MARY AGNES FITZMAURICE and MEADE FAMILY

[shimitras]

I am tearing my hair out trying to locate my Great Great Grandmother Mary Agnes Fitzmaurice - her maiden name. She was born between 1830 and 1840 in County Clare Ireland - according to her death certificate. Her death certificate also states her father was Henry James Fitzmaurice - Army Office and her mother was Mary Kathleen Meade. Mary Kathleen Meade had a brother of note Major Roche Meade. Mary Agnes had her first child in Australia in 1956. I cannot find any record of her coming to Australia. Her death certificate stated she had been in the colonies for 77 years. She died in 1920 allegedly at the age of 90 which means she would have come to Australia at the age of 13 years. Her death certificate says she was born in 1830.  Can anyone shed any light of the Meade and Fitzmaurice families or where I might find some information that is still about on Mary Agnes. Cheers Helen

[shanew147]

Mary's birth is well before the start of Full Civil records in Ireland (1864), so you would need to check what parish records might be  available. To do this you would need to know the family religion and where in Co. Clare your Fitzmaurice and Meade families lived - i.e. parish or townland.

see :

 Introduction to Irish Records

 My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?   


Shane

[Sandymc47]

Hi Helen

You say that Mary Agnes must have arrived in Australia when she was 13.  Have you found her parents there at that time?  I cannot imagine her coming all that way by herself.
Maybe if you can find out what regiment Henry was in there may be some facts
about where they were stationed at that time. When Mary was a teenager there was the Irish Potato famine so alot of families moved and migrated to the USA.
I did find on the US 1850 census a Mary Agnes Fitzmaurice aged 18 born in Ireland but living with a large Irish family of John Tenney aged 49. They were in Methuen, Essex, Mass.   She could have then gone to Australia from there but you say that she was in the Colonies for 77years.  This could also have inferred to the USA especially around Massuchusetts as they were the original colonies???  Maybe if you are looking for ships from Ireland it might have come from the USA? Just a thought. 

regards Sandymc

[shimitras]

Thanks for the tips Sandy. What information I do have for Mary Agnes Fitzmaurice (her death certificate) and information on the birth certificate of her first daughter is all contradictory. The dates don't add up and information on her first daughter's birth certificate make reference to a marriage in England on 6 January 1853 to a Robert Grant at the age of 18 (he was 30 years) , yet her death certificate states she was 90 years when she died in 1920 and she had been in the colonies (NSW it says) for 77 years which makes her only 13 when she came here. The NSW death cert also states her first marriage(?) of which there is no record, occurred when she was 16 years of age  to a Robert Grant in Sydney NSW. The birth of her first daughter. Robina Mary Josephine Grant, occurred in 1856. So if she arrived her at the age of 13 in 1843 and married (?) at the age of 16 (1846), it was ten years before she had her first child!  Strange wouldn't you say. Her next daughter (my Great Great Grandmother Selina Mary Violet Grant) was born in 1861 another five years after her first daughter. In 1862 she remarried when my GGG Mother was nine months old). She went on to have two more daughters to her second husband  Mark Powell one in 1864 - and get this name - Allordinda Carlinda Carlotta  and the last daughter Lucille Eugenie Florence, was born 1870 six years after her sister. This would have made 40 years of age when she had Lucille. She had a little boy too Charles William Powell but he died in 1863 not long after he was born. Now while all of this does not make sense, it does give you an incite into this woman. I think she was hiding something. When her daughter Selina Mary Violet married, there was a marriage notice which read like royalty. Links to Fitzmaurices, and Dukes and Marquis of Lansdowne. Mary Agnes' mother Mary Kathleen Meade did have a brother Major Roche Meadeand this was included in the marriage notice. So what do you make of all that. Something is being hidden and the daughters' names - three each!!

[Sandymc47]

Hi Helen

I would love to be a detective laugh.

I googled the Family Fitzmaurice and it tells you all about the origin of the name etc.  It then goes on about the potato famine which I mentioned before and that alot of Irish people left Ireland.

Famous people to emigrate and there is one you might recognise

Henry Fitzmaurice arrived in Adelaide aboard the ship Andromarche in 1850

This could be your man and that would mean that Mary would have come
with him I am sure.  That means she could have been married in 1856 in
Australia.  I cant find a marriage in England or Ireland at that time,
but she would have still been underage as 21 was the full age. If she didnt get permission from her parents maybe thats what the secret is unless she lied on the marriage certificate which wasnt unusual.

So maybe a search for you there Helen, look for the ship and its list of passengers to make sure it is your Henry.   Look also at the Fitzmaurice
name.  You are decended from Normans who went to Ireland.  Unlike myself
from Vikings who went to Yorkshire lol,.

Take care and hope this resolves some of the problems.
Oh and Yes they are some names.  She might have been drunk when
she did the three rhyming ones, they are cute.

regards Sandymc   

[shimitras]

Hi there SandyMc

Thanks for this tips. I found the passenger list for the Andromache and yes Henry Fitzmaurice was on board. But this will rock your socks. He was listed as only being with 2 children (no names of the children) and no wife. Other passengers travelling as family had husband's name, then 'wife and children' after their name. How strange is this. The other challenge is that the Andromache went to Adelaide and then onto Port Phillip - or Sydney as it is now known and I have no idea whether he disembarked in Adelaide or went onto Sydney. If Mary Agnes Fitzmaurice is one of the two children, it is probably that they went onto Sydney as that is where the birth of her children is registered - well some of them anyway. I am waiting for a cousin to come good with some papers that may provide some clues on this line of my family.  I will keep searching and investigating.  If you think of anything else that may help, I would love to hear from you. My husband and I spent the whole of April this year in England and went to Yorkminister for the day. What a stunning place that is!!! Cheers for now. Helen