincidences’ suggesting these were her parents.

First, we know Mary Agnes’s parents were called John and Mary Anne Donovan, so named when she married Charles O’Neill in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, in 1874. We just don’t know Maryanne’s maiden name.

Secondly, a Mary Agnes Donovan was Godmother to Maryanne (Coyle) Donovan’s daughter, Teresa Anne, in 1862. This at least proves there was a Mary Agnes in the Donovan-Coyle family. It was not unusual for older siblings to act as Godparents, and is in-keeping with the theory discussed last week, asserting Mary Agnes was older than stated in the 1901 and 1911 census returns.

It also seems our Mary Agnes really did have a sister (or relative, at least) named Teresa. A Teresa Donovan lived with her for a number of years after her marriage and registered the birth of two of the O’Neill children. If Teresa Anne, daughter of John and Maryanne (Coyle) Donovan, known to have been born in 1862, was our Mary Agnes’s sister, she would have been orphaned by the age of thirteen, making it reasonable for her to live with her elder sister and Godmother. 

There was a tradition in Ireland at the time, although not always followed, of naming children after their grandparents. The eldest son was named after his paternal grandfather and the eldest daughter after her maternal grandmother, with subsequent children being named after their other grandparents.  In a post entitled ‘An Unexpected Discovery’, I concluded that Thomas and Catherine Donovan may have been Mary Agnes’s paternal grandparents, or at least close members of her father’s family. And, evidently, the name Thomas was important to the Donovan-Coyle family too. They christened two sons Thomas; Thomas Joseph in 1854 and, after his death, Thomas Laurence in 1857. Significantly, the name Catherine was given to their daughter born in 1860 and it is also of interest to find the couple had no other daughter named Mary, especially as the mother’s name was Maryanne.

A Joseph Coyle was Godfather to John O’Neill, the son of Mary Agnes and Charles, baptised in 1879, proving a Coyle connection to our Mary Agnes.

There is some evidence to suggest that my great-great-grandfather, John Donovan had a sister, or other close relative, named Alice Donovan. I mentioned her before, here. And, an Alice Donovan was a witness to the marriage of John Donovan and Maryanne Coyle, in 1851.

Finally, Denis Newport, an unusual enough name in Dublin, was best man at John Donovan and Maryanne Coyle’s wedding in 1851. That year, a Denis Newport lived at 36 Cole’s Lane, also in St. Mary’s parish and in 1845 a Denis Newport operated as a cabinet, chair and sofa manufacturer at number 40. Mary Agnes’s father, an upholsterer, worked in the same industry and was likely employed by a cabinet maker. Later, Mary Newport of 27 Cole’s Lane was bridesmaid at Charles and Mary Agnes’s wedding in 1874.  Denis and Elizabeth Newport had a daughter Mary who married a William Ryan in St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, in November 1877.

This seems like a lot of coincidences to me, maybe not enough to fully complete the jigsaw and conclude that Maryanne Coyle was my second-great-grandmother, but going in the right direction nonetheless. Don’t you think?

The search for the missing pieces continues…

See also the previous post in this quest: 
The Search for Maryanne...

Continued at...
Expanding the search via a collateral line 

The search for Maryann - a stroke of luck 

Sources: Church records on IrishGenealogy.ie; Copy birth registers, General Register Office; Chart's head of households survey, extracted from the 1851 census of Dublin, FindMyPast; Pettigrew & Oulton's Dublin Almanack & General Register of Ireland, 1845, FindMyPast. Image credit: Pixabay.

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

Friday's Faces from the Past ~ Uncle Artie and Aunt Winnie

My granduncle, Arthur O'Neill, died on 7 January 1965, in London, having moved there soon after the war. Dad was just a boy when he left, yet, he still has fond memories of his 'Uncle Artie.' Although my father knew very little about his maternal ancestry, his recollections of Uncle Artie have enabled me to piece together the highlights and the lowlights of Artie's life.

Artie was born into a family of nine children, in Dublin city, the fourth and youngest son of Charles O'Neill and Mary Agnes Donovan. Around his tenth birthday, his father died suddenly, catapulting the family into crisis. Although his mother remarried in 1896, within a year of his father’s death, she was unable to take her dependent children with her to her new home with Thomas Augustus Ellis and they ended up in care.

Arthur O'Neill, 1901 Census, Industrial School, Limerick

Click on image to enlarge

At the time of the 1901 census, when my grandmother and her sister Johanna were found in foster care, the only potential sighting of young Artie, was in a boys’ industrial school, run by the Christian Brothers, in Limerick city. Many miles from home and without the company of his elder brothers (who were, by then, working and living with their mother and Mr. Ellis in Dublin), life in the industrial school was most likely not fun. It was certainly not fun, if the unspeakable abuse allegations, which have since come to light, are anything to go on. But, Artie survived this ordeal, and by 1911, he was back in Dublin, working as a hairdresser, and living with his mother.

