Sibling Saturday ~ Dublin to Newcastle upon Tyne

Various members of our Carroll family left Dublin city for Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in a obvious case of sibling-led chain-migration. It is not clear exactly what initially attracted them to Newcastle, but by the turn of the twentieth century, the Carrolls had begun to make it their home. 

These were the children of my great-great-grandfather, Maurice Carroll, who was born in County Tipperary, about 1837. Maurice married twice and fathered at least fifteen children, although not all of them survived childhood. He first married Mary Anne Frazer in Dublin city in 1859 and, the year after her death in 1868, he then married my great-great-grandmother, Anne Ratcliffe. Maurice worked as a domestic servant and coachman at Balheary House in Swords for nearly twenty-five years and in the mid-1880s, he moved his family to Dublin city, where the younger Carroll siblings, including my great-grandmother Teresa, were born.

Annie Carroll, the second eldest daughter of Maurice and Anne Ratcliffe, married a Lancashire man, William Smith Singleton, in Dublin in 1894. Their location at the time of the 1901 census has not been identified. However, by 1911, Annie was the head of household at Ethel Street, Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne. She was a grocer, living with her servant Katie Rooney.  Annie’s elder half-brother, James Carroll, married Anne Molyneux in Dublin in 1886. By 1901, he was living in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, with his wife and youngest son, although their status as lodgers suggests their recent arrival in the town. By 1911, James was established as a household head, still living in Elswick with his wife and both sons. He was employed as a ‘fire brigade man’. 

The younger Carroll siblings then took their turn and emigrated from Dublin city to make their home in Newcastle upon Tyne.  John Carroll, aged twenty-two, was still living in the family home at 20 Gloucester Place North in 1901 and worked as a solicitor’s general clerk. Within a few years, he had migrated to Newcastle upon Tyne, where he married Selina Asher in St Mary’s Cathedral, in February 1914. His sister, my great-grandmother Teresa (Carroll) Wynne, was a bridesmaid at their wedding. Records show that, between 1914 and 1917, John and Selina had three children in Newcastle upon Tyne, confirming their settlement in the town. The youngest sibling, Maggie, was aged only seventeen in 1911, but it is believed that she too later emigrated to live in Newcastle upon Tyne. 

St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Newcastle (Wikimedia Commons)

Patrick Wynne married Teresa Carroll in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, in August 1905. In 1911, Teresa was staying at her mother’s home in Gloucester Place, with her three infant sons, while her husband, a brush-maker by occupation, was lodging in Cork, near the head-quarters of his employer, the Varian Brushes Company. Family lore suggests that the Wynne family went to Newcastle about 1913, a time of great industrial unrest and the ‘Dublin lock-outs’. The Wynnes settled in Newcastle upon Tyne and their five youngest children were born there. Bizarrely, by today’s customs, they left their third child, Kevin, my grandfather, behind in Dublin to be raised by his maternal aunt, Mary Carroll – thus, our Dublin origins.

It seems the Carroll siblings were quite happy in Newcastle upon Tyne, as, despite the short distance between Dublin and Newcastle, there is no record of any them, nor their descendants, returning to Ireland on any permanent basis.

Sources: Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911; Census of England and Wales, 1901 and 1911; Church records at RootsIreland.ie and IrishGenealogy.ie; Free BMD; General Register Office, Dublin, birth, marriage and death copy registers.

Annie (Carroll) Singleton was the subject of a previous post, here – Aunt Annie’s Will. 

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

A letter from Ireland, dated 1900

A letter from Ireland, dated 1900

Here follows a transcript of a letter from Maggie Wynne to her Aunt Mary (Wynne) Finnegan in Colorado Springs. Maggie was born in Dundalk, Co. Louth, on 5 July 1879, the eldest daughter of John and Margaret Wynne and a niece of my great-grandfather, Patrick Wynne. Maggie was Grandda Kevin’s first cousin and Mary was his aunt.

It is a very sad letter, in which Maggie tells of her own mother’s death, from phthisis pulmonalis (tuberculosis).  It is also a tale of the hard times in Ireland in 1900, when emigration was, as always, a common factor in the lives of Irish families.  It seems that by 1900 the Dundalk Wynne family had already spoken of their plans to go to America and in the early twentieth century many of Maggie’s siblings did end up in New York. Interestingly, the letter suggests that my great-grandfather, 'Uncle Pat', had already completed a stint abroad by 1900, nearly five years before his marriage to my great-grandmother, Teresa Carroll. Little did they know then that he too would eventually leave Ireland for good, and make his home in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Bachelors Walk

Dundalk

December 2^nd, 1900

PS Uncle Pat

is home for good.

Working away. 

