Author Topic: Missing nun  (Read 2197 times)

Offline cath151

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #27 on: Saturday 14 October 17 19:56 BST (UK) »
There is a Florence McDonough at 296a Portobello Road in 1939, definitely not Annes daughter, sounds like a worker at the home.

Cathy
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Clements,Coles,Mc Donagh,Rock

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Offline Blue70

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #28 on: Saturday 14 October 17 20:15 BST (UK) »
My great grandfather Patrick died in a St Joseph's Home in Liverpool the Little Sisters looked after aged people from the RC community who tended to be Irish or of Irish ancestry. I don't think they moved people over from Ireland any Irish people in the homes would have lived and worked in England most of their lives. There would have been similar homes in Ireland.


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Offline groom

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #29 on: Saturday 14 October 17 20:35 BST (UK) »
My great grandfather Patrick died in a St Joseph's Home in Liverpool the Little Sisters looked after aged people from the RC community who tended to be Irish or of Irish ancestry. I don't think they moved people over from Ireland any Irish people in the homes would have lived and worked in England most of their lives. There would have been similar homes in Ireland.


Blue

That's what I was thinking Blue, makes more sense than the way that piece I found was worded.
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Offline Sinann

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #30 on: Saturday 14 October 17 20:40 BST (UK) »
I can't say for definite, but if nun's have vows of poverty and renounce their worldly goods when they enter the convent, do they write wills?

If not, then Ann may not have been a religious sister.

Exactly what I was thinking as I read the thread, nuns shoudn't have anything to leave in a will,not sure the nuns would accept an unmarried mother as a nun either.


Offline Meaghangower

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #31 on: Sunday 15 October 17 00:47 BST (UK) »
Both my aunty and grandma have said she got pregnant and was sent off to have the baby as she was unmarried and her family were devout Catholics, my other aunty was part of the same order. It's possible she wasn't a nun but had the title sister after being at the convent for so long she was sent in the 1940s.
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Offline Maiden Stone

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #32 on: Sunday 15 October 17 06:54 BST (UK) »
Both my aunty and grandma have said she got pregnant and was sent off to have the baby as she was unmarried and her family were devout Catholics, my other aunty was part of the same order. It's possible she wasn't a nun but had the title sister after being at the convent for so long she was sent in the 1940s.
She might have been a lay sister. They did domestic duties and manual labour. Done away with by reforms of Second Vatican Council in 1960s. Given the existence of a will it's more likely she wasn't a nun but a member of staff, or possibly working as a volunteer for board & lodging and pocket money. Depending on the order and the individual convent, "board" might be frugal or hearty.

The address on the card probably was that of the printer. Catholic newspapers have adverts for printers of memorial cards. There used to be several firms did them. Is the one for your great-aunt small, oblong, with a miniature photo of her, some prayers and a religious symbol? Was she wearing a veil in the photo? A nun's habit  became a bit more relaxed in the mid 1960s as a result of Vatican 2 but they still had to wear veils. I suppose the various groups of nuns got their new-style habits over a period of time during the decade. 

Edit. Just remembered something about nuns' names. A nun taking her vows before mid 1960s would have given up her own name and taken a saint's name. Some nuns had names of male saints. After Vatican 2 they got their own names back. (I'm not sure if it happened in every order.)
Cowban

Offline CarolA3

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Re: Missing nun
« Reply #33 on: Monday 16 October 17 15:45 BST (UK) »
An anecdote, if I may, about my Great-aunt Annie who was a nun in an Anglo-Catholic convent.  Having taken the usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience at the age of 18, she had no personal property or possessions.  Therefore neither she nor any other nun would have needed to write a will.

However, her sister Dolly (not a nun, but never married) did leave a will.  I believe it was one of those 'do-it-yourself' forms.  Dolly specified which items were to go to which family members, naming only those who had kept in touch and helped her in various ways.  She appointed an executor (my uncle) and two independent witnesses signed the will.  Great - except that Dolly forgot to sign it herself, so it wasn't valid.  As she had no children, the estate should then have passed to her only surviving sibling who was, as you've probably guessed, Great-aunt Annie otherwise known as Sister Annie Jean, who had to decline because she'd taken a vow of poverty.

In short, nuns do not have anything to bequeath in wills, and equally they cannot benefit from other people's wills.  Therefore Anne Martin was not a nun.

Carol
OXFORDSHIRE / BERKSHIRE
Bullock, Cooper, Boler/Bowler, Wright, Robinson, Lee, Prior, Trinder, Newman, Walklin, Louch