Just home from work, poured an Irish whiskey milkshake and read your wonderful comments. You have no idea how precious your generous interest is in helping our family try again to trace past our grandmother. We grandchildren of Margaret have created all sorts of potential scenarios for Margaret’s children listing “Mother Unknown” on Margaret’s death certificate, such as, being an orphan, living in a workhouse, or even being born illegitimate. Recently I thought maybe Michael was a brother of Nicholas and assumed fatherhood of Margaret after he died (stretching reality).
My sister applied for a birth certificate from Health Services Ireland and called them after they could find nothing in our parameters of Nicholas Fox as a father and her birth date. I even thought of just requesting how many Margaret’s were b. on April 19, 1893, but the year is still in flux. The thing is if we don’t use Nicholas as a parameter and don’t know her mother’s name any birth certificate of a Margaret Fox is meaningless, because we won't know if it is her. This is why I was so intrigued to find the Margaret Mary Fox b. April 19, 1890.
We are fortunate to have been able to trace our grandfather Keith Stewart’s lineage, Margaret’s husband’s, as he is in Burke’s & Debrette’s Peerages as a Galloway descendant. The peerages reported Nicholas Fox as Margaret’s father; unfortunately the peerages did not report the name of Margaret’s mother.
We had never heard of Nicholas being a Master Mariner until we got their Liverpool marriage license. As cousins, our collective parents never told us if they had any aunts or uncles. One cousin had heard of a link to the Boer War, but thought it was a Stewart not a Fox. I could find no Fox listed in the Boer War or find any Fox under Lloyd’s register. Maybe he was just a ferry worker or it was a nice occupation to offer up when marrying a Stewart??
An odd thing I did not mention was on Margaret’s Canadian genealogical death certificate, which includes details of family and medical condition, was an typewriter entry, after the original (in different typeface), a 2nd name of Thelisa. We had never heard this and just thought it an anomaly. I called records and they said they photocopied was there more than half a century ago. I have searched Thelisa, including the name alone, and found nothing to indicate this was her second name. We also do not know if she was Catholic, but just assumed so.
My next steps are:
. Next week when I get my first day off work, Monday, I will order the birth certificate of Margaret Mary Fox April 19. I wonder if this will have Michael’s occupation.
. Look at Glasnevin (which I had never heard before)
. And follow up on 2 Margaret Fox listed on Ancestry b. in 1893 Balrothery; however one is listed as 1st q. and one 4th q.
Thank you, thank you again.
Hugs to all,
Alleson
