Hello,
I am positive that I have the right person, the only questions are why 2 birth records and why is she not on the 1911 census, and why is the father not with the family in either 1901 or 1911? I have found a Mary Cullen in a convent school in 1911 in New Ross, the right age, but how to know if it is the right person. Thanks everyone for your input.
Peggy
Let me summarise my take on this.
- The double birth registration is not uncommon. Mistakes happen.
- The cancellation of the second birth registration is not connected with any adoption. It was cancelled simply because it was a dual registration.
- Any adoption for Mary Cullen occurred long (40+ years) before any legal regulation of adoptions.
As such, there will not be any official record of her adoption (if there was an adoption).
- The father was not with the family on the 1901 and 1911 census for straightforward reasons.
* In 1901 he was presumably still a soldier - he is shown as a soldier on 1900 birth registration
(link provided earlier). He could have been stationed anywhere - Britain, India, South Africa...
* In 1911, he is working in Dublin, Myluck! provided the link earlier.
- Giving children to be raised by childless relatives certainly happened. This happened with a sister of my grandfather, who was given to the family of a first cousin of my great-grandfather, in England. No one in the family ever understood why my great-grandfather did this, but he did.