Hi all,
My great grandmother Catherine Brennan was born in this area of Ireland the 1840s. The age she gave when she emigrated to Australia in 1875 would have her born in 1850. The age she gave when she married in Australia would have her born even later (but she would have had every reason to want to appear younger). We think she was probably born about 1848, and that is the year on her death certificate. However, there is a baptism at Rochfortbridge on 14 May 1844 which may be her. That would make her 44 when the last of her five sons was born.
On the baptism register she is listed as Catherine Brennan, daughter of Dennis and Catherine. We think her parents were Dennis Brennan or Brannan, a schoolmaster, and Catherine Talt (sometimes read as Tait or Falt). They married at Rochfortbridge on 22 May 1835. That is the simple part.
We have a half-cousin DNA match with descendants of Bridget Brennan, whose parents are said to have been Dennis Brennan, a teacher, and Catherine Maybury. They married in Coolbane, County Kerry, on 27 Jan 1842 and their daughter Bridget was born there in 1843. I'm not sure that County Kerry documents are as accessible as Westmeath ones are.
We gather that Dennis was born in Coolbane in about 1810 and died there on 24 Apr 1844 -- apparently around the time Catherine Talt was having my great grandmother in County Westmeath. It would be easy to say there must have been two teachers named Dennis Brennan, one in Kerry and one in Westmeath, but the DNA suggests they are the same man.
For this to work, he would have to be born in Kerry, take a job in Westmeath, marry Catherine Talt, go home to Kerry for some reason, meet Catherine Maybury and get her pregnant with Bridget (and marry her bigamously), then go back to Westmeath, get Catherine Talt pregnant with my great grandmother, then shoot through back to Kerry where he dies about the time my great grandmother is being born in Westmeath.
If I knew how to get death certificates I'd be interested to see if he was sick or if the Maybury family caught up with him! We have a Maybury history which concentrates on religious aspects of the family but says "Catherine (c.1817-1862), married Denis Brennan, a Catholic, and, after his death, the brother of David Moriarty, the Catholic bishop of Kerry".
At the time of her own marriage in Australia to my great grandfather William Turner, Catherine Brennan said her mother was Catherine Newman, not Talt, so I'm not sure how that fits in (but my great grandfather got his mother's maiden name wrong, too!). Her death certificate says she was born at Mullingar in 1848, but of course that information came from one of her sons.
My basic question is: Is there any way I could get hold of Dennis Brennan's death certificate? (I am in Australia). If they are anything like the Australia ones, it would list all children etc. Or are they likely to have been lost in the Dublin fire?
Any other help would be appreciated too, of course.
Thanks,
Geoff Turner