In April 1917, Artie married Winifred (Winnie) O'Connor, né Earley, in the church at Sandymount, Dublin. Winnie was the widow of Bartholomew O'Connor, who died in January 1913, leaving her with three children, Brendan, aged five, Ellen, aged four and Winifred, barely two years old. When Bartholomew died, Winnie was pregnant with their fourth child, Bart, born eight months later.  

Winnie's situation obviously reminded Artie of his own experience, following his father's untimely death and undoubtedly his heart went out to the children. He was perhaps determined to keep them all together, and that, he did. Artie and Winnie went on to have four more children, Mary (May), Charlie, Art and Tom and when they were still young, the O'Neills and the O'Connors, all moved to Kiltimagh, in county Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland, where Artie worked as a barber.

Arthur and Winifred O'Neill, c. 1919

This photo, probably taken about 1919, is believed to be of the young Arthur O'Neill, with his wife Winifred and one of their children. 

Some thirty years into their marriage, Winnie became very ill. Knowing she was going to die, the couple came back to Dublin, and stayed with my grandparents, in Malahide. As they had come of age, many of Winnie's children had migrated to England, in search of work, and settled there. 'Black Raven', the name of our house in Malahide, is situated conveniently close to Dublin Airport. So, not only was my grandmother able to care for Winnie in her final days, but the move back to the east coast also made it easier for her children to visit. It was during this time that Dad came to better know and like his Uncle Artie. Winnie died at ‘Black Raven’ on 8 October 1948 and was laid to rest at Glasnevin Cemetery, next to her first husband, Bartholomew O'Connor.

“1947, Art O’Neill & Winnie”

This photograph was taken in 1947, not long before Winnie’s death. Do you see a resemblance between them here and the young couple in the earlier photograph above? I believe I do.

Shortly after Winnie died, Artie went to England to live with his daughter, May. He was listed in the London Electoral Registers in 1949, at 44 Victoria House, on the South Lambeth Road, living with his children May and Tom O'Neill. After May and Tom had both moved on and gone their separate ways, Artie continued to live in the same flat in Victoria House, with his step-son, Bart O'Connor. Bart was the child born after his own father's passing. He married Teresa Byrne in 1953, and Artie remained with the newly-weds in Victoria House, until they all moved together, to Chatsworth Way, in South East London, in 1960. This was still their home when Artie died, in 1965, at the age of seventy-nine years. 

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

Finding Lena's mother (part 2)

Lena (O’Neill) Byrne (1895 – 1956).

Having found much circumstantial evidence in the 1911 census return (see Finding Lena's mother, part 1) suggesting that Mary Agnes Ellis was my great-grandmother, the next step was to locate her in earlier records. The aim was to ultimately prove her connection to my grandmother, Helena (Lena) O'Neill, daughter of Charles O'Neill. In 1901, Mary Agnes and her husband Thomas Augustus Ellis were living in Middle Gardiner Street, Mountjoy, Dublin, with stepsons, Robert and John O’Neill. The younger children, Arthur, Mary Agnes and Teresa, seen with them in 1911, were not there, but, as Lena and her sister Joan were then in foster-care, it is reasonable to conclude that her other siblings were too.

A FamilySearch index recorded that Mary Agnes O'Neill and Thomas Augustus Ellis were named on the same page of a marriage register for Dublin South, in the second quarter of 1896, signifying their potential marriage. Ancestry’s marriage finder tool also listed this marriage and showed a Mary Agnes Donovan as having the same page references, giving the first clue as to my potential great-grandmother's maiden name – Donovan. 

The copy marriage register, when received from the General Register Office in Roscommon, confirmed that Mary Agnes O’Neill, the daughter of John Donovan, upholsterer, had married Thomas Augustus Ellis, in the Registrar’s Office, Dublin on 3 April 1896. 

Helena O’Neill, the daughter of Charles and Mary Agnes O’Neill, was born on 16 January 1895, and baptised in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral. This was a very promising find. Unfortunately, the General Register Office could not locate the birth register, which would have confirmed the mother's maiden name. Perhaps the birth was never registered. Nevertheless, this meant that there was still no proof that Mary Agnes Donovan was Lena's mother. 