M. Wynne

My Dear Aunt Mary,

You will be surprised to hear of my poor dear mother’s death. She died on 11th Oct. She was complaining for some months. She complained of her liver, lungs, kidneys. If you remember the last letter she sent you, she told you how ill she felt. She knew well she would never see America. When we first spoke of it she said ‘you will be leaving me in the grave behind you’.

Dear Aunt Mary,

It is very hard to believe my darling mother is gone forever. My father is breaking his heart. You know my mother was in the Mater [Hospital] in Dublin for three weeks. When she came home she was dying. She lived with us eleven days after she came home. She suffered great agony. She was conscious to the last. We were all around her when dying. A week before she died she took her last farewell of us. So you can imagine the scene that night. She was quite reconciled to die.

She asked me to write to you. I had a letter written to you long ago but was never posted. I am in charge of seven. I hope God will spare me to look after them. Times are very hard.  Now here everything is so dear. I’m not very strong at present. My health is gone down. My father is going in for Hall Keeper in the Young Men’s Society rooms. I hope we may get it, free house light & fire & £12 a year. So think of that and my father’s money besides.

We didn’t hear from Dublin since my mother’s death but I suppose they are quite well. I must wind up my short note with fondest love to you all. Also, wishing you and Mike a very happy x-mas and bright new year.

Believe me dear Mary,

your affectionate niece,

Maggie Wynne.

Many thanks to my third cousin, Phyllis, for sending me a copy of Maggie’s letter.  Phyllis is Mary’s great-granddaughter.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Uncle Michael married Aunt Kate

Ok, don’t get me wrong – I don’t hear voices or anything. I’m not that mad yet – but sometimes, when I am researching an ancestor, I get a sense of someone guiding me. This sense seemed to have been very strong when I was trying to find out what happened to Catherine (Kate) Devine, a sister of my great-grandmother, Christina Devine.

My Mam had told me that Kate Devine lived with my great-grandparents, Christina and her husband, James Byrne. Her niece and namesake, Kathleen Byrne, was supposedly very fond of her Aunt Kate.  This may sound weird in today’s world, but my Mam even remembers a ponytail of long black hair, streaked with grey, and said to have once belonged to Aunt Kate. It was still in a wardrobe in my great-grandparents house when my Mam was young. However, the Irish Census returns did not reflect Kate Devine living with my great-grandparents in 1901, or in 1911, and I could not find her anywhere in Ireland.

Byrne Household, 31 Jane Place Lower, 1901 Census of Ireland (NAI)

The last record of Kate Devine found was dated March 1898, when she registered her father’s death. She would have been nearly thirty-four years old then, still single and living at home with her father. I thought she had never married. Perhaps I associated her with her fore-mentioned niece, Kathleen Byrne, who also never married, but lived with my grandmother for many years.  So, without success, I searched for a record of Kate Devine’s death.

The census records do show that my great-grandparents shared a house with Michael McGrane and his wife Catherine. The Byrnes and the McGranes were living at 31 Lower Jane Place, off Oriel Street, Dublin in 1901, when each family occupied two rooms of the four roomed cottage. Both families also shared a cottage at 13 Lower Jane Place, in 1911. However, little did I twig that Catherine McGrane, wife of Michael McGrane, was the same person as Aunt Kate. 

Form B1, House and Building Return, 1901 Census of Ireland (NAI)

I knew the McGranes were relatives on James Byrne’s side. His mother was born Margaret McGrane and further research proved that Michael was his maternal uncle. Michael was also my great-grandfather’s best-man, at his wedding in August 1897.

Then, I obtained the burial records for the Devine grave in Glasnevin Cemetery, where Kate had buried her father. They showed that Michael McGrane’s wife, Catherine McGrane, of 13 Lower Jane Place shared their grave.  She died on 1st July 1917, stated age forty-four years. Aunt Kate would have actually been nearly fifty-three years of age then, so I still didn’t associate her with Catherine McGrane.  I remember thinking that my great-grandmother must have been very close to Uncle Michael’s wife, to bury her with her own parents.

It wasn’t until a distant McGrane cousin gave me access to her online family tree that I saw that Michael McGrane had married a Catherine Devine. Then, I understood. They married on 20 November 1898, in St Lawrence O’Toole’s Church on the North Strand in Dublin. This marriage certificate confirmed that Uncle Michael had married Aunt Kate! Aunt Kate did live with my great-grandparents, just like my Mam had said.

‘Hallelujah!!!’ sang the heavens, when it all fell into place and I had a sense of Aunt Kate breathing a huge sigh of relief as her silent messages finally got through.

Sources available on request.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Jane Place Lower ~ no longer extant

Jane Place is gone now! If you have any memories of it, I’d love to hear them.

