2020 in Review – Accentuate the Positive

As 2021 begins, it offers an ideal opportunity to reflect on the year just gone. 2020 was a bizarre year, to say the least. It presented us all with so many new challenges. But, as Jill Ball of GeniAus always says, we should focus on the positives, and for 2020 that means the positives that arose in spite of Covid19, or maybe even because of it. And surprisingly, there were quite a few positives in 2020. Here are some of mine... with Jill's prompts highlighted in bold.

An elusive ancestor I found was Mary, the wife of John Radcliffe, and the mother of my maternal GG-grandmother, Anne (Radcliffe) Carroll from Malahide, Co. Dublin. At least, I suspect I found Mary - her maiden name being Mary Leonard. She was living with the Slattery family in Liverpool in 1841, quite probably with her mother Mary (Riley) Slattery, which gave me two new ancestors for the price of one!

A DNA discovery I made was a previously unknown GG-grandaunt, Mary Anne Hynes, in Western Australia. Mary Anne married Jerome Rodoreda in Perth in 1856. The register of their marriage included her parents’ names, confirming the maiden name of my GGG-grandmother as Margaret Hayes. Her maiden surname had not been recorded in any of the marriage records relating to Mary Anne’s siblings in Ireland, emphasising once again the importance of tracing ALL collateral lines.

My 2020 New-Year’s resolution was to attend more genealogy events, in person, and meet other like-minded folk. The year started well with a very enjoyable weekend in Belfast in February, where I attended the Back to Our Past/Genetic Genealogy Ireland Conference. We had so much fun, my cousin Aileen and friend Claire decided to overnight in a hotel and attend the equivalent event scheduled for September 2020, in Dublin. Sadly, Covid19 put paid to that.

But I joined Twitter (@DaraMcgivern) and met up with many other genealogists online, and especially enjoyed participating in #Ancestryhour and #ANZAncestryTime. Virtual conferences became the norm, and Zoom gave me an opportunity to catch up with Aileen and Claire throughout the year and talk all-things-genealogy, among other topics.

A genea-surprise I received was a batch of digital photographs from my half third cousin Rose, a descendant of my GG-Grandfather Maurice Carroll and his first wife Mary Anne Frazer. Rose requested assistance identifying some of the people pictured in the photos. So far, I have been unsuccessful in naming any of the unknowns. Perhaps someone reading this blog may be able to help.

James Carroll (1865-1943), Bardon Mill,
my half-great-granduncle

Maurice Joseph Carroll (1887-1964),
my half first cousin, twice removed

Maurice’s son, James Carroll and his wife Anne Molyneux emigrated to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, about 1901, bringing their children Maurice Joseph Carroll and John Joseph Carroll with them. Maurice Joseph Carroll married Mary Agnes Leckey in St Joseph’s Church, in Benwell, Newcastle in 1915. These photographs have been passed down through their family, in England.

Mary Agnes (Leckey) Carroll in white hat (1889-1946),
Others unknown

Two striking ladies (identity unknown), at Bardon Mill,
home to James and Anne Carroll, later 1930s, maybe

I am excited for 2021 to share with you some stories about a newly discovered branch of our Carroll family. A previously unknown GG-Granduncle, Thomas O’Carroll, suspected as being a brother of Maurice Carroll senior, has come to light. Thomas emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1860s, where he soon reinserted the 'O' in his surname. My Aunt Anne, her cousin Larry, Aileen and I share varying amounts of DNA with descendants of each of his four children. It's so exciting! Thank you for doing the DNA test, Anne, we have so many more connections concealed in your DNA.

And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my readers for their support, for reaching out to me, for leaving comments on my blog, for liking and sharing my posts and generally for taking an interest in my family-history research. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So, out with the old, and in with the new. Here's to a safer, joyful and more successful 2021 for all!

