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« on: Saturday 10 November 18 14:53 GMT (UK) »
Thank you all for that information. I was initially hesitant about opening up this thread, since it is such recent history. Granny Hayden may well have living relatives. If so, I would love to be in contact with them. However, I respect their privacy. I apologize for not being more specific in my earlier query - I really only wanted to contact relatives of Granny Hayden, if they were still around. I did not expect you to do so much background work. Thank you for that. She seems to have been a kind woman.
Granny Hayden( as she was known) is the key to another search.
That address - 69 Tolka Road - is indeed the one I am interested in. I am trying to trace a young boy who was taken in by Granny Hayden (and Edward) as a baby. I am not sure of the circumstances or the connection. However, I know he was not the only one she "took in".
He subsequently ended up in Artane Industrial School in 1945. His "stepfather" was listed as Edward Hayden, at 69 Tolka Road.
When he was released, he returned to the same house, but this time in the care of his "sister", an Alice McDermott, who lived there with her husband John. Both Granny Hayden and Edward had died in the meantime (as you proved in your researches). Alice, who I think lived in the house for some years with the Haydens, (having been also "taken in "), was no blood relative of the boy. But she took him in.
He left for Scotland, and then England shortly afterwards, having worked in Liptons. Indeed, family lore has it that Alice arrived back from a dance one night (so she must have been around 18) to be introduced to her "new baby brother". No reasons given. (I know that Granny Hayden was not Alice's real mother.)
This young boy was known as Oliver Anthony O'Neill. It is him I am trying to trace. He died some years ago. I am in touch with his family. However, given his background he never wanted to speak about his family of origin. He left all that behind. Now his children would dearly love to trace them.
He was born in Rose Farrell's maternity home (540 NCR) in late October 1936. However, I am not sure that the details of his parentage that were given by Rose Farrell were accurate. For one, they were supposedly a married couple, the father listed as Anthony O'Neill, a carpenter from Drumshambo. But I can't find any background to that fact that is convincing. I can find no marriage record either, for him and Mary (nee Martin) who was listed as the mother.
Also, his birth was not registered until 1951, when he was 15 years old, and the informant was the same Rose Farrell. He had been baptised in the Pro-Catherdral, a few weeks after his birth (which again was unusual), but, we don't yet have the actual baptismal certificate. The details on a transcript of the Cert, released by the archivist in Artane, were the same as those given in 1951.
Finally, another reason I am sceptical about the information, is that I am not sure how many married couples would have availed of the facilities of a maternity home.
And yet, his name stayed with him.
So, Dathai, your speculation is 100% accurate.
Are you able to throw any light on that maternity home, or the use of such homes in the 1930s/40s. And would you have any suggestions for further avenues of research?
As a footnote, I called to the house in Tolka Road recently, and Alice McDermott's son still lives there, on his own, but he is not in a position to be of much help. He remembers Tony O'Neill, ok, but he has no more details.
Many thanks
Gerry
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