Granny’s relatives were amongst the first residents of Jane Place and lived there for over one hundred years. Her Aunt Kate was born there in 1864.

Jane Place Upper and Jane Place Lower were two parallel streets running off Oriel Street, in Seville Place, Dublin, just behind Connolly Station. It seems the area was originally built in the 1850s.[1] It was knocked down in recent years, as part of the city rejuvenation and the development of Dublin’s Financial Services District, probably in the latter half of the 1970s.

You can see the location of the two streets on this ordnance survey map, in the upper right-hand quarter.

Jane Place Upper and Jane Place Lower, Oriel Street, Dublin.

There were thirty-one terraced, single-storey cottages in Jane Place Lower and twenty-six in Jane Place Upper. I read somewhere once that the street numbers ran 1, 2, 3… consecutively along one side of the street and then continued back down the other side, so that number 1 was across the road from number 31, etc.

Can anyone place ‘3 Jane Place Lower’ on the map?

I do have some very vague memories of the little cottages, as a family friend once brought me to visit relatives there. However, Jane Place was in the inner-city and coming rural county Dublin, it was all very alien to my seven-year-old eyes. I certainly didn’t have any sense of coming home. I half remember a plot of ground, all boarded up - ‘That was your shop’, my friend said, pointing to the derelict site. ‘Your Granny’s shop’, she added. I also remember the living room in my relative’s cottage was very tiny. It truly must have been small.

Can anyone place Granny’s shop on this map? Was it attached to ‘3 Jane Place Lower’

Did you know? - not only did Granny’s parents run a grocery shop in Jane Place, but her paternal grandmother had one too and her great-grandmother – though theirs may have been on the corner in Lower Oriel Street.

Sources
[1] The first baptism listed on www.irishgenealogy.ie showing this address is dated August 1858.
[2] 1901 Census of Ireland, North Dock, Dublin.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Child mortality, the Devine family of Dublin

Something that often strikes me in my research is the high child mortality rate in the nineteenth century. In the era before vaccinations and antibiotics, overcrowding, disease and poor sanitation all impacted on the death rate of young children, as well as adult children.

My great-great-grandparents, John and Maryanne Devine, had more than their fair share of sorrow, burying five of their seven children. All seven survived their first birthdays, but three died as toddlers and two predeceased them as adults. This must have been a very heavy cross for my great-great-grandparents to bear.

John Devine and Maryanne Keogh were married in St Lawrence O’Toole’s church, Seville Place, Dublin, on 18 September 1859. Their seven children were born in quick succession, all during the 1860s. This was in the aftermath of the Great Famine, which saw Dublin’s population soar. John Divine was a labourer, an unskilled worker in a city then full of unskilled workers. He most probably worked in the Dublin Dockyards, close to where they lived. Likely, he was a day-labourer and had to get up very early every day to look for work to keep the roof over their heads. Times were surely hard.

Their first and only recorded son, Jeremiah (Darby) Devine, a honeymoon baby it would seem, was born on 12 June 1860. Jeremiah was named for Maryanne’s father, Jeremiah Keogh. Anne their eldest daughter was born on 22 July 1861 and then Jane on 18 January 1863. Jane was named after Maryanne’s mother, Jane Crosby. Kate christened Catherine, was born on 22 July 1864 and Mary Jane was born on 2 December 1865. My great-grandmother Christina arrived on 19 December 1867, in time for Christmas, and, finally, baby Margaret was born on 21 September 1869. They were all were baptised in St Lawrence O’Toole’s church.

Jane was the first of Maryanne’s babies to die. She succumbed to bronchitis on 25 October 1864, aged one year and nine months. Her little sister Mary Jane died on 23 February 1867. She was only one year and three months old. Baby Margaret then died on 31 October 1872, aged just three years. She died of pneumonia, having caught the measles. All three tots were buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Mary Jane and Margaret in the same grave.

These three babies, Jane, Mary Jane and Margaret died so young they were probably not spoken about afterwards. Such were the customs of the time. Christina may never have even known of Jane and Mary Jane, although she probably remembered her little sister Margaret.

Jeremiah died of an abscess, following a seven-day illness, on 14 July 1888 in the Richmond Lunatic Asylum. He was twenty-eight years old and a labourer by occupation. His father organised his burial in Glasnevin cemetery, listing his cause of death as ‘insanity’. I don’t know how long he was in the hospital or the nature of his illness. The records of the RDL Asylum are temporarily unavailable, while they are being cleaned and catalogued by professionals in the National Archives. The hospital admission records are being ‘computerised’. Jeremiah may be included in these records, which I have heard often even contain photographs of patients.

