Finding Ellen

Always accept help when offered. I recently emailed the reference desk at Cork County Library and asked about street numbering practices. The reference librarian provided answers about Dublin Street in Cork City in the early 1900s. She also offered help if I could provide the links for the two censuses and the civil registers I had found previously.

Much to my surprise she had computerized access to some Cork City parish registers and found the church copy of an 1894 marriage record. She later found the baptismal entry for a first cousin and her 4 younger full siblings; siblings that I was unaware of. Patrick McSweeney married Ellen O’Riordan in 1887. They had 5 children: Evelyn in 1890, Michael in 1891, Thomas in 1892, Mary Anne in 1893 and Daniel Joseph in 1895.

With new names and dates I was able to find civil birth registrations for the four younger children. Since they do not appear in the 1901 Irish Census I assumed that they most likely died before that date. Michael died at 5 days old in 1891. Thomas died at 9 months old in 1893. Mary Anne died at 2 years old in 1895. I have yet to find a death record for Daniel Joseph. His father married a second time in 1904 and his first son in that marriage was named Daniel. I assume Daniel Joseph died young and before his half-brother.

Checking the St. Joseph Cemetery online, 

http://www.corkarchives.ie/genealogy/burialcemeteryrecords/

I discovered that Michael McSweeney was buried in Section 1 with a headstone. His half-sister Maggie was buried there too in 1904. I have a death record for Thomas but can not find him buried there. 

I have never been able to find a death registration for Ellen O’Riordan McSweeney. I knew she delivered a daughter on 2 Jun 1890. I knew that her husband married a second time in Nov 1904. I could not find her in the 1901 Irish Census. With the new names and dates of her younger children, I knew that she delivered a son on 20 Feb 1895. I started in the burial register for St. Joseph and checked its chronological list of burials starting on that date.

I was not disappointed. On 23 Apr 1895, Ellen McSweeney, 32, of 70 York Street was buried in Section 1. Now that I had a date, I tried anew to find her in the civil registry; and failed.  A few months later on 11 Sep 1895 her daughter Mary Anne was buried with her. Mary Anne’s death registration took place in Macroom where the cemetery stated she last resided. Her aunt Nora Riordan was the informant. 

Now that I had proof that she was buried in Apr 1895, she had to have died before May 1895. I tried to find the pages she would most likely be listed on by searching the index at FamilySearch.org.  I found no death entry for this wife and mother. I looked again at the death indexes and determined that she would appear in Cork District #2 in the second quarter of 1895 around volume 5 pages 72-77. She does not appear there.

Since the couple married in 1887 and it was three years until their first child was born. Could there have been a child or two born in 1888 or 1889? After conducting a search for McSweeney and alternate spellings between 1887-1890 for births and deaths, I did not find any likely candidates.

Perhaps the newly married couple delayed starting a family or suffered a period of infertility. They may also have conceived without difficulty but suffered a miscarriage or stillbirth or two. A search of St. Joseph Cemetery from 1887-July 1890 did not find any such burials.