On the far side of a brick wall #7 ~ Conclusions

After much searching, no further sign of Rosanna (Slattery) Corcoran / Cochrane's family has been uncovered, not since they were all together in Manchester, England, in 1881. You'd think some of her six children would have left a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow. None of them did. Maybe someday one of their descendants will turn up among our DNA matches. 🙏

Circumstantial evidence suggests Rosanna was a half-sister to Mary Anne Leonard, and both were daughters of Mary (Riley, Leonard) Slattery. Chances are Mary Leonard was my third-great-grandmother, who married John Radcliffe in Liverpool in 1848. My goals have been 1) to find documentary evidence definitively stating Mary Leonard was a daughter of Mary [Riley] Slattery; 2) to confirm this Mary Leonard was the one who married John Radcliffe; and 3) to 'prove' John Radcliffe and Mary Leonard were my third-great-grandparents.

Confirming Mary Leonard as the daughter of Mary (Riley) Slattery
Prior to the COVID-19 lock-down, I ordered the copy death register for Mary Slattery, aged forty, who died in Liverpool, in the second quarter of 1847. The hope was it would show the informant as 'Mary Leonard, daughter.' But the record arrived in my in-box recently, with no such luck!

Copy death register, Mary Slattery, 1847, Liverpool, General Register Office

Mary Slattery died of phythisis (tuberculosis) at home in Sawney Pope Street. As a bonus, her occupation was shown as the 'widow of Thomas Slattery, labourer'. So the record is for the right woman. But the informant was 'Mary Slattery, present at death, Sawney Pope Street', not 'Mary Leonard, daughter'. Who was this other Mary Slattery? Was she Mary Leonard using her step-father's name - nothing unusual in that - but if so, it is unusual her relationship to the deceased was not stated (going by the practice in Ireland, anyway).

There was a death of a another Mary Slattery, aged forty, in Liverpool, in the same quarter of 1847 - too much of a coincidence to be ignored. This copy register will be obtained when the General Registry Office staff get back to normal after the lock-down. It may possibly throw further light on the situation.

Confirming it was this Mary Leonard that married John Radcliffe
It's now apparent, documentation likely never existed directly connecting the Slatterys to the Radcliffes (other than John and Mary's marriage record, that is). Mary and Thomas Slattery died in the Spring of 1847, while Mary Leonard and John Radcliffe did not marry until January 1848, and Mary [Leonard] Radcliffe supposedly died in April 1853, four years before Rosanna Slattery married James Corcoran.

The circumstantial evidence collected, including the census listing Mary Leonard among the children of Mary and Thomas Slattery, in Liverpool, in 1841, and the records confirming the Slatterys, Mary Leonard and John Radcliffe all lived in Sawney Pope Street, Liverpool in 1847/1848, will have to suffice.

'Proving' Mary (Leonard) Radcliffe was my third-great-grandmother
A final objective of this research has been to find further evidence confirming John and Mary (Leonard) Radcliffe were my John and Mary. Much available evidence suggests they were (discussed previously here and here), bar two minor conflicts.

First, their daughter, Anne Radcliffe, was born in Liverpool, in 1849. My great-great-grandmother, Anne Radcliffe, daughter of John and Mary (maiden name not documented) Radcliffe, was born about 1849, but both surviving Irish census returns say she was born in Co. Dublin, Ireland. Granted, she grew up with her father's family in Malahide, Co. Dublin. Her mother died when she was a toddler and her father emigrated to Australia in 1858. Probably, she didn't remember her time in Liverpool. Maybe she did not know she was born in England, or just felt no connection to the country.

Secondly, the marriage of John Radcliffe and Mary Radcliffe was held in the Church of St Nicholas, according to the rites of the Established Church in Liverpool, i.e. a Protestant church. My John Radcliffe was from a Catholic family. He was baptised in 1827 and his father in 1798. But the fact that Anne, daughter of John and Mary (Leonard) Radcliffe, was baptised in St Anthony's Roman Catholic church, in Liverpool, suggests theirs was a mixed marriage. If Mary Leonard was my third-great-grandmother, she was probably Protestant.