John and Maryanne buried their eldest daughter, Anne, just two months before Maryanne herself died. Anne caught typhoid fever and died on 13 March 1893, aged thirty-one years. Kate lived until she was fifty-two, sharing a house with my great-grandparents for many years. She died of an ‘ulcerated stomach’ on 1 July 1917. Both Kate and Anne are buried with their parents in the Garden section of Glasnevin Cemetery.

My great-grandmother, Christina, outlived them all. She christened one of her sons Jeremiah (Jerry) after her elder brother and named two of her daughters after her elder sisters, Anne and Kate. Thus, the names Jeremiah, Anne and Kate are still remembered today, while Jane, Mary Jane and Margaret can now be remembered here now.

Sources include: St Laurence O'Toole's church records on Irishgenealogy.ie; BMD registrations, General Register Office; Glasnevin Trust online burial records.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

The girl next door

James Byrne, son of Francis Byrne and Margaret McGrane, was my great-grandfather. From the time he was a small child, he lived in Lower Jane Place, Seville Place, north of the river Liffey in Dublin.  My great-grandmother was Christina Devine, the daughter of John Devine and Maryanne Keogh. She was born on 19 December 1867, more than six years before James, who was born on 18 May 1874. The age gap did not keep them apart and their marriage took place in their local St Lawrence O’Toole’s church, Seville Place, on 29 August 1897. In the late 1890s, the Devines lived at number 31 Lower Jane Place and the Byrnes at number 30. James had fallen for the girl next door.

General Register Office, Byrne-Devine marriage register, 1897 

The witnesses to the marriage were Michael McGrane, James’s maternal uncle, and Mary Anne Keegan. Mary Anne Keegan was also bridesmaid for Catherine Devine, Christina’s elder sister, the following year.   Thinking she could be a close relation of the Devines, I did a little digging into Mary Anne’s origins.  While her relationship to the family, if any, has not yet been established, interestingly, it seems that Mary Anne also married the fella next door.

At the time of the 1901 census, Mary Anne Keegan, age 24, was living with her parents at 9 Storeys Cottages, Mayor Street, not too far from the Devines. Patrick Gain’s family were living next door, at number 10. Findmypast’s ‘MarriageFinder’ tool allowed me to identify their potential marriage in Dublin North in the final quarter of 1903 and the 1911 census showed Patrick and Mary Anne Gain, living at 9 Storeys Cottages, with their seven year old son, John.

So the genealogical moral of this story is, if you do not know who someone married, check out the neighbours!

Sources available on request.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Funeral Card Friday ~ Myles and Elizabeth Byrne

Not long ago, I received a copy of the memorial card for my great-granduncle Myles Byrne and his wife Elizabeth. It was found in a bible belonging to Elizabeth's God-daughter. Her daughter was kind enough to send a copy to me. Genealogically speaking, memorial cards often provide clues as to the subject’s date of death, their respective ages and their last place of residence, but it is those with photographs that I especially love! This card shows a picture of my Granny's Uncle Myles and Aunt Elizabeth.

Myles and Elizabeth Byrne, Memorial Card

Myles Byrne was the eldest child of Francis Byrne and Margaret McGrane. He was born on 15^th January 1873, sixteen months before his brother James. James Byrne was my great-grandfather. Myles lived in Upper Mayor Street in Dublin’s north city for the first six years of his life. The family then moved to nearby Jane Place, off Oriel Street, where they lived for more than half a century.

In October 1897, Myles married Elizabeth Bethel in St. Agatha’s, North William St., Dublin. Myles was twenty-four years old and Elizabeth was twenty-three. Elizabeth was also the eldest child born to Patrick Bethel and Margaret Doyle, in 1874. For the first few years of their married life, they lived with Elizabeth’s parents in Clarence Street. By 31 March 1901, they had moved to 25 Upper Jane Place, where they occupied one room in a three-roomed cottage, sharing the house with another family. 

In 1911, they lived at 25 Lower Jane Place in a four-roomed cottage, where they and their growing family occupied two rooms.  Records show that Myles and Elizabeth had six children, five girls and a boy; Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary, Patrick, Kathleen, and Sarah.

Myles was a general labourer and carter by occupation.  He would have worked in the Dublin Docklands, which was then the chief port for trade between Ireland and England.  No doubt, times were poor, but the little cottages in Jane Place must have been better than the tenement conditions that many Dublin labourers found themselves in, at the time.

Myles died on 2 November 1928, aged fifty-five years, and was buried in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery. He had suffered from 'cancer of the tongue' for five months before his death. Elizabeth died on 21 February 1954, just short of her eightieth birthday. She was also buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anam / Rest in Peace.

Sources available.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy