Genealogy quest: Mapping the Donovan family homes

The newly discovered family grave, located in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin is quite remarkable. The plot itself does not look to be anything out of the ordinary and there is nothing to distinguish it from all the other unmarked graves in Curran Square, the oldest section of the cemetery. Yet, it is the final resting place for fifteen members of my Dad's Donovan family. 

The cemetery's burial register shows the last address of everyone interred in the grave and for over forty years, this extended family lived in the same small area of Dublin city, near the north shores of the River Liffey. It is interesting, don't you think, to chart their addresses on a nineteenth-century map of Dublin:

Dublin streets of Donovan residences are marked in yellow

Glasnevin Cemetery Register, Donovan family plot
Name	Date	Last Residence	Age
Pat Donovan	1832	Gt Strand St	-
Mary Anne Donovan	1832	Gt Strand St	-
Eliza Donovan	1833	King St	-
Cathe Donovan	1834	Essex Bridge	-
Margaret Donovan	1837	Green St	45
John Donovan	1839	Charles St	46
Eliza Donovan	1848	Charles St	48
Eliza Donovan	1853	Bull Lane	1
John Flood	1854	Upper Liffey Street	68
Thomas Donovan	1856	Gt Britain St	2
Thomas Donovan	1859	49 Mary St	1
Francis Donovan	1861	30 Upr Dominick St	2
Catherine Donovan	1861	30 Upr Dominick St	1
Catherine Donovan	1873	51 Great Britain St	86
Marianne Donovan	1873	6 Blessington St	40

At the time of her death in 1873, my great-great-grandmother Marianne (Coyle) Donovan (also known as Maryanne) lived in Blessington Street. Blessington Street runs parallel and to the north of Dominick Street, though it is not shown on the map. I suspect Catherine Donovan of Great Britain Street (now called Parnell Street), who also died in 1873, was Maryanne’s mother-in-law. The four infants who died between 1856 and 1861 were her babies.

Apart from that, I have not yet figured out who the rest of these people were or how they fit in my family tree.

Baby Eliza of Bull Lane, who died in 1853, might have been another daughter of Maryanne and her husband John Donovan, making her a potential sister to my great-grandmother, Mary Agnes. The surviving head of household extract from the 1851 census includes a John Donovan living in Bull Lane – possibly my great-great-grandfather – but Eliza’s baptism record has not been found. 

There again, no baptism record for Mary Agnes has been found either. She was probably born around the same time as Eliza, maybe a year or two later, so perhaps they were both christened in the same church, and the relevant pages of this register have somehow missed digitisation.

Bull Lane was in the parish of St Michan, while all the younger Donovan children were baptised in St Mary's.  I have already, fruitlessly, searched St Michan's church records on www.irishgenealogy.ie, but maybe I'll have more success with the copy registers newly released on the National Library’s web-site.

Wish me luck.

See previous post in this quest: 
Genealogy Quest: Striking gold - the search for Maryanne

Sources: Glasnevin Cemetery burial register (O 54 Curran Square), Glasnevin Trust; ‘The 1851 Dublin City Census’, FindMyPast, citing Dr D. A. Chart’s index of heads of households in Dublin City, 1851, National Archives of Ireland.

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

Genealogy Quest: Striking Gold - the search for Maryanne

Just as I was beginning to conclude my latest genealogy quest would not be completed any time soon, I had an amazing stroke of luck. Finally, I had the documentary evidence to connect my great-great-grandmother, Maryanne, with her would-be maiden name, Coyle.

As a result of a coding error, Glasnevin Trust originally reported my great-grandmother and her suspected mother-in-law were the only two occupants of a full-sized family plot in Glasnevin Cemetery. Now, they have admitted there were actually fifteen people buried there.

This family grave is nearly as old as Glasnevin Cemetery itself. The gates to the north Dublin graveyard first opened in February 1832 and on 3 August 1832, a ‘Pat Donovan of Gt Strand Street’ was interred there. Next followed five decades of family burials, giving me thirteen newly discovered ‘ancestors’ to investigate – an absolute goldmine of family history to have finally found! 