Thomas and Mary (Riley) Slattery's children (Ellen, Thomas and Francis) were baptised in St Anthony's RC Church. Infants, Thomas and Francis, were buried in St Anthony's RC graveyard, as was Thomas Slattery himself - all in paupers graves. But when Mary (Riley) Slattery died, within weeks of her husband death, she was not buried in the same graveyard as her family. Why not? Was she buried in a Protestant graveyard instead? Is this another hint to seek out Protestant records to further the research on this branch of the family?

But where?

Sources: Copy death register, Mary Slattery, Apr-Jun 1847, Liverpool, General Register Office. All other sources referred to have been cited in previous posts in the 'On the far side of a brick wall' series:

• #1 ~ Just Mary;
• #2 ~ Mary Leonard and the Slatterys;
• #3 ~ but is it the right Mary Leonard?;
• #4 ~ Death of Thomas and Mary Slattery;
• #5 ~ Rosanna and Ellen Slattery;
• #6 ~ The hunt for DNA cousins.

On the far side of a brick wall #6 ~ The hunt for DNA cousins

Probably the only greatest chance of finding 'proof' of the relationship between my known Radcliffe family and the Radcliffe/Leonard-Riley-Slatterys in Liverpool/Manchester is with DNA. But first, there'll need to be living descendants on both sides to test.

On the far side of a brick Wall #4 ~ Death of Thomas and Mary Slattery

Mary Leonard, potentially my third great-grandmother, was living with the Slattery family, in Liverpool, England, in 1841, probably with her mother Mary (Riley) Slattery, but the Slattery family were not found in the 1851 census.

The question this week remains the same - was Mary the same Mary Leonard who married John Radcliffe in Liverpool in 1848?

I do believe she was, as examined last week here. She was certainly the only woman found with that name who married in Liverpool in the decade prior to 1851, though further evidence supporting my theory could only be welcome.

So, this week I set out to ascertain what became of the Slattery family (Thomas, Mary and daughters Rosanna and Ellen) after 1846, when the infant Francis Slattery was buried. In particular, I hoped to discover what happened to my would-be fourth great-grandmother, Mary (Riley) Slattery.

And, death records in Liverpool support the possible deaths of both Thomas and Mary in 1847. There was no mention of Rosanna or Ellen, at least not during the decade in question.

Excerpts from deaths index, GRO for England & Wales online ordering service

Thomas Slattery
The death of Thomas Slattery, aged forty-nine years, was registered in the second quarter of 1847 in Liverpool. Given 'our' Thomas was thirty five years old in 1841, and based on the age rounding rules of that year's census, he would have been between forty-one and forty-five years old in 1847 - not forty-nine. But, the ages quoted by my Irish ancestors in census returns were often completely unreliable, though they were more usually understated.

A man named Thomas Slattery, aged forty-five years, was buried in St Anthony's parish on 19 March 1847. He may have been the same man that died aged forty-nine above, as only one potential death was reported in Liverpool in the year. In any case, this one was probably the Thomas we are seeking. His home address was in Sawney Pope Street, Liverpool, the same address 'our' Slattery family lived. And notably, it was where Mary Leonard lived when she married John Radcliffe ten months later. St Anthony's was also the parish where the Slatterys had buried their infant sons, Thomas and Francis.

The copy death register for Thomas Slattery likely does not contain any further family information - not unless the informant was a known or stated relative. And, at £7 a pop, a somewhat selective approach to purchasing English 'certificates' is required. So moving on...

Mary Slattery
Two women named Mary Slattery died in Liverpool in 1847, both deaths were recorded in the second quarter, and both women were forty years old. Our Mary would have been between about thirty-six and forty years of age in 1847, based on being thirty years old in the 1841 census, though probably at the upper age. So, either one of these death records, or both, may have been for Mary (Riley) Slattery. Which one should I check first?  Neither deaths were found in the records of St Anthony's parish, Liverpool, surprising perhaps, given her would-be husband was buried there around the same time. But a line by line search of its burial register revealed nothing.

