"This is where I run into problems, I just can't find a fit. James and Mary had several children, including a Mary in 1860, but their daughter Catherine died in Brooklyn, New York in 1941 and Mary married a Peter Hickey and had children by him at the time Lawrence was born. Are you saying that Mary died in the workhouse? I wasn't aware of that".
The 1911 census seems to confuse things a little>
1911 Census: 28 John St. Ardee
Englishby Catherine 66 (Older than the death record the following year)
McCay Larance 21Nephew
1911 Census: 31 John St. Ardee
Englishby Margaret 80 Boarder (I thought she died in 1910)?
Mary, widow of James is in Meath in 1911, her son Patrick and his family are present.
Colin
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If there's a Margaret Englishby living there aged 80 in 1911, she could be their mother maybe? She'd certainly be old enough.