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Thanks a lot for all this. It makes more sense now!

Thanks for the comments — as you said, Edmund Salmon who died in April 1851 was listed in the 1851 census as a "superannuated excise officer".

He had a son Edmund Salmon (1794-1867). Definitely a separate person. I thought it might be possible to have children named both Edward and Edmund, although it seems a bit odd.

Thanks! I actually worked it out after looking at the Irish Deeds Index. It's:

https://www.townlands.ie/tyrone/dungannon-upper/kildress/oritor/mackenny/

Hi, just thought I would update this, and see if anyone can add information.

I tried PRONI and they had no relevant baptism information.

However, using a mix of DNA tests and reference to newspapers, I am hypothesising that Mary Ann White's father was William James Birkby or Burby, born about 1870, who was the son of John Birkby and Nancy Dempsey. He lived in Carclinty townland, next to Killydonnelly. There is a newspaper article mentioning an "assault" by William James Birkby on Lizzie White of Killydonnelly, so the two people definitely had some kind of contact. This would be consistent with the DNA evidence, which demonstrates a link to Thomas Birkby (1801-1875, died in Toome, Antrim, and a local schoolmaster) and Mary Noble (born about 1805). John Birkby (born about 1839) was their son.

I'm putting this online just for other people's information and also because it's hard to find information about the Birkby family in Antrim. The family name has been spelt in many different ways: Birkby, Birkbey, Burby, Burpee, Brigby to name a few. If anyone has more information about Thomas Birkby and Mary Noble I'd be interested to know.

Thanks!

Thanks for all these replies! There are many potential explanations but I would guess that an error is the most likely.

There's no record of a female child dying around that time and the birth certificate is consistent with his stated age at other times. A mistaken gender or intersex is also possible, although given the time (Australia in the 1870s) I'm not sure if there would have been reconstructive surgery advanced enough to allow him to father children. DNA tests indicate that he really was the parent (the children weren't adopted).

I guess it's also possible that his parents decided to raise a boy as a girl for whatever reason, but there's no other evidence for that. There's no correction on the birth certificate but perhaps no-one in his family ever looked at it while he was alive.