The only thing I can think to do now is to pick one, order the copy death register and see what gives. It may have to wait until the Covid 19 restrictions are lifted, but I can follow up on Rosanna and Ellen Slattery, in the meantime.

Continued, here.

Sources:

1. Slattery household, Ellen Place, Liverpool city, Lancashire, Enumerators' Book, 1841 England Census, accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
2. Church of England marriage register, Radcliffe-Leonard marriage, 1848, St Nicholas Church, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
3. Death of Thomas Slattery, 1847, J Quarter, Liverpool, GRO Online Index, accessed HM Passport Office. 
4. Burial of Thomas Slattery, 19 March 1847, St Anthony's, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1985', accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
5. Death of Mary Slattery, 1847, J Quarter, Liverpool, GRO Online Index, accessed HM Passport Office.

On the far side of a brick Wall #3 ~ but is it the right Mary Leonard?

Mary Leonard, potentially my third great-grandmother, was found living with the Slattery family, in Liverpool, England, in 1841, probably with her mother, Mary (Riley) Slattery. So, Mary (Riley) Slattery was potentially my fourth great-grandmother.

This week, I set out to further investigate the Slattery family, hoping to link this Mary Leonard to the Mary Leonard that married John Radcliffe in 1848.

And, some progress was made in this regard, perhaps : -

Thomas Slattery, son of Thomas and Mary Slattery, was born on 13 September 1841 and baptised the following day in St Peter's Priory, Liverpool. This poor little mite only lived a few days and died at home in Sawney Pope Street, on 16 September 1841. He was buried in St Anthony's graveyard in Liverpool that same day. While his birth was seemingly not registered with the authorities, his name does appear in the death index during the third quarter of 1841.

Francis Slattery, son of Francis (not Thomas) Slattery and Mary Reily, was baptised in St Anthony's Roman Catholic Church, Liverpool, on 25 September 1842, with his date of birth given as 14 September 1842. Chances are his father's name was actually Thomas, but recorded incorrectly. His birth was registered in the third quarter of 1842 with the surname Slatry, and mother's maiden name Riley. The original copy birth register would confirm his father's name. Little Francis died at home in Liverpool in March 1846, aged three years and six months. His home address was listed as Addison Street. He was buried in the graveyard for St Anthony's parish on 18 March 1846.

Francis Slattery's burial register is the last record so far found for this family.

So, what if anything ties this family to the Mary Leonard that married John Radcliffe?

Marriage of John Radcliffe & Mary Leonard, 1848, St Nicholas Church

• When Mary Leonard and John Radcliffe married in 1848, they lived in Sawney Pope Street, and when their baby Anne was born in 1849, they lived in Addison Street. These are the same streets, in the same tiny corner of Liverpool city (shown on a historical map of Liverpool,here), where the Slattery family had lived with babies Thomas and probably Francis.
• A witness to John Radcliffe and Mary Leonard's marriage in 1848, as seen above, was Charles Riley, i.e. Mary Slattery's maiden name. He signed the marriage register, with his mark.
• If the rest of the Slattery family had died, and no longer lived in Liverpool city in 1851, explaining why they did not appear in the English census that year, it might also explain why the child Ellen Slanety (an invalid surname, which may in fact have been Slattery) was living with the Radcliffes, at that time. i.e. with her half-sister Mary (Leonard) Radcliffe.

How many coincidences does it take before they become 'evidence'? I'm now nearly sure the Mary Leonard living with the Slattery family in 1841 was the same girl that married John Radcliffe in 1848. Definitely worth pursuing further!

What happened to the Slatterys after 1846? Did they emigrate? Did they perish? Or, have I just not located them yet?  Tune in next week and hopefully we'll find out.

Continued, here.

