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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Dublin => Topic started by: hasta on Wednesday 21 December 11 00:57 GMT (UK)

Title: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: hasta on Wednesday 21 December 11 00:57 GMT (UK)
This is slightly messy so do be warned !

I am looking for Thomas Brophy. Born Dublin City, married in Blackrock, returned to the city with his brood in 1895.
I have his marriage cert which indicates a birth of 1864, and his death cert which indicates a birth of 1866. I'm more comfortable with 1864 as that leaves him old enough to marry when he did. (1886 ) Parents names are Michael Brophy and Anne.

Now, despite endless searching, I can't find a birth of a Thomas Brophy in the right time frame to a Michael Brophy and Anne.

But I do find one for a Michael Brophy and Eliza Heavy/Heasy (1864- St Pauls on RootsIreland)

They have Thomas,  15 June 1864 and a Female on 18 Oct 1866, and then they seem to just disappear.

Then I found records for a Michael Brophy and Anne Fitzpatrick having 2 girls baptised at St Marys Pro. Mary Anne in 1870 and Bridget in 1873.
(this is the correct area I would expect all the members of this side of the family to be living at)
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/d31c980194683
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/52b0e60112581

The reason I am particularly interested in this family (apart from the parents names) is that I later find a very bizarre address coincidence between this Mary Anne Brophy and the Thomas Brophy born 1864-66 that I am searching for.

So my thoughts are that Michael marries Eliza Heavy, has 2 children, my Thomas and an unnamed girl, then Eliza dies sometime around 1866, and by 1870 when Mary Anne Brophy is born he has remarried to Anne Fitzpatrick and goes on to have the 2 girls.
 
Trouble is, I can't find a death record for Eliza Heavy/Brophy. Nor a Marriage for Michael Brophy and Anne Fitzpatrick, and despite the births of the 2 girls, Michael Brophy and Anne Fitzpatrick seem to disappear as well.

I know this may seem a bit far fetched but I have the exact same scenario on the other side of the family and had the census's not recorded it I would never have made the connection.

Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: hasta on Wednesday 21 December 11 01:17 GMT (UK)
P.S I meant to add. Has anyone got any advice on how I can proceed - forward, backward, horizontal I'm open to any ideas. !
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: DudleyWinchurch on Wednesday 21 December 11 08:04 GMT (UK)
A general search at: www.glasnevintrust.ie

shows an Eliza Brophy, age 34, buried at Glasnevin in 1868.

This seems to be the only plausible one there within your time-frame, but it was not a very unusual name as there were a couple of infants of that name buried within a couple of  years around that time.  This included a child of 6 months within the same year.  Both have extended records available (possibbly the same one?).
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: taramcdsmall on Wednesday 21 December 11 20:42 GMT (UK)
Hiya

Just a few theory's LOL !

Are you talking about the Thomas Brophy in Sherrif Street in 1901 ?

If so he was married to Mary Shannon - is that right ?

If so the godmother at Kathleen Brophy's baptism was a Sarah Brophy (a possible sister of Thomas ?)

Anyway I saw this - and maybe Anna was short for Anastasia ? Long shot I know !

SARAH BROPHY 
15 January 1878 
ISLAND BRIDGE 
Father MICHAEL BROPHY 
Mother ANASTATIA FETHERSTONE 

You then mentioned Mary Anne Brophy - The address connection (is she the one living in Sherrif Place ?)

If so she is actually Mary Anne Mc Court / Mc Cartt / Mc Carthy (spelt differently on a few different documents).

She married John Brophy. This John Brophy's father was a Patrick Brophy.

Am not sure if any of this will help or confuse you more - hopefully not the latter !

Tara
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: eadaoin on Wednesday 21 December 11 21:40 GMT (UK)
Eliza Brophy, 34, buried in Glasnevin 1868

the address seems to contain "33" "south" "william" "st" .. (check this for yourself to be sure)

this may help to confirm, (or muddy the waters further! since this is southside)

eadaoin

edit: it looks as if the 2 baby Eliza(beth)s may be from Clarendon Market and Drury Lane
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: hasta on Wednesday 21 December 11 22:52 GMT (UK)
Cheers eadoin - I'm getting a bit desperate here so I bit the bullet and forked out a tenner - You are spot on -

BROPHY ELIZA
Last address:   33 SOUTH WILLIAM ST
Date of death   09 Feb 1868
Age   34   

BROPHY WILLIAM
Last address:   3 COPPINGERS ROW
Date of death   07 Jul 1872
Age   9M

BROPHY WILLIAM
Last address:   41 CLARENDON ST
Date of death   15 Dec 1867
Age   5

