Mary Ann Frances YOAKLEY

[jango51]

Is there anyone who may be able to assist me.  Several years ago I attempted to locate my Grandmother.  I was only able to find a Mary Frances Oakley who matched the year of birth etc along with details provided to my by my cousins.  I have built a tree from these details and it all matched until I was shown a will notation and the real Mary Frances was found.  My Mary is still probably linked in some way to the family as two genuine Oakley sisters had moved close to Barnstaple in Devon from Ireland where Mary was to later die in a nursing home.  Now I am unsure just who she is.  I have searched everywhere for her but cannot find any details about her.
She told her children that she was born in Dublin in 1894.  The birth date on the death certificate in Devon had the 28th July 1894.  She became a nurse and went to Ceylon before the First World War so I am assuming that she came from a middle class family given that only those young ladies were allowed to train as nurses at that time.  She married in Ceylon to a Samuel Joseph Yates who was serving in the North Staffordshire regiment.  I have been unable to locate the marriage certificate which would have proved who her father was.  During the War the couple returned to Ireland living in Bray and later leaving for Staffordshire to live with In Laws until migrating to Canada.  It is the early years that I am unable to find any leads under the name of YOAKLEY in Bray, Dublin or anywhere else in Ireland.
Any assistance would be appreciated. 

[taramcdsmall]

Hi there

A few q's for you to see if I can help...

1. Where have you gotten the spelling Yoakley from ? Is this a definite or maybe a typo ?

2. Have you ever found her on a cenus ?

3. Do you have anything to state that she was actually born in Dublin other than family stories ?

4. Who is the Mary Oakley that you have found and what is different to the one in the 'will notation' ?

4. Who are the sister's of Mary that you have mentioned ? Have you found them on a census ? As usually if you can find one member of a family it can make it much easier to find others.

Sorry so many q's but need as much info to try and work this one out !

Tara

[jango51]

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to assist me.

1) YOAKLEY is the surname provided on all three birth certificates for my father and his two sisters.  However, a number of years ago my researcher suggested that because she was not able to locate my grandmother under the name of Mary Francis YOAKLEY  (Annie was in later documents), the surname was probably a derivative of Oakley and there was one record that matched my Grandmother's name and year of birth.  I did not have a birth certificate so I did not have a date of birth.

2) No I have not found her in either the Irish or English Census's.  Nor in any of the main databases on the NET.  I have access to Ancestry.com and my trees are Oakley Family Tree - Athlone Branch and YATES Family Tree Linked To Staffordshire.
I have not been able to find a way to search for records of nurses registered in Dublin or of marriages in Ceylon.
 
3) I have the record of the family migrating to Canada and she states that she was born in Dublin.  The family lived in Bray during the 1st World War.

4) The lady mentioned in the small notation in the newspaper was a Mary Comerton.  My tree is very complete and I asked the person who provided the newspaper cutting if she could have been a housekeeper.  She went and checked and found a marriage certificate confirming that Mary Comerton was indeed the true daughter of William Clement Oakley.  She had married at a late age of about 38 and had not appeared in any records apart from her birth certificate which stated that she was born in November 1894. 
I did not pick up the difference in date when I managed to get my Grandmother's death certificate much later.   I found that it stated that she was born on the 28/07/1894 in Southern Ireland after extensive searching I have not been able to locate anyone who was a YOAKLEY or OAKLEY for that date.
5) My cousin spoke of two sisters who fell out with my Grandmother but did not have names for them.  The two sisters I mention are from the tree that I have compiled based around a William Clement Oakley, his two daughters Elizabeth Clare (I have her death certificate) and Florence Oakley both died in Devon which at the time was proof for me that I had the correct Mary Oakley as she also died in a nursing home there.  What would the odds be for two sisters to move from Athlone in Ireland and live so close to my Grandmother?

[taramcdsmall]

Hi there,

So if I'm reading it right............you hired a researcher who has found a Mary Oakley and you have based your whole family tree around this 'find'

BUT

you have no actual documentation to say who your Grandmother's parents actually were

AND

someone else has some along and said that NO this Mary that your researcher found as daughter of William Clement Oakley is actually their ancestor.

Gosh, this is a super tricky one.............