Sources:

1. Slattery household, Ellen Place, Liverpool, Lancashire, Enumerators' Book, 1841 England Census, accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
2. Baptism of Thomas Slattery, St Peter's Priory, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1741-1916', accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
3. Death of Thomas Slattry, 1841 S Quarter, Liverpool, GRO Online Index, accessed HM Passport Office.
4. Burial of Thomas Slattery, 16 September 1841, St Anthony's 1840-46, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1985', accessed Ancestry.co.uk.
5. Birth of Francis Slatry, 1842 S Quarter, Liverpool, GRO Online Index, accessed HM Passport Office.
6. Baptism of Francis Slattery, St Anthony's, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1741-1916', accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
7. Death of Francis Slattery, 1846, M Quarter, Liverpool, GRO Online Index, accessed HM Passport Office. 
8. Burial of Francis Slattery, 18 March 1846, St Anthony's 1840-46, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1985', accessed Ancestry.co.uk.
9. Church of England marriage register, Radcliffe-Leonard marriage, 1848, St Nicholas Church, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
10. Baptism register, Ann Radcliffe, 28 October 1849, St Anthony's RC Church, Liverpool, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1802-1906', accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
11. Ratcliffe household, Rainhill, Prescot, Lancashire, Enumerators' Book, 1851 England Census, accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.

On the far side of a brick Wall #2 ~ Mary Leonard and the Slatterys

On Saturday, I mentioned a girl named Mary Leonard, aged fifteen years, living in Liverpool, on the night of the English census, 6 June 1841. She was living with the Slattery family, at Emma Place, Liverpool city. Mary may have been my third-great-grandmother. That's my current ancestral hypothesis anyway.

The 1841 census didn't specify relationships between household members. So, it's not confirmed where exactly Mary fit in. The household head, Thomas Slattery, was thirty-five years old, born in Ireland, and worked as a labourer. Next listed was Mary Slattery, aged thirty years, also born in Ireland. Then came Mary Leonard, aged fifteen and born in Ireland. She was followed by Rosanna Slattery, aged five and Ellen Slattery, aged two, both born in Lancashire, and then John Slafferra, aged fifty and born in Ireland. He may have been a Slattery too, with his name either misheard, or mangled in the transcription to the census enumerators' book.

Slattery household, 1841 Census, Liverpool, Lancashire, England

It's easy to imagine that Thomas and Mary Slattery were husband and wife, that Mary Leonard was Thomas Slattery's stepdaughter and Mary's daughter from a previous marriage, and that Rosanna and Ellen were Thomas and Mary's children. It looks like Mary Slattery was only fifteen years old when Mary Leonard was born, except in this census, adults' ages were normally rounded down at five year intervals, e.g. 34 became 30, 38 became 35, etc. So, she was probably a few years older.

Rosanna Slattery was born about 1836, just too late for her birth to have been registered. Recording civil births, marriages and deaths commenced in 1837 in England. But, if she was born in Liverpool, a record of her baptism might have reasonably been expected, except no Rosanna Slattery was found.

Ellen Slattery's birth, in the first quarter of 1839, was registered in Liverpool, with her mother's maiden name recorded as Riley. She was baptised shortly thereafter, on 17 February 1839, in St Anthony's Roman Catholic Church, Liverpool. The baptism register confirms she was the daughter of Thomas Slattery and Mary Rielly, born on 12 February 1839.

Have I really just discovered the name of my fourth great-grandmother ~ Mary Riley (a variant of Reilly) 💛.  That would be so cool, even if she was another Mary!!!

But, will I ever be able to prove, or even disprove, it? Tune in next week to see how I get on.

Continued, here.

Sources:

1. Slattery household, Ellen Place, Liverpool, Lancashire, Enumerators' Book, 1841 England Census, accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.
2. Birth of Ellen, 1839 M Quarter, Liverpool, GRO Online Index, accessed HM Passport Office.
3. Baptism of Ellen Slattery, St Anthony's Church, 'Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1802-1906', accessed $ Ancestry.co.uk.