RootsChat.Com

just in case this widens the picture in some ways From familysearch.com  I found Thomas Rennick and  Ann Mc Cawley  had children in Sligo including 
Joseph Rennick on the twelth of   APR 1868 
Alfred Rennick on the First of  MAY 1871   
Teresa Rennick on the Tenth of APR 1873   
However that Alfred in 1901 would have been 30 so he may or may not be your Alfred.  I also noticed a Thomas Rennick having a child George Frederick Rennick with a Anne Rennick McCanlen in 1878.
although repeating what others found i intrepeted slightly differently ie as you know in 1901 Alfred Rennick was a tailor aged 26 and was born in Co Sligo  look out for births about 1875, his wife Caroline was 28 also born in Co Sligo  look for births about 1873.together with their family they were living as lodgers in a Joseph Davis’s house at 10 John Street (Sligo West Urban, Sligo) Also  in the house was living a Francis Murphy describe as stepson to Joseph Davis,  and of course Kathleen Rennick was there aged 1.   I mention Francis in case he is Caroline’s brother

I looked again at her entry in the 1911 census , she has become a pupil at St Lawrences industrial School in Sligo [The Sisters of Mercy (St. Patrick's) They were engaged visiting and caring for the sick and distributing alms to the hunger stricken sufferers of the years 1846-1847. In addition they training orphan girls for domestic service. One wing of the new building was devoted to a Training School for teachers, an orphanage, and a class in training for domestic service.
An Industrial School was opened in 1871 in the then closing 'Chapel of Sligo' and grounds (see under 1871). In 1880 the Sisters removed the extern schools to more spacious premises on the opposite side of the road. In the same year they built a bakery for the purpose of training their intern pupils and servants. A sewing school for extern girls was also established. A large new public laundry was built in 1888 on the Convent premises. Source A Timeline of Schooling in County Sligo 1700 – 1900 see http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlsli/school6.html]
Thus Kathleen could have been trained for several occupations.

Hi,

Thanks for replying.

Alfred Rennick May 1871 is my husband's grandfather and Joseph and Teresa are his brother and sister. George Frederick is also a brother and his mother was definitely Anne McCauley but was probably transcribed wrongly as McCanlen.

I have the birth and death dates of both Alfred and his wife Caroline, Alfred being 1 May 1871 - 8 August 1923 and Caroline 16 June 1872 - 1 August 1927. Alfred and Caroline lived for a while with Caroline's mother, Maria and Caroline's step-father, Joseph Davis. One of Caroline's brothers, Francis,  lived with them. Caroline had 2 brothers, the other being Thomas (named after their father) and a sister, Agnes.

Tailoring runs in the Rennick family throughout most branches and goes back to Thomas (probably further) and some Rennick women were seamstresses so its highly likely that if the place Kathleen was put into taught sewing, she would have taken that up, keeping with tradition.

Until 2 week ago we thought that Thomas and Anne had only 8 children, 4 born in Derry and 4 in Sligo, but we have now found another son, John, who was born before any of those, in Inniskillen...there could well be more children floating around belonging to them. lol   He joined the army (2nd Lancashire Fuisilers) in Sligo in 1875 aged 19, signing up for 12 years, then another 12 after that. He spent most of his life in India, getting married to an Elizabeth Stuart, a widow with 5 children. He also fought in South Africa and was awarded the South Africa Medal. We have copies of his army papers with this information on but apart from that he seems to be as elusive as Thomas and Anne and havent a clue what happened to him.

I wish I had a Tardis so I could go back and find all the anwers. lol

Lyn

Hi,

Thank you for all your help.

All the information here except for one part, we already knew. All the people you have found in the orphanages are my father-in-law and his siblings including Kathleen, who I already knew about being with her sisters Lizzie & Florrie. We had the births and deaths of Alfred and Caroline too.

At the moment Kathleen's later whereabouts are far from my mind. The one piece of information which none of us could find is why my husband's dad and most of the siblings were put in orphanages. We knew Alfred hadnt died because I found his death record for 1923. We found that the Sisters of Nazareth had gone to Sligo looking for kids for their new orphanages in a couple of places and the parish priest felt Caroline couldnt look after them all herself and so all but the baby, Evelyn and the two eldest were taken from her and given to the nuns.  Its been a real mystery for as few years now as to what happened to Alfred, he seemed to have disappered and then reappeared later on. Now we know why, he was in prision.

