What am I missing?

[karenh76]

Hi there,
We've been tracing our family history and doing really well except for one dead end. Our great grandmother was born Mary Jane McLaughlin around 1881-1883. GRONI lists her as being 83 when she died in 1966 but cemetery records say she's 85. 1901 census says she's 20 but 1911 says she's 28 and both say she was born in Derry.  I'm taking the census which a pinch of salt because I know there are mistakes. She married her husband David Frazer in Dec 1900 and they are both listed as minors even though he was born in 1878. The only info we have on Mary Jane is that her father was Ned McLaughlin and he was a mechanic. We have found an Edward McLaughlin who married in 1882 and he is the only one who is a mechanic in both 1901 & 1911 census but we just can't prove it. We cannot find any birth record for her but she obviously existed! Has anyone an idea of where we can go from here?

[Dundee]

Hi and welcome 

Is this Edward the mechanic that you are looking at?

1901

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Londonderry_Urban_No__1/Creggan_Street/1530660/

1911

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Londonderry/Londonderry_Urban__4_/Lone_Moor_Road/603621/

He did have a daughter Mary but she was born in 1887 and is with the family in 1901.  They are a bit confused about how many years they were married in 1911 and I can't spot a marriage for them.

Mary's birth:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1887/02571/1950680.pdf

They were RC, and your Mary was married in a Presbyterian church.

Nobody in the family knows her actual date of birth?

Debra 

[Dundee]

There is a birth for a Mary Jane McLAUGHLIN in 1885, daughter of Sarah Ann.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1885/02636/1972178.pdf

Debra 

[karenh76]

Hi, yep that’s the Edward we’re looking at. Census has the years married wrong plus the number of children. We’ve found 13 and 3 had died. We found a marriage record for Edward marrying Margaret mccloskey in 1882. Cemetery records even give us their parents but we just can’t tie Mary Jane to them even though it fits. No one in the family knows anything about her. We’re almost sure she was RC and her husband David was Presbyterian and when my grandfather married my grandmother (who was RC) he changed religion and apparently there was a fall out so there was little to no contact. The only aunts who kept in touch died 30 plus years ago. We found a marriage record for Mary in 1909 to John mccallion. She was living in elmwood terrace which is where the family lived until the parents died. The only difference is Edward worked in a factory but census has him as a machine mechanic which would still make sense. We’ve tracked all her siblings births/marriages to see if there’s a clue but nothing significant.

[gaffy]

I can see a transcript of a baptism that took place in St. Eugene's, Derry, on 11 October 1881, of a Mary Jane McLaughlin whose parents were recorded as Edward McLaughlin and Bridget O'Byrne, the sponsor was a Mary Anne McNulty and a note to the record states that Mary Jane was illegitimate.

The following link looks like a possibility for the civil record (registered as OBeirn), registered on 17 November 1881, citing a birth date of 24 October 1881:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1881/02805/2029424.pdf   

On a considerably more speculative note (but in case of pursuing DNA analysis in the future), note the following marriage of a Charles Taylor and a Bridget Byrne in 1883:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1883/10940/5998332.pdf

[karenh76]

Hi, thanks so much for your reply! We’re looking into the possibility of this being her and then her mother marrying the Charles Taylor. They had a son and Charles died two years later. We’ve found Bridget  living with her sister in the census. We can find out a good bit about them but I don’t think it’s enough to say that this Mary Jane is ours. Saying that the Edward McLaughlin didn’t marry his wife (assuming it’s the same man) until the year after Mary Jane was born but I’m confused why she’s been given the fathers surname if she’s illegitimate. Did they do that in 1881?