But, as it turns out, I’m already familiar with some of the occupants of the grave and their presence in with my great-great-grandmother helps to solve my biggest Donovan family mystery – her maiden name.

Remember, my hypothetical great-great-grandparents, John Donovan and Maryanne Coyle, married in February 1851 and had the following children: 

• Thomas Joseph Donovan, born 11 March 1854
• John James Donovan, born 18 November 1855
• Thomas Laurence Donovan, born 20 June 1857
• Francis Donovan, born 16 September 1858
• Catherine Donovan, born 18 March 1860
• Teresa Anne Donovan, born 18 May 1862 

Well, it now transpires that the Maryanne Donovan, established as being my great-great grandmother,  shares her grave with four of these children. The eldest child, Thomas Donovan, was buried on 23 July 1856, aged two; the second Thomas Donovan was buried on 21 March 1859, aged one; Francis Donovan was buried on 23 March 1861, aged two; and Catherine Donovan was buried on 6 April 1861, aged one.

Even in the midst of my excitement at this discovery, I can only feel sorry for John and Maryanne. They must have been inconsolable with grief at losing so many of their babies, one after the other. Of their remaining two children, I've found no confirmed subsequent record of John James, as yet, while I have already discussed what happened to Teresa, during my post Genealogy Quest: Expanding the search via a collateral line.

So, given four of the infant children of John and Maryanne (Coyle) Donovan were buried in the same grave as my great-great-grandmother, Maryanne Donovan, also the wife of a John Donovan, and the owner of the plot, it now seems most likely that my Maryanne and the former Maryanne Coyle was one and the same person.

The coincidence, otherwise, is just too great – don’t ye think?

Striking gold!

See also previous posts in this quest: 

The Search for Maryanne...

The case for Maryanne Coyle

Expanding the search via a collateral line 

The search for Maryanne - a stroke of luck 

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

Genealogy Quest: the search for Maryanne – a stroke of luck

This week, as I followed the ancestral trail of Maryanne Donovan, my great-great-grandmother, whose maiden name has long remained unproven, I had an amazing stroke of luck.

Maryanne Coyle  has long been the suspected mother of my great-grandmother, Mary Agnes Donovan, although her parents were named only as John and Maryanne Donovan at her marriage to Charles O'Neill, in 1874.  Now, I have finally found that single shred of evidence to tip the balance of proof from possible to probable.

Happy Days!!!

A while back in my blog – actually, it was over a year ago now – here, I thought it strange to find my great-great-grandfather, John Donovan, buried in a paupers’ grave in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. Only two years before his death, his wife Maryanne and his suspected mother Catherine had been buried in a full-sized family plot in the same cemetery, and were the only two occupants of the grave.

Well, it pays to be curious!

When I contacted Glasnevin Trust, they confirmed the owner of this family plot was Maryanne Donovan, my great-great-grandmother, interred there in May 1873, the month after Catherine.

And, amazingly, after an investigation, Glasnevin Trust confirmed there were other burials in this grave - burials omitted in error from the grave register I had previously purchased – burial records absolutely critical to my quest.

The newly discovered occupants were erroneously coded as having been buried in the Garden section of the cemetery. They were actually interred, with Maryanne and Catherine, in the section known as Curran Square. So, when I obtained the grave register for the Curran Square plot, their names were sadly omitted.

This was not the only factor conspiring against me. I had also, separately, purchased the burial register for the plot mis-coded as being in the Garden section. Little Thomas, a suspected two year old son of John and Maryanne (Coyle) Donovan was interred there when he died in 1856. But, his grave had been deemed a paupers’ grave, meaning the names of the other occupants were not revealed to me. Seemingly, Glasnevin Trust automatically applies this designation to any grave where the number of occupants exceeds a certain number. Yet, I am glad to say it was not a paupers’ grave.

You see, in addition to Maryanne and Catherine Donovan, there were a further thirteen (yes, I did say 13) family members interred in the grave – fifteen people in this one grave – I can hardly believe it myself. 

That is why there was no room for John Donovan when his turn came.

