William Walsh, Dublin, b.1870's - quadruplets!

[whelanfi]

I am tracing William Walsh who I believe was born around 1870 and was a shoemaker. William had three children, Patrick, Robert, and Thomas (born c.1891, 1894, and 1896 respectively). Unfortunately, I can't find a trace of their mother as William is recorded in the 1901 census as a widower, and he remarried by 1911 (to a certain Ann, and they were living with her daughter Mary Maguire).

I've been trying to find the children's birth records, but keep getting the wrong ones (Walsh is such a prevalent name in the Civic Records!).

The only clues I have is that William and his unnamed first wife had quadruplets (who didn't survive), and that the youngest child Thomas died young (he doesn't appear in the 1911 census so I presume that he died between 1901 - 1911.

The other assumption I'm making (rightly or wrongly) is that William's wife probably died as a result of the quadruplets, sometime before 1901.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[emmsthheight]

Hi Whelanfi

Welcome to Rootschat!  I've been working on the Civil indexes for Dublin too.  They're a brilliant rewsource with the two censuses, but not always easy!

Can I ask you, a couple of questions?  How do you know there were quadruplets?  Was there a baptism record?  (I'm thinking dates).

Where were the family in 1901?  Have you got an address or reference or details, so we can get a better starting point?

Death from quadruplets does seem a strong possibility, but I keep an open mind -  someone connected to our family had quadruplet siblings, not much later than this, and all parties survived - in fact all children lived to adulthood, as well as mother.

I'll have a look and see what I can see.

By the way, what does it say for birthplaces for the children?

Enjoy Rootschat!

Best wishes

Emms

[emmsthheight]

Hi

Just a thought:  Who were the witnesses to the second marriage?  They might give a clue to other family.  Also, were the family RC?  If so, if you know the exact address they lived you might be able to find the baptism records, and the godoparents. 

If they were born in hospital, if you look at the baptism register - any denomination for churches near the hospital, there might be an entry of baptism in an emergency.

Another thought, I wonder if the event made the papers?  I found an entry for triplets for a family I was researching for a friend in out area, recorded as an unusual event in the local paper!

Best wishes

Emms

[emmsthheight]

I guess they're the ones in Wine Tavern St, Wood Quay?

Emms

[whelanfi]

Wow, thank you for the quick response!

Yes, they are the ones living in Wine Tavern St in 1901.

My grandmother's father was Patrick Walsh, William's son. She told me that Patrick's parents had quadruplets, none of whom survived. I used http://pilot.familysearch.org and found four female (unnamed walshes) who all died shortly after birth in the Dec quarter 1898 for Dublin North. I'm tempted to call up their record to see if the father is recorded as William. She also told that Thomas, the youngest, died when he was young.

If I were to look up newspapers, where would be the best place to start?

Thanks again for the quick response, I'm going to try and find the marriage of William and his second wife for clues.

[emmsthheight]

Hi

Thanks for the extra background.  You've done what I was starting to try, so that group do sound really likely.

Getting one of the births sounds a good move.  I know you have to pay, but you could try saying the father was William so they'd hopefully return at least some of the fee otherwise. 

Yhen if you were correct, you'd have a great step forward because you'd have the mother's name.

I don't know on second thoughts if newspapers would be so good if they all died at birth, on the other hand I found two different announcements for the birth and death of my ggrandfather's oldest sibling in Australia, even though the family bible says the baby was still born.

If you want newspapers though, there are 19century UK Newsoaoers on the Gale - for Newspaper Archive of the British Library.

The 19C Newspaper section is free in many libraries in this country and I think elsewhere too.  In fact if you hold a library ticket at these libraries you can sign in via your library code from home or anywhere.

Marriage sounds a place to go, but I couldn't find many this late apart from the index, and I've not found a way oif linking to a spouse on there.

Good luck with it.

Best wishes

Emms

[Purpeller]

Birth certs for multiple births will have the time recorded on them (to show the order of birth), so you could just order one and if it has the time and the right parents, presume the other 3 are correct. 

[aghadowey]

Not sure if all Irish certificates do record multiple births. I've certainly seen one that did not give the time on either birth for twins.

[shanew147]

A couple of other points that might be worth keeping in mind...

Index references for multiple births would probably have the same (or consecutive) register pages

As far as I understand neither birth or death certs were recorded for stillbirths


Shane