Hello dathai:
I was in touch with a cousin in Belfast who had a copy of the wedding certificate for John McIlroy and Frances Pratt. They were married in Belfast in 1881. According to the wedding certificate, Frances' father's name was William - not Abraham unfortunately - with the occupation of Land Steward. One of the witnesses was a Kathleen Pratt (her mother or sister perhaps). The wedding certificate also indicates that John McIlroy was 27 and a widower. I haven't tried to locate a birth record or record of an earlier marriage for John McIlroy as yet.
As Frances McIlroy (nee Pratt) was 30 on the 1901 Irish census, she would have been born around 1871 +/-. As she was apparently born in England, I searched the British 1871 census records for a female child born around that time, with a father (head of household) William and perhaps a mother or sister Kathleen. The ONLY child I found in the British 1871 census whose age was close, was a Frances Pratt (10 months at the time of the census) who was living with a Jesse Pratt (lodger, 33, born Sussex) and Ellen Pratt (daughter, 17, born Kent). Frances is listed as a granddaughter (born Kent). They were living at Brook House, Edensbridge, Sevenoaks, Kent, at the time.
I think I found the family again in the British 1881 census records living in Sor Yals, Marsh Green, Edensbridge, Sevenoaks, Kent - though now Jesse Pratt(S) is apparently married to Ellen and they have a daughter Frances (10) and a daughter Mary Anne (
. The parents ages differ slightly from those in the 1871 census. I don`t know what to make of all that.
I checked the Irish 1901 census records in case the Pratt family had emigrated to Ireland in the late 1800s (around the time of the 1891 marriage of John and Frances), but I couldn't find a Jesse, an Ellen, a Kathleen or a William Pratt in the Irish 1901 census whose age or place of birth made sense (assuming it would have been England as well).
So I am a bit stumped about the family of origin of Frances and William Pratt. Any suggestions?
Bill
