Illegitimacy and the Workhouse

I've talked alot about the Whelan side of the family for the past few posts, so now its time to switch to my mother's side. Many County Council's in Ireland have put their parish records online to search for free (and view for a fee). Dublin city centre is not online which makes searching my father's side more time-consuming for records pre-1864 (when civil registration was introduced). However, my mother's family is mostly from County Louth, north of Dublin, and their records are all online.

Thanks to a recent family connection I made through Ancestry.com I have managed to obtain more photographs of my mother's grandparents, Thomas Berrill and Maggie Donagh (also Donough, just to make my life more complicated). My thanks to Sandra for allowing me to share them here.

Here is Thomas and Maggie in a picture quite similiar to one I have already posted. Thomas was a soliciter's clerk and must have been doing quite well for himself to own a car in Drogheda, even Ireland, in the 1930's or 40's:

I've managed to go a few generations back on both sides so for the moment I shall concentrate on Maggie's family. Maggie's parents were John Donagh and Cate Garvey, who married in 1879. The 1901 census records them living in Newtown, in St. Lawrence's Gate, Drogheda:

• John [Head of the Household]: Farm Labourer (49)
• Catherine [Wife] (49)
• Mary: Domestic Servant (22)
• John: Forge Labourer (20)
• Ellen: Scholar (19)
• James: Scholar (17)
• Pat: Scholar (15)
• Margaret: Scholar (13)

In house 11, the family of 8 shared just two rooms in total.

This is an image of St. Lawrence St, Drogheda from the early 20th century, just to give a sense of the area where they would have lived and worked. The Donagh's appear again in the 1910 Census records, living in the same house:

• John [Head of Household]: General Labourer (59)
• Cate (59)
• John: Brewery Labourer (30)
• James: Railway Platelayer (26)
• Maggie: Knitter (20)

My assumption is that Maggie's elder sisters, Mary and Ellen, married in the intervening 10 years. Patrick, the youngest boy, turns up in Dublin in 1911. He is unmarried, a baker, and living in Wellsley Place, Mountjoy.

According to John and Cate's marriage certificate, his father was also John Donagh/Donough, while Cate's father was John Garvey. This a copy of the online record of the birth of Maggie's father John:

So John's parents were John Sr. and Rose Byrne. The record shows that not only was he born in the workhouse (or his parents were living there at the time, I suspect that Rose was), but he was born out of wedlock. I can find no record of John and Rose ever marrying after John's birth, and it is difficult to trace Rose.

The Ardee Workhouse was open in 1842. During the famine in the mid-1840's, a 40 bed fever hospital was erected at the north-west of the main building. Additional accommodation for 400 was provided in a hired malt-house. I'm going to try and find records from 1857 to see if I can find more information about Rose and the circumstances of John's birth.

I have also managed to find the birth record of John's father, John Sr. He was born on 22 April 1833 in the parish of Dunleer, Louth to Owen Donough and Mary Faulkner. Also born was his twin Thomas. I feel I should be worried because twins appear on one side of my family, while on the other side there were quadruplets! So far the Donagh/Donough tree looks like this:

Owen Donough (b.1804) + Mary Faulkner

John Donough (b. 1833) + Rose Byrne

John Donough (b. 1857) + Cate Garvey

Maggie Donough (b.1889) + Thomas Berrill

Polly Berrill + John McKenna

Marie McKenna + Brendan Whelan

Me!