Lena shared her early years with her sister, Johanna Mary (Joan) O’Neill. Proof of Joan's mother's maiden name would naturally yield confirmation of Lena's. While, no record of Joan's baptism has yet been found, the birth of a likely Johanna Mary O’Neill was registered in early 1892. The copy birth register confirmed that she was born on 6 March 1892, to Charles Francis, a clerk, and Mary Agnes O’Neill.  Lena's father was also Charles, plus he shared the same occupation. It seemed like a match. Frustratingly, Mary Agnes’s maiden name was clearly stated as Donaldson – not Donovan. With some further investigation, however, it became apparent that this could have been an error on behalf of Ellen Day, who had registered the birth. Ellen Day was seemingly an employed midwife who may not have known the family very well, for a nurse with the same name and street address lived in Fitzwilliam Street, at the time of the 1901 census. Yet, this all amounted to mere circumstantial evidence; there was still no actual proof.

Then I obtained a copy register for the marriage of Charles Francis O’Neill, a clerk, and Agnes Donovan, which had taken place on 19 April 1874 in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral.  Birth and baptism records have confirmed this couple as the parents of many children, including a Robert O’Neill, born on 30 May 1878 and a John O’Neill, born on 29 September 1879, both seen residing with Mary Agnes Ellis in 1901. Their marriage register, like the register of Mary Agnes O’Neill’s marriage to Thomas Ellis, confirmed that her father was John Donovan, an upholsterer. At last! This nicely, if a little awkwardly, finally tied in the two families and provided the comfort required.  Lena's mother was born Mary Agnes Donovan.  

Sources: National Archives of Ireland, 1901 and 1911 census; FamilySearch, Ireland, civil registration indexes, 1845-1958; General Register Office, copy birth and marriage registers; Church marriage and baptism records.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Finding Lena's mother (part 1)

James and Lena (O’Neill) Byrne 

Both my paternal grandparents died years before I was born and when I first started my genealogy research, I realised how very little I knew about my Granny Byrne; she was born Helena (Lena) O’Neill, died in 1956 and was buried in the Yellow Walls Cemetery. My father did not remember much about his maternal grandparents, except that Lena’s father died when she was young, his grandmother, a gifted pianist, had remarried and Lena grew up in Yellow Walls, Malahide in north County Dublin.

Dad remembered an Uncle Arthur O’Neill, a barber, who once lived in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo and who followed his family to England, after his wife’s death. He also remembered an Aunt Joan (O’Neill) Lockhead in England and an Aunt Tess (O’Neill) Greer who had lived in Drumcondra, Dublin. There had also once been a lady called Molly Pyke, living in Booterstown or Dun Laoghaire in south County Dublin, who was somehow related to his mother.  This was the extent of everything that ‘I knew’ when I started investigating Lena’s family.

The first port of call was the Irish census returns of 1901 and 1911. I found Helena with her sister Johannah (known in later years as Joan) living in Yellow Walls in 1901. They were both described as ‘Orphant’, aged six and eight, and were living with a Mary Power.  Orphant?  I had expected to find them living with their mother.

1901 Census of Ireland, Power household, Yellow Walls, Malahide, Dublin

In 1911, Helena Mary and Johanna Mary were still together, working as servants for the Smith family, in the nearby parish of Donabate, by then aged sixteen and eighteen. Their place of birth was given as Dublin city, but there was still no sign of their mother or their other siblings.

Lena’s copy marriage register confirmed that she married James Byrne, my grandfather, in St Sylvester’s in Malahide, on 11 February 1934. It gave Lena’s father as Charles O’Neill, deceased, formerly a law clerk by occupation.  

GRO copy marriage register: James Byrne and Helena O’Neill 1934

As an aside, some of you may have noticed that Grandda Wynne was best man at the wedding of my paternal grandparents - how cool is that!

Back to the quest for Lena's birth family: A search for Lena’s brother Arthur in the Irish census returns revealed a twenty-three year old, Arthur O’Neill, living at North Summer Street, Mountjoy, in Dublin city, in 1911. He was with his mother and step-father, Mary Agnes and Thomas Ellis, both musicians, while Arthur was a hairdresser. Mary Agnes and Thomas were said to have been married for fourteen years.  Arthur had a sister Mary Agnes, married to a Robert Pyke and an unmarried sister named Teresa.

 1911 Census of Ireland, Ellis household, Summer Street, North, Mountjoy, Dublin 

There were too many ‘coincidences’ between this family and the information that Dad remembered. Even, though Dad did not recognise the surname Ellis, I was convinced that this was our family, so next I set about proving it.

To be continued next week …

Sources: Marriage register, General Register Office; National Archives of Ireland, 1901 and 1911 census. 

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy