Even When You Don't Expect It

Just when you think you had a person’s life completely researched and answered, a new fact can arise. I was perusing the wills index at PRONI(Public Record Office of Northern Ireland)’s website http://apps.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar_IE/WillsSearch.aspx and came upon an unexpected administration;

McGinn Jane of 53 Bombay Street Belfast died 16 May 1948 Administration Belfast 27 July(1948) to Michael McGinn pensioner the husband. Effects £103 0s. 6d.

The address immediately registered with my memory as the address of Michael McGinn (1872-1953), my ancestor’s brother. The term “the husband” notes a specific relationship.

I had no idea that when Michael McGinn died in 1953 he was widowed three times. His first marriage was from 1917-1922 to Elizabeth Boal Shevlin McGinn. His second (and longest) marriage was to Margaret O’Hanlon McGinn from 1928-1941. 

I tried to find a marriage in the index at GRONI https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk between Michael McGinn and Jane but they only post marriages that were 75 years ago or more. I did not find one. If they married in Belfast it was more recent that that.

I was able to decipher the name of the informant as H. Cushnahan of 49 Bombay Street. He said he was Jane’s nephew. Her maiden name might be Cushnahan. 

Checking the 1943 Belfast City Directory, http://www.lennonwylie.co.uk at 49 Bombay Street found;

1. Cush, Hugh, labourer and a couple lines lower at 53 Bombay Street was McGinn, Michael.

I came to find that the family used Cushnahan interchangeably with Cush,http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie. In the 1901 Irish Census Jane Cushnahan was enumerated with her parents, Thomas and Margaret and her younger brother Thomas, on Benares Street in Belfast. In the 1911 Irish Census, she was enumerated with an older brother, Hugh, and his family as Jane Cush. She worked as a linen weaver. 

The civil birth record, www.irishgenealogy.ie recorded 3 Feb 1881 as her date of birth. Jane was born at her family home, 5 Albert Place. Thomas Cushnahan was a brick layer. His wife Margaret was the informant and the birth was registered on 22 Feb 1881. 

At www.RootsIreland.ie I found a baptism from 23 Jan 1881 for Jane, the daughter of Thomas Cushnahan and Margaret Dunphy. Clearly, she was born before 3 Feb 1881, so a definitive date of birth is not known. The entry showed this family lived in Belfast at Albert Place. Curiously, this family consistently had only one baptismal sponsor. Jane’s godmother was Anne Dunphy. It seems probable that the mother and the godmother were related. The baptism was celebrated at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

At the bottom of the online entry there was a marriage notation for her that read;

REV THOMAS QUIN MARRIED IN ST PAUL'S BELFAST ON THE 05/01/1943 TO MICHAEL MCGINN.

This wedding took place only 73 years ago so the record is not available online through the GRONI website. However, this notation suggested that Michael McGinn married a third time at age 70. 

Contact was made with the office at Milltown Cemetery where Michael McGinn and his family are buried. His brother, mother and first two wives were buried there in grave YE-12-B. Michael and his sister are buried there also in grave IF-21-B.

The burial register showed that Jane McGinn was buried in IF-21-B in May 1948. This firms up the case that she was the third Mrs. Michael McGinn.

I sent an e-mail request to St. Paul Catholic Church in Belfast asking for their information on the 1943 McGinn-Cushnahan nuptials. It should indicate Michael’s parents’ names. I hope that it may have a notation about his baptism. I trust that he was baptized in the fall of 1872. However, there is not a baptism registered in Clogher for him; nor his siblings born in 1866, 1870 and 1874. There are baptisms for his siblings born in 1860, 1862, 1864 and 1868. Perhaps, the pastor in Belfast in 1943 might have noted the lack of a record from his colleague in County Tyrone for this groom. Neither the priest in 1917 Glasgow nor the priest in 1928 Belfast make notations about Michael’s baptism. I am fortunate that there was a properly recorded notation of this marriage in the 1881 baptism record for Jane. 

I did some follow up research and learned that Jane’s parents married the Catholic chapel in Ballynahinch, County Down in 1868. Thomas was a bricklayer from Whiteabbey and Margaret, a reeler. They had two sons in Down in 1869 and 1871. They had several more children after moving to Belfast; 1877, 1879, 1881 and 1884. The oldest child died the month he was born but Jane’s 3 brothers and her sister all married and had issue.