BROPHY   ELIZA
Last address:   10 DRURY LANE
Date of death   07 Aug 1868
Age   6M

BROPHY ANASTATIA
Last address:   3 COPPINGERS ROW
Date of death   08 Dec 1870
Age   1M

Without realising it both DudleyWinchurch  and taramcdsmall (cheers) have sent me in the same direction.
Michael Brophy/Anantasia Fetherston.
The record for Willliam (9 M) mentions them as parents  I had previously done some work on them and dropped it mostly because the didn't marry until 1868
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/fc83020441271 so I need to go back on what else I found on them. (I'm a terrible record keeper but I seem to remember about 7 children)
Either 2 of the children (born after July 1868) don't belong to them or they have had illegitimate children. Pity there is no informant for the other 3 children. Maybe I'll call Glasnevin and see if they have anything to add.
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: taramcdsmall on Thursday 22 December 11 11:57 GMT (UK)
Hey Adee101

Do you think Anastasia is the "Anna" that you are looking for as if you look back on irishgenealogy on some of the births of her children with Michael Brophy she refers to herself as Anna.

Also if you look at the birth of the Eliza (that you think is a sister to Thomas) well look at the sponsor

Name ELIZABETH BROPHY 
DOB 1866 
Address 2 CHATHAM MARKET 
Father MICHAEL BROPHY 
Mother ELIZA KEANEY 

Sponsor 1 WILLIAM COFFEY
Sponsor 2 ANASTASIA GETHERSTAN (This was mistranscribed is actually Fetherston)

It looks like Michael had Thomas and Eliza with his first wife. Anastasia was maybe a friend of the family and he married her after his first wife died.

Michael Brophy & Anastasia's marriage is on irishgenealogy in 1868 in St. Andrew's !

Tara

Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: myluck! on Thursday 22 December 11 12:41 GMT (UK)
not sure if you have seen this one but this looks like Mary Anne's marriage especially as a Brigid Brophy is a witness
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0ipd/

There are also two children listed on Irish Genealogy:
William bap 1896 and Michael bap 1897

1901 census - I can't see an obvious family

1911 census they are still on Tyrone St:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/North_Dock/Tyrone_St__Upper/29591/
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: cwood91262 on Friday 30 December 11 21:48 GMT (UK)
Adee, I'm following this thread!  So everyone knows, Adee and I are acquainted with each other through that Brophy/Shannon marriage and she got me involved to drive me crazy on the ancestry of Thomas Brophy!  Anyway, I have to give some serious wondering to that Michael Brophy/Eliza possibility.  It would track quite well, with a very young Thomas losing his mother and his father remarrying, with young Thomas really only knowing an Ann as a mother, so either Anne Featherstone or Anne Fitzpatrick.  I think one thing we need to do is get the marriage of Michael Brophy and Anna Featherstone.  It will tell us if he was a widower or a bachelor at the time of the marriage.  If widower, we keep him in the mix, if a bachelor, we put him on the back burner.  If we could find the Brophy/Fitzpatrick marriage, I'd say the same, get it and see if Michael was a widower. 

Good horizontal thinking, everyone!

Cindy Wood
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: cwood91262 on Friday 30 December 11 22:21 GMT (UK)
BROPHY WILLIAM
Last address:   3 COPPINGERS ROW
Date of death   07 Jul 1872
Age   9M
This is a son of Michael Brophy and Anastasia Fetherstone.

BROPHY   ELIZA
Last address:   10 DRURY LANE
Date of death   07 Aug 1868
Age   6M
Her parents were Patrick Brophy and Eliza Kinsella.

BROPHY ANASTATIA
Last address:   3 COPPINGERS ROW
Date of death   08 Dec 1870
Age   1M
Another child of Michael Brophy and Anastasia Fetherstone.

Adee, the children we found for the Brophy/Festherstone marriage and the address at their birth are:

Mary, 1869, Clarendon Street
Anastasia, 1870, Coppinger's Row
William, 1871 Coppinger's Row
Catherine 1873, Coppingers Row
Michael 1875, in Island Bridge
Sarah, 1878, in Mary's Lane
Elizabeth, 1880 Island Bridge

The more I look at it, the more I like the possibility of Anastasia Fetherstone actually being the stepmother of Thomas.  If nothing else,  we keep circling back to this couple and there has to be a reason for that!   Michael Brophy and Anastasia Fetherstone married on 9 July 1868.  If Eliza was his first wife, he did not wait long to remarry, again, maybe a necessity if he had small children.  Does the burial record of that Eliza Brophy in 1868 reveal any additional information?

