How Accurate are church records?

[aghadowey]

Thanks, Sonas, I'm also convinced the name is John not William 

[loudam]

We all had John as the name too until I went to the church 2 weeks ago and the woman in the office, said no it's william not john because the priest was william!! But as I can see from the link we're now back to John Finn!!!

Edited to change the NOT to NOW!!!

[mmcpadden1947]

It is possible that John Finn,was your great grandmothers husband.
Even though he was not the childs father I understand in those days it is he who would be named as father.

Since your ggrandmother was having a child who was not her husbands she may have gone to a home for unmarried mothers.
In many cases this was the County Home & the child would be fostered out to someone,who received a payment from the County Council.
It may very well have been situated in Gloutane  or nearby as babies were baptised shortly after birth,by the local priest.

Since you have the date of Baptism & the other details it should be possible to get a Birth Cert.
Where have you tried.

[loudam]

Our understanding of the story as we've been told is that John Finn was the father of my GM but not married to my GGM, but we also know that unless you see something in writing keep looking outside the box!

My Aunt has went to the Births, Marriages, and Deaths office in cork and has asked via an application to the GRO...

I'm going to try the GRO again, anyway..

In regards to a mother and baby home, Bessboro and the Good Shepard Convent would the 2 that would be cork possibilities, but I've been led to believe that if she had been born in any of these she would also have been baptised there or in the local church to them.... and glounthaune wouldn't have been local to either of these places..

We're still trying to find out where and for how long she went to school as theres a record in the local school to where she grew up and my GM also mentioned to my aunt that she went to school in a school in Cork City, St Patricks, and we're assuming it's St Patricks infant school.... bit out of the way from where she grew up, but my father had the story that she lived in an orphange at some point too, but again we can't find any "proof" of this, I've many threads on the go about my GM and her life so I apologise if I'm leaving out info that I may think I've already posted!!

[heywood]

Hi again,

as you mentioned 'adoption' procedures were loose, a couple of things I thought about.
Is there any contact or anyone alive from the adoptive family who may be able to shed some light on the matter?
Have you checked out the family to see if there is any possibility that the your grandmother's mother could be a family member. (I am thinking that grandmother may be illegitimate and a family member raised her).

heywood

[loudam]

Theres one woman who would have been like a sister to my GM whos still alive but she's not in her right mind anymore unfortunately....

Both myself and my aunt think given the times the usually the most likely situation is that she was belonged to the people who brought her up in particular the woman my GM spent most of her time with not the woman who's name is on the birth record but her niece, who was living with them at the time, if there were no parents names, we'd be 100% convinced of this, but I think the biggest hurdle is how truthful was this particular church record, given the year it happened, the lies that went on within the catholic church and of course the state of the country itself it's hard to know if we should take this church record as being 100% accurate that there was indeed a mother and father who were from dublin...

It appears it was a very common thing to happen back then and woman got pregnant out of marriage, some went to mother and baby homes, others were brought by grandparents as their own children, so it wouldn't be at all unusual for this to be the case, but the church record stops this particular reason....

[heywood]

Was she baptised in the same parish where she was raised?
As you say, being mindful of the times and things that went on, wonder if the names were just given to the priest and accepted?
Many of the questions that we would like to be answered can't be - that's the sadness.

[loudam]

Yeah she grew up in the parish she was baptised in, got married there too, but no confirmation record for her whereas there is for other kids that were baptised at the same time, which is another story we're trying to find out about!!

We may eventually just have to accept that we'll never know!!

[heywood]

I don't know much of confirmation practices at that time, but I was confirmed in another town because it was arranged through our school rather than parish based.