And, the names of some of those interred help establish the required link back to the Coyles.

More next week...

A Genealogy Happy Dance!

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

The case for Maryanne Coyle
Expanding the search via a collateral line 

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

Genealogy Quest: Expanding the search via a collateral line

My great-grandmother, Mary Agnes Donovan, named her parents as John and Maryanne Donovan at the time of her marriage to Charles O’Neill in 1874. Not untypically, Maryanne’s maiden name was not mentioned in the records and my working hypothesis (or maybe wishful thinking) is her maiden name was ‘Coyle’.

I’ve already done a fairly exhaustive search for records relating to Mary Agnes Donovan, without finding any proof of her mother’s maiden name. So, if Mary Agnes had a sister, confirmation of her mother’s name might prove, or perhaps disprove, my 'Coyle' theory.

And, a Teresa Donovan registered the births of two of Charles and Mary Agnes’s children, confirming she was living with the O’Neill family in 1876 and 1879. It was not beyond the realms of possibility – actually, it seemed quite likely – this Teresa and Mary Agnes were sisters.

Plus, I already knew John and Maryanne (Coyle) Donovan had a daughter named Teresa Anne, born in 1862.

So, I set myself the task of finding out what happened to Teresa Donovan.

And, on 6 June 1900, a Teresa Donovan married William Corless, in St Andrew’s church in Dublin. William was a tailor, with an address in Manchester, England. Teresa was living at 8 Queen’s Square, off Pearse Street, in Dublin, the same street where the O’Neill family had lived when Jack O’Neill was born in 1879.  The marriage register confirmed Teresa’s father was John Donovan. He was an upholsterer by trade, just like Mary Agnes’s father, making it is most likely Mary Agnes and Teresa were sisters.

...giving me a newly discovered great-grandaunt!  Woohoo!

Unfortunately, mothers’ names were never recorded on civil marriage records in Ireland.

But, sometimes their names, and even their maiden names, were noted in Catholic parish registers, so my next task was to search in the records of St Andrew’s. Frustratingly though, while copies of the register books for the parish were available on IrishGenealogy.ie, they only go up to the 1890s. The records for St Andrew’s are also held on microfilm in the National Library, and last month they were published online. These were said to date to 1 July 1900 - one month after Teresa’s marriage. Could I be that lucky? 

Yes and no. Their marriage was included in the register and confirmed Teresa’s mother’s name was Maryanne, but her maiden name was not recorded.

Excerpt from marriage register, St Andrew's, Dublin, 1900,
William Corless and Teresa Donovan, 

Teresa and William left Ireland after their wedding. They were found back in Manchester at the time of the 1901 census, where William worked as a ‘journeyman tailor’. They had no children in 1901, but then it was only fifteen months since their marriage.

So, could this Teresa have been the same Teresa Anne, born to John Donovan and Maryanne Coyle and baptised in St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in 1862?  She would have been thirty-eight years old when she married William.

The 1901 census confirmed she was born in Ireland, but gave her age as only twenty-five years - born about 1875-76 - thirteen years after the daughter of Maryanne (Coyle) Donovan. But, census returns are often inaccurate when it comes to age.

Also, I know Teresa was born earlier than 1875! For a start, her mother died of tuberculosis in 1873. She was Godmother to Catherine O’Neill in 1876 and registered her birth, suggesting she was at least a teenager by this time. Perhaps she felt it necessary to understate her years when she married William.

Unfortunately, I can’t find William and Teresa in the 1911 census, either in England, or in Ireland, and there’s no subsequent confirmed record of them.  

So, although I've found Mary Agnes a sister, there is still no real proof their mother’s name was Coyle. 

Back to the drawing board...

See also the previous posts in this quest: More about 
The Search for Maryanne...

The case for Maryanne Coyle

Continued at...
The search for Maryann - a stroke of luck 
Striking gold - the search for Maryanne 

More about Teresa (Donovan) Corless...
A new cousin for Granny Lena and a surname puzzle
Teresa Corless - Death from Misadventure

Sources: Church records on IrishGenelaogy.ie; Catholic parish registers at the NLI, National Library; Copy Birth, Marriage and Death registers, General Register Office; Theresa Corless, Manchester, 1901 Census of England and Wales, accessed on Ancestry.com.