Cindy

Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: taramcdsmall on Friday 30 December 11 22:39 GMT (UK)
Hi Cindy,

I think it would be one VERY BIG coincidence if Anna(stasia) wasn't the stepmother of Thomas. She was even the godmother at Thomas's sister's baptism.

It was not strange for a widowed man with young children to get remarried very quickly.

In saying that I think the marriage cert to Anastasia would need to be ordered to put everyone's mind at ease !

Good Luck !

Tara
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: cwood91262 on Friday 30 December 11 23:20 GMT (UK)
Tara, that would be correct, IF we knew that the Michael/Eliza couple were the parents of Thomas.  All we currently have to go on is the church record of the marriage that lists Thomas' parents as Michael and Ann!  It will be a big boost if the marriage cert for Michael and Anastasia showed he was a widower, and in my mind would just about seal the deal.  But I have to agree, right now I am leaning to the scenario that Ann was his stepmother.  I don't believe a big amount in divine intervention in genealogy (despite what my mum said!) but there has to be a reason why Adee and I keep winding back up at the Brophy/Fetherstone couple!

Cindy
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: hasta on Friday 30 December 11 23:32 GMT (UK)
Hi All - and Cindy, I'm laughing my head off. I just switched on the lap top to reply to this now (sorry, have been super busy over Xmas)  and there you are !!  Is there no hiding ? :)

I was 100% positive on Anastasia Featherston after seeing the record that Tara posted on Elizabeth's birth. (Thanks !)
I had never seen that version before, just the FamilySearch version with only Eliza Heavy's name listed - I was pretty gobsmacked by that. (also that William Coffey crops up again as an informant to one of Anastasia's children later)

I was able to put this whole scenario to an older Brophy's over Christmas and he was not fazed at all and claims to clearly remember hearing Anastasia Featherston's name mentioned before.

So, I will of course get certs when the Office opens up again, but all the info fits perfectly. The only disparity I found earlier was the little Eliza in Glasnevin - (6M) seemed to be one Eliza too much. But if she is Patrick Brophy's child then that makes absolutely EVERYTHING fit into place.

As I said, I had completely dumped this line of inquiry, in favour of the Fitzpatrick lady - but could get no further and was hoping for a fresh perspective on it all - and sure enough I got it in spades. !!! So thanks to everyone who spent time looking (I know only to well - the time involved)
I found that Anne FitzP her husband Michael B and daughter Bridget were all deceased by 1910. (Typhoid) but still have an inkling that there may well be some connection there - so will keep them in the loop for now.

I did a little more digging before Xmas and it seems Michael Brophy died in the North Dublin Union Workhouse in 1894 from TB. So, not all happy there either.
 
And Cindy, Re: Eliza d.1868. No - all but one of the Glasnevin Records are single page with very little info.

If the certs do not show that Michael Brophy was a widower, when I get them I will eat my hat !!! I will let you know.
Thanks again everyone and a very Happy New Year.
 :)
@Cindy - I tried to find you some Shannon info over Xmas - but just got a few anecdotes and a couple of possible names in the younger generation - Will mail you.
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: cwood91262 on Saturday 31 December 11 00:11 GMT (UK)
Adee, you actually have my friend Louise in Stepaside to thank!  I'd been talking with her way back in the beginning (before you, even) about the Brophy/Shannon marriage and when we were talking today, she mentioned this whole thread!  Imagine MY surprise when I signed on to Rootschat and discovered it was you!!  It all falls into the small world category as Louise will no doubt tell you!

C
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: hasta on Thursday 12 January 12 22:48 GMT (UK)

If the certs do not show that Michael Brophy was a widower, when I get them I will eat my hat !!! I will let you know.
So, just an update on what happened next !
I got the marriage cert of Michael Brophy and Anastasia Fatherston - which we believe to be his second marriage, but the rogue says he is a Batchelor and not a Widower!!
However by chance I came across this badly transcribed record of the marriage that had a photo of the actual register
http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/e8274d0024277
and I noticed some words on the Observations section in Latin (Vir antea nuptus fuit) - Graham on the Handwriting Board translated it to say ' He has been married before"  So thanks to a nosey priest we have a result.
Thanks everyone. Having earlier completely discounted Anastasia as the second wife I doubt I would have gone back over that ground without your excellent information.
Cheers.
A.
Title: Re: Finding G Grandfather Thomas - need help!
Post by: taramcdsmall on Friday 13 January 12 09:32 GMT (UK)
RESULT !

Well done you Adee on your perseverance when many others would have given up - congrats !

Tara