New member, first post.
I am new to ancestry research and am not familiar with Ireland's geography, although I am learning more about both as I go.
Currently I am trying to find the link between a second and some third cousins in my husband's family. The 2nd cousin's grandparents are from Dublin, and the third cousins' family is from the western part of County Meath. In putting together pieces of the County Meath family puzzle, I came to a woman, Catherine Molloy, who married a John Reilly in Kildalkey, Co. Meath, but they moved to Dublin and had children there. I found a record of Catherine and 5 of their children in the North Dublin Union Workhouse. 4 of those children died in the workhouse in a two-month timeframe, and the oldest one, John Reilly Jr., was discharged with his mother. (The record says they had 6 children, however, so I don't know if they had another child that stayed behind with her husband, or if the sixth one had already died prior. I would think John was their oldest since he was named after the father.) I also don't know if they had any other children after Catherine was discharged. Their address was listed as 68 Church St. It looks like their oldest son listed in the Workhouse record was baptized 23 May 1839 at St. James. It's the only baby with his name and parents' names that would match up with the fact that he was 7 years old at the NDU Workhouse. But it looks like a younger son, Thomas, was baptized 4 May 1843 and it looks like it was at St. Michan. Forgive my ignorance, but would this mean the family moved between births of their children, or not necessarily? When I look up baptisms with the last name Reilly and mother name Catherine Molloy, I get a mix of churches in Dublin and some results that couldn’t be theirs, so there at least one other John Reilly x Catherine Molloy couple having kids around the same time in Dublin. (Oh, and to top it off, I found that the baptism record of their younger son Michael Joseph has O’Reilly as their surname.)
It’s all very convoluted and frustrating, BUT I don’t want to give up because this could be the connection to my husband’s second cousin. (She has Molloy relatives in 23andme, and is related to the Miggin(s) line in County Meath, so it is very possible.)
Her grandfather is Joseph O’Reilly, who was a nurse child born in Dublin in 1908 (estimate). In 1910, he was admitted into the North Dublin Union Workhouse as a nurse child at 2 years old. That appears to have been his first admission - they sent him to nurse with a woman in the house and to be checked out by a doctor. The only information is he is listed as Roman Catholic and his prior residence upon admission is listed as “Ringsend 36 Gordon Street.” So I thought I would check that out in the census records for perhaps a Reilly or O’Reilly in 1901 or 1911, but nothing comes up at all for a Gordon or Gordan Street as an existing location. I'm not sure why?
Even if Joseph O’Reilly is not *the* cousins connection I am looking for, even if he is not related to Catherine Molloy and John Reilly, he is indeed the second cousin’s grandfather. I know because when he was discharged from the Workhouse it was with the Lynch family in Finglas. He is listed in the 1911 census as a nurse child living with them, but he was ultimately adopted by them. When he grew up and got married, he listed his father as Thomas Lynch at Tolka Cottages in Finglas, and the marriage record of him to the second cousin’s mother has Joseph “O’Reilly” Lynch as his name, and he gave his children the surname O’Reilly-Lynch. I really want to find out who his parents were, if I can, and what happened to them (if possible). He wasn’t admitted into the workhouse until age 2, so I’m wondering what happened in those first 2 years.
Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Jamie