Well to start with this is the 1901 census with the Mary in question

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Westmeath/Athlone_Urban__W_/Excise_Street/1773648/

and in the 1911 census

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Westmeath/Athlone_West_Urban/Bellaugh/876198/

If this other person has a marriage cert stating that her Mary is the daughter of William Clement it pretty much goes without saying that she can't be yours, which leaves us with back to square one and trying to find your grandmother

I think I MAY have something for you

On the 1901 census - in a boarding school on the Clyde Road in Dublin there is an Essie & Helen Yoakley

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Clyde_Road__Part_of_/1287398/

Helen has been mistranscribed as Goatley

This is the baptism of Helen

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/6c81670210195

In 1901 in St. Thomas' Oxford England is an Annie Yoakley born Ireland and residing in a boarding school too - you will see her on ancestry

BUT I think your grandmother MAY have been baptised in 1884 NOT 1894 (a fairly easy mistake to have been made on some paperwork) and that she was baptised ANNE

NOW this is what I have found

This is who I think is a very good possibility for your grandmother Anne Yoakley

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/dfe0560110220

WHAT DO YOU THINK ??

This would appear to be a brother of hers called Robert

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/3362a20013441

This one includes their mother's maiden name

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FGLB-FYC

Another sibling called Elizabeth

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FR46-YMB

Fingers crossed and I don't want to get your hopes up but I think this all matches fairly well.

Tara

[taramcdsmall]

This should come in useful too

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0n5u/

Tara

[jango51]

No the details appeared to match with what details could be provided by my cousins though this was quite a number of years ago and I was not as experienced in family history and probably relied too much on others opinions.  The person who found the cutting is a friend of a cousin who was kindly helping me to gather information in Dublin and Athlone as I live continents away.  And nothing up until that point indicated that something was incorrect.  If necessary I will give my tree to one of the adult children on the family tree who will take care of it for future generations.
Thank you for your assistance and I will follow up your suggestions.  Mary Francis entered Canada as a migrant and gives her year of birth as 1894 and is on her death certificate.
Regards
 

[taramcdsmall]

Hi

I'm not sure if this is your message on another site

....................Yoakley/Oakley - (Bray, Bre, Bri Chualann, and Parish - County Wicklow)
Mary Annie Frances Yoakley/Oakley was born on the 28th July 1894 and the birth was registered in Dublin. She live in Bray County Wicklow in her early life. She had two sisters called Essie (Esther) and Letitia (Latitia?). The only other information I have is that she came from a middle class family and went on to be a State Registered Nurse. She married a Samuel Joseph Yates from Stoke Upon Trent and possibly the ceremony was in India..............

This message mentions the name Essie Yoakley as a sister of Mary / Annie which is the name of the girl in the school on Clyde Road that I sent you.

Helen Yoakley is the girl also with Essie in the school on Clyde Road who we can only presume is her sister.

Helen is then the sister of the Annie that I sent you the baptism for both of.

Ok, on one of your messages you have said that your grandmother went on some doumentation as Annie, so it is feasable that the Annie Yoakley in the school in England 1901 census is the same Annie.

It's possible that William and Ellen also had a daughter called Mary whose baptism wasn't recorded or whose record hasn't been transcribed.

So, I think the Annie, Helen and Essie that I have found MAY have actually been in orphanages - maybe someone can help you with the establishments that they were in as to their actual status. The reason why I say this is that I have found what appears to be the deaths for William and Ellen

Ellen Yoakley
Dublin South
Apr - Jun 1890 (age 38)
volume 2
page 563

William Yoakley
Dublin South
Jul - Sep 1895 (age 53)
volume 2
page 501

I can totally understand that at this point you are being very cautious so maybe just file away the above info in case you do ever find her nursing records or her marriage cert.

Best of Luck

Tara

[Sonas]

You have a specific date of birth - have you asked the GRO to search their records for the Dublin registration districts around this date? In the message that Tara quotes, a Letitia is mentioned. Letitia Yoakley (various spellings) listed on some UK censuses. Have you tried tracking her?

[DaveM1965]

Hi, a few years ago my dad showed up as a dna match to the Yoakley family in Dublin.  From our research we have managed to gather some info for the earlier generations of the family.  We have even been in contact with some distant cousins also.

There is a registration for Annie Yoakley, born 23 July 1884 in Dublin.  Parents William Yoakley and Ellen Kernan. (From what we can figure out through dna, William was a brother of our dad’s gt grandfather Richard Yoakley.  Their parents were Richard Yoakley, Dublin, and Mary Anne Irvine (she was from near Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone)

I don’t have a current sub for ancestry, but dad has a match to some of the Yates line, but I can’t see see their trees just now alas.