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

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

Genealogy Quest: The search for Maryanne…

Following the ancestral trail of Dad’s maternal grandmother, born Mary Agnes Donovan, is one of my favourite genealogy quests.  When she married Charles O’Neill on 19 April 1874 in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, Mary Agnes named her parents as John and Maryanne Donovan (deceased).[1] Her mother’s maiden name was not recorded in the marriage register (church or civil), hugely complicating the search for that side of her family.

My big question remains who was Maryanne?  All I know for sure is, she died of tuberculosis in 1873, aged about forty years, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.[2] But, I have a good theory…

… proving it is my problem.

Mary Agnes was likely born before 1864, when birth registration commenced in Ireland. Her baptism record has never been found. In the 1901 census, she claimed she was born in Dublin city in about 1862, though in 1911, she said it was about 1866.[3]

With her parent’s ill-health and early deaths, she may have married younger than usual, but it is highly improbable she was only twelve years old. This may have been the legal minimum age for marriage in Ireland at the time, but, even then, it was not socially acceptable for such a young child to marry. So, presumably she was born at least a few years before 1862. Chances were she was at least seventeen years old when she married in 1874, and as such born before 1857, if not earlier.

The following couple have been identified as the most likely contenders for the role of Mary Agnes’s parents: On 9 February 1851, in St. Mary Pro-Cathedral, John Donovan married Maryanne COYLE.[4] Their children, baptised in the same parish, were:

• Thomas Joseph Donovan, 11 March 1854
• John James Donovan, 18 November 1855
• Thomas Laurence Donovan, 20 June 1857
• Francis Donovan, 16 September 1858 
• Catherine Donovan, 18 March 1860 
• Teresa Anne Donovan, 18 May 1862

You see the gap of over three years between John and Maryanne’s marriage and the baptism of their first child? This leaves an ample window for the birth of Mary Agnes, though it means she understated her age by about ten years on the 1901 census - not that that was unusual.  But, Mary Agnes claimed she was a minor (less than 21) when she married Charles, meaning she must have been born after 19 April 1853. So, if this was true, and there is little reason to suspect otherwise, our window was short, maybe too short. Thomas Joseph would have been born within a year of her birth.

Poor Maryanne was pregnant for practically this entire ten year period, and the opportunity for the birth of Mary Agnes did not increase much over the years to 1862.

Yet, there are many other ‘coincidences’ drawing me to this family.

Maryanne seemingly stopped having children in 1862, frustratingly, two years before births had to be registered in Ireland. A civil birth register, not only would have confirmed the mother’s maiden name, but would have provided the father’s occupation. Our John Donovan was an upholsterer, a fairly unusual occupation, and if we could prove that this John Donovan was also an upholsterer, it would significantly increase the likelihood they were one and the same person.  

More next week…

Continued at...
The case for Maryanne Coyle
Expanding the search via a collateral line 

The search for Maryann - a stroke of luck 

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[1] Marriage register, St Mary’s Pro Cathedral, IrishGenealogy.ie. 
[2] Burial register, Glasnevin Cemetery, Glasnevin Trust.
[3] 1901 and 1911 Census, National Archives of Ireland.
[4] Marriage and baptism registers, St Mary's Pro Cathedral. 

Image Credit: ‘The Pro-Cathedral, Dublin’, George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library, The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

The Juggling Colleen

Everyone has heard the old saying about running away to join the circus… except, no one expects it to apply in their own family, and especially not in MY own family! But, that's pretty much what Elizabeth Wynne, a.k.a. Veronica Martell, did and she was my mother's second cousin.

It certainly wasn't something that was in her blood – at least not on her Wynne side. Her father, James Wynne, was an electrician. Her grandfather, also James Wynne, was a brush maker. And her great-grandfather, John Wynne, who was my great-great-grandfather, worked as a shop assistant. They were all ordinary people, living ordinary lives in their native Dublin city. So, how did they produce such an extraordinary, and talented, daughter?

