Totally Lost - any help / advice welcome - Wexford / Bristol / Barcelona

[leemeetee]

Hi all,
Like many of you I have used 'lock-downs' to fill out family tree....but have come to a staggering stop......so all advice / help is welcome.

Catherine Donnolly - born and baptised (have both records)  in Wexford (Ireland) in 1876 but despite extensive searches there is no record of her in either 1901 / 1911 Census. Family folklore suggests she may have been a nun but left the Order of Mercy??

Following the death of her brother in Wexford, she took his eldest daughters under her wing and they were educated (with her) in St. Ursula's Mercy Boarding School in Bristol.

All three (ie the possible nun and her two nieces) moved to Barcelona in 1915 /16 - I have very battered School Registration record for one of the girls from 29 June 1916 in the brilliantly named 'Colegio de las Esclavas del  Corazón de Jesus' - The College of the Slaves (servants) of the Heart of Jesus.

In 1928 one of the two girls got married in Barcelona and have all records of this plus the subsequent birth of three children and the death of one of them in 1936. Have full records of their return to Ireland in summer of 1936 as the Spanish Civil Was reached Barcelona.

I have the 'booklet' of the child who was buried in Barcelona and a record of payments paid on the grave maintenance up to 1960. It then records the burial of the same Catherine Murphy in 1960 and I have her 'Memorial Card' from August 1960 clearly identifying her by her Irish name (albeit with the Spanish custom of paternal and maternal names) of Catherine Donelly y Murphy and identify both girls as her loving nieces.

While all these records fit - I am now at a complete stand-still.

Family circumstance would not have allowed the two girls be educated in an English boarding school from 1910 - 14.
How would a nun be able to bring two nieces to such a school?
I know St. Ursula's was badly damaged in WW2 and was demolished in the late 1940s but would any one know if records / Roll Books are available and if so how does one access them?
How did a (former) Mercy Nun end up in Barcelona?.....(polite suggestions only please!!)
Would shipping records exists for travel between the UK and Spain for this period and if so where could I access them?
I realise every questions is a complete long shot but any advice would be welcome...thanks.

[mckha489]

Was Catherine  a teacher perhaps
Girls allowed to go the schools she taught at?

[KGarrad]

St. Ursula's School was in Henleaze, Bristol.
It was opened in 1896 by the Sisters of Mercy, St. Ursula's was originally a girls' boarding school.

There was a convent at the school.
Nuns taught lessons until 1988.

[leemeetee]

Hi Mckha489,
We have thought about this but I think that would have been part of the family folklore. The two girls (one of whom was my Grandmother) worked in Spain as teachers of English for nearly 20 years. My late mother remembers Catherine visiting Ireland on several occasions for long holidays in the 40s and 50s (Mam was terrified of her as she was a fairly severe lady by all accounts and always referred to as 'the Aunt' or by the Spanish nickname 'Tetona'....I taught in Spain myself in the 1990s and 'tetona' was slang for a boorish person or lacking in personality) but there was never any talk about her job or school or pupils. On the other hand the children of my Grandmother's pupils were amongst the first Spanish students to visit Ireland for summer courses in the late 60s.

[Erato]

"Spanish nickname 'Tetona'"

Yikes!  Not a nickname one would ordinarily apply to a severe former nun.  They must have only used it behind her back.

[leemeetee]

I think they were very open about calling her 'Tetona'........usually when she had returned to Spain and all the brave ones were in Ireland!!

[heywood]

Are the two girls in an Industrial school in 1911?

[heywood]

I can see the two girls there, assuming it is them, but struggling to see Catherine.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Wexford/Wexford_Urban_No_1/Townparks__part_of__Urban_/696120/

The adults are here - Mercy Sisters

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Wexford/Wexford_Urban_No_1/Townparks__part_of__Urban_/696123/

[leemeetee]

Hi Heywood,
That is the problem I have.....Catherine seems to have disappeared from her Birth / Baptism in 1876 until the girls headed to Spain in late 1915 / early 1916.
That the Mercy Convent in Wexford was an Orphanage with a Laundry and was situated right next to St. Peter's College Secondary (boarding) School with adjacent seminary college means that there are a huge number of girls, young women, teachers, servants, staff, nuns on the Census returns ....but still she eludes me!!
I have searched all Catherine / Kathleen Donnollys (Donolly/ Donnelly / Donelly) on both the 1901 and 1911 Censi aged between 20 and 30 years and was able to discount them due to their 'counties of birth.'
If she was a nun / teacher maybe she might have left Wexford by 1901 (at 26 years of age)....maybe she'll show up on English censi from 1900 - 15... Maybe she was at St. Ursula's School in Bristol at this time and this is why the girls headed there before Barcelona. I have been unable to find any archive of Mercy Nuns but I live in hope.
I think travel between Ireland and England was too common at that time to have kept detailed passenger lists but I am open to any and all advice.
Thanks for your interest.