Unexpected grandmothers' surnames - expecting Swiney/Keys, got Foley/Lyons !?

[kob3203]

We have a couple, Patrick Swiney (shoemaker, 24) and Margaret Keys (servant, 22) both of Mulberry, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, married in the RC church there on 26 May 1868.

Marriage: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1868/11462/8212609.pdf

The couple have 12 children between 1869 and 1888. Although one or two of the birth registrations give the mother's surname as Keays or Hayes we're fairly certain that it's the same couple, mainly because the chances of there being more than one shoemaker named Patrick sweeney married to a Margaret living in Mulberry, Mitchelstown, Co Cork are slim, and all the births seem to fit together sensibly.

On the civil birth registrations of Edward the informant is grandmother Margaret Foley.

Edward's 1882 birth: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1882/02779/2020335.pdf

On the civil birth registrations of John and Martin the informant is grandmother Margaret Lyons

John's 1883 birth: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1883/02710/1997792.pdf
Martin's 1886 birth: https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1886/02589/1956777.pdf

That's the puzzle - surely the names of the two grandmothers should be Swiney and Keys, not Foley and Lyons ?

Does anybody have any possible explanations ?

[kob3203]

An interesting addition to this conundrum is that the name Margaret Lyons also appears in a US document where we're expecting Margaret Keys - 1930 US census: James Sweeney's (head of 1519 Ferdinand Av, Detroit, Mich) age

[chempat]

Grandmothers have remarried?

[Wexflyer]

The Edward in 1882.
He was baptized in April 1882 as Edmond, with father Bartholomew.
Mother Margaret Keys.
Make of that what you will.

[Wexflyer]

Another possibility is that Patrick or Margaret may have been illegitimate, such that the father and mother's surnames were not the same.

[kob3203]

The Edward in 1882.
He was baptized in April 1882 as Edmond, with father Bartholomew.
Mother Margaret Keys.
Make of that what you will.

Where did you find that ? The Mitchelstown RC Parish baptism registers at the NLI only go up to May 1881.
The Mulberry, Mitchelstown civil birth registrations of all twelve children give the father as Patrick Swiney/Sweeny/Sweeny (shoemaker) and mother as Margaret Keys/Keayes/Keays/Hayes(for James). Bartholomew sounds like maybe a (bad) clerical error ?

[kob3203]

Grandmothers have remarried?

Remarriage is definitely a possibilty since both grandfathers were deceased at the 1868 marriage. However, I've had no luck in tracking down such a remarriage in either the civil or RC parish records - I've searched for Keys or Sweeney civil/RC marriages to Foley or Lyons, including various spellings, anywhere in Ireland, between 1845  and 1868, but found nothing.

Another possibility that I'd considered was that the grandmothers may have reverted to using their  maiden names after the deaths of their husbands, but I think this would have been very unusal in those days. And I can find no RC parish marriages between Patrick Sweeney or John Keys and Margaret Lyons or Margaret Foley before 1845 anywhere in Ireland.

[chempat]

I was also going to suggest reversion to maiden names, or no marriage had happened, but lack knowledge of how unusual that was in Ireland.  It definitely happened to some people I was looking at in Scotland.

[kob3203]

Another possibility is that Patrick or Margaret may have been illegitimate, such that the father and mother's surnames were not the same.

That's a possibility I hadn't considered and gives me a few other possible name combinations to search for.