Actually, Elizabeth had three younger sisters who also learned to juggle and followed her onto the stage. They all moved to London and trained with Jack Martell, the husband of their Aunt Moira. But, it was the eldest, Elizabeth, or should I say Veronica, who enjoyed the most success, or at any rate achieved the most mentions in the online sources available today. 

Like her sisters, Veronica initially worked the variety halls and cabarets in Britain and on the Continent. Her big break came in 1951 when John Ringling North, of the famous Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, spotted her at the China Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. Even though she had no circus background, he was so impressed with her act, he signed her up and Veronica joined the circus.[1] Her arrival was heralded in the New York newspapers that year, for example, in Brooklyn they said: 

‘Veronica Martell, a real beauty from Ireland, turned out to be a top-notch juggler, climaxing her act with a blindfold routine that seemed impossible, but the lady did it’.[2]

That season, Cecil B. DeMille filmed The Greatest Show on Earth, a romantic drama set in the Ringling Circus. Veronica played a small part, as herself, the Juggling Colleen.  They, somewhat surprisingly, scooped the 1952 Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Story, competing against such movie giants as The Quiet Man and the western, High Noon.

Despite its Oscars, I don't think I've ever seen the movie. According to online sources, Veronica opened a short montage featuring an assortment of circus acts. She performed as ‘Ireland's Juggling Marvel’ to the old nationalist tune ‘The Wearing of the Green’.[3] There are some clips of the movie on You-Tube, here, but, unfortunately, Veronica doesn't appear in any of them.     

Elizabeth (Veronica) made her home in the United States. She met her husband, Robert Ziemski, while at the Ringling Circus in 1951 and they married the following year.  After their daughter was born in 1953, Veronica returned to the stage and in 1964, she appeared in a short Harold Baim documentary called Jugglers and Acrobats.[4] Some pictures of Veronica from the film are available here. 

More photographs of her, when she performed with the Ringling Circus, are available in the digital collections of the Milner Library at the Illinois State University, here.  I can see the Wynne family resemblance, especially to one of my glamorous aunts. Does anyone else see it too? (I cannot show the pictures due to copyright restrictions, but hopefully the links will work ok)

Veronica didn't have all the fun and her sisters enjoyed their share of the lime-light too.

Des O'Reilly, a drummer with an English pop band called The Puppets, remembers Christine Wynne, a.k.a. Christine Martell. In 1965, they did a three-month tour of Cyprus, North Africa and Malta for the British Forces. Christine played a stereotypical, drunken, Irish lass, juggling to the tune of ‘The Teddy Bears Picnic’. According to Des O'Reilly, she continually dropped the balls, such that they had to start and restart ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ over and over again and he said ‘poor Christine, in her thick Irish brogue, would chastise herself for dropping her props!!’ He was thankful she wasn't a knife thrower, but it sounds like just a comedy act to me.[5] 

Moira Martell, born Mary Pauline Wynne in 1931, performed as the continental juggler, while Rita Martell, born Margaret Jane Wynne in 1934, became known as the youthful juggler. They also worked the variety circuits across Europe. All four sisters seemingly employed the same basic techniques in their acts. The programme for one of Rita's performances, in the Grand Festival of Magic show at the Scala Theatre, London, in 1954, reads:  

‘she has a brilliant act’ and ‘worked numerous routines with clubs, balls, hats, etc., and finally did the fountain of bouncing six balls whilst blindfolded!’[6] 

Sadly, the Martell Sisters have all passed away now. Veronica only died in February this year. Her obituary can be read here.  

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[1] The Billboard, 21 Apr 1951, p. 57, accessed on Google books.

[2] Brooklyn Eagle, 5 April 1951, p. 4, accessed on Fulton Postcards.

[3] ‘Many Acts’, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Circusmusic. 

[4] The Baim Collection.
[5] Des OReilly.com (A Musical Life).

[6] The Magic Circle presents a Grand Festival of Magic, Scala Theatre, October 4th to 9th, 1954: Programme. 
Image: Pixabay 

See also, the first episode of this story Showbiz!

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy