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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: hsfam on Monday 22 January 18 11:12 GMT (UK)
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Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could figure out the mother's maiden name in the attached snippet from a marriage certificate? Unfortunately, it is a pdf from the Registry and the pdf image was marked "Best Quality Image Damaged Page", so this is as good as its going to get.
The names I have are:
Thos Aherne
Ellen Newman
Jas McGrath
Mary ??????
Also, should know that the bride is from Tipperary in Ireland. (It's her mother's name I'm trying to read).
Any help gratefully received!
Thanks
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Mary Houghan ? Big question mark on that one)
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What date is the marriage you show? Do you know the bride's place and date of birth? Do you have her baptism? Or do you know any of the bride's sibling's names? If you know the parish, and she was Roman Catholic, may be worth browsing the parish registers at https://registers.nli.ie/. The entry will give another stab at mother's maiden name. Or you can estimate date of marriage of her parents & browse the marriages. Or if she was born after 1855, search https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ birth registration and/or marriage of parents.
Houghan as PalulineJ suggests - or Horrigan?
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Monaghan?
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Have darkened...
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Could be Mary O'Donaghue.
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Indeed Carol & Bookbox both possible; have been looking for suitable James McGrath marriages but until we know the approximate date will wait.
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Looks like Monaghan to me
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Not sure yet - 'M' not quite the same as in Mary, but I 'd like to see another 'O' & 'D' in the same hand. All opinions welcome ;D definitely some script missing eg in Ahern & 'N' of Newman. When we have more info from hsfam we can look elsewhere.
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Sorry I didn't reply early. It was late here when I posted.
The marriage is for Maria (Mary) McGrath, an Irish Famine Orphan who was sent to Melbourne Australia on the Pemberton in 1849. The Irish Famine Memorial website has her native place as Roscrea, Tipperary but Mary has put her birthplace down on her marriage certificate as Golden, Tipperary. I believe she came from the workhouse in Roscrea immediately prior to her emigration.
Mary's age on the marriage certificate is 22 making her birth about 1831 though the Irish Famine Memorial has her age as 14 years on arrival in Australia making her birth year about 1835. Just to make it confusing, her employment records (from the same site) says she was 16 not 14, making her birth year about 1833.
Her death certificate has her age as 88 in 1921 making her birth year 1833. Though there are a couple of mistakes on her death certificate - the witness being the undertaker and Mary having died from senile decay and heart failure - perhaps not surprising. For example, her father listed as James McGragh. Interestingly, her mother is listed as Mary Duggan, which looks nothing like what is on her marriage certificate but perhaps sounds something like - throw in an accent and this is how it comes out? And it just says she is born in Tipperary.
The marriage took place on 4 August 1853 in Melbourne to Timothy Aherne.
I don't have any other information about Mary. Certainly nothing about siblings.
I've attached the full clipping for the marriage certificate to compare with other examples of handwriting.
I was thinking that Donaghue was probably the closest but I'm just not sure and can't find anything so far to match a marriage or baptism matching that name. It may just not exist. O'Donaghue or Monaghan are interesting variations which I shall check out.
It's early here and I'm heading off to work so I apologise now as I won't be able to respond to any queries until later tonight.
Thanks, everyone, for your help so far! It is certainly a tough one.