I'm really upset at this and it was hard telling my husband just now. Although he never met his grandfather, he was named after him and felt a special link to him. Its upsetting but at least we now know what did actually happen.  Im so glad I decided to try and find Kathleen today otherwise I wouldnt have found out about Alfred.

Caroline was like her mother-in-law...lol I dont know whether it was done on purpose, but her mother-in-law, Anne also is down as being a lot younger than she was sometimes. lol Maybe it was just a mistake..maybe vanity. lol

Anyway, thank you so much for finding the answer to the great mystery as to why Alfred disappeared and the family were split up.

Lyn

My husband was born in Connolly Street..it was most definitely called Pound Street at

There is a Dominican Friary in High Street, which is a continuation of Connolly Street..one street leads directly into another. The Friary was partly knocked down in the early 1970s and rebuilt, although there is still part of the old Friary still there at the back. This is just part of a wall of the old chapel but there is no roof.

The ruins of a Dominican abbey are in Abbey Street.

Lyn Rennick

Hi,

I'm looking for the Rennick family in Hertfordshire. I'm not sure what part but I think around Broxbourne area.

My father-in-law was John Joseph Rennick born in Sligo, Eire in 1907. When he was 3 years old he and most of his siblings were put into orphanages and he never saw some of them again.  In 1975 he came over to England for my wedding and stayed with his daughter who lived in Ware, Hertfordshire. Now, I don't know how he found this out, but not long after his return to Sligo, he found that one of his brothers, Albert, who he had not seen since before they were put into the orphanges, had actually been living just a few miles away from Ware whilst he was staying there. By the time he found this out Albert had sadly died.

I've been searching for Albert's family but I can't even find any info on Albert. I can't find an Albert Rennick anywhere, in England or in Ireland.  Since starting the family tree I have found 3 siblings who we didn't know existed (and I doubt if my father-in-law new about them either)..the whole Rennick family history is shrouded in mystery, and I feel maybe this "Albert" maybe wasn't born with that name but changed it at some point.

Does anyone know of a Rennick family in Hertfordshire who had an Albert who passed away in the late 1970's or thereabouts? Albert may not have known about his Sligo roots as the children were scattered all around Ireland and the younger ones may not have known they were born in Sligo.

The parents names were Alfred and Anne (nee McCauley) Rennick.

Thanks.

Lyn Rennick (London)
 

Very unusual for people to go visiting such a distance in those days (especially what was presumably a very pregnant woman) but stranger things have happened. If a child was born in Armagh he might have been christened very soon after birth in Armagh rather than the parents waiting until they returned home.
Sligo and Derry aren't that far from each other. Perhaps the father's occupation meant the family had to move.
IGI lists 6 children of Thomas and Anne:
1. Sarah Jane 1864 Londonderry (mother McCauley)
2. Edward 1866 Londonderry (Macaulay)
3. Joseph 1868 Co. Sligo (McCawley)
4. Alfred 1871 Co. Sligo (McCawley)
5. Teresa 1870 Co. Sligo (M'Cawley)
6. George Frederick 1878 Sligo, Co. Sligo (McCanlen)

Hi,

Thank you.

I do have the children's names, although there were 8 not 6. Four were born in Derry and 4 after Thomas and Anne went to Sligo. There was a James and a Patrick also born in Derry. I know this for sure as a relative of my husband has the baptismal certificates for the 4 Derry-born children.

I'm a bit confused though. Can you tell me where you got the info for George Frederick and his mother being a "McCanlen"?

There's always been a lot of Rennicks in Fermanagh (Rennicks who are nothing to do with our Rennick family)..going back centuries, and as Anne McCauley was from Fermanagh, we assumed that this was where Thomas was from and how he met her, but we don't know for definite. A couple of Thomas' sons left Sligo and went to Fermanagh, Derry and Armagh, so we think there must have been family in all three places, as Thomas and Anne had been in all three themselves. There doesn't seem to be any sign of Rennick's in Armagh or Derry so it would seem that the family was on Anne's side, maybe her mother's family as we can't find McCauley's either.

The Rennicks are a hard lot to find. lol

Thank you.

Lyn