HI,
I am researching my husband's family tree in Ireland, and unusually, we live in Ireland and nobody in the family left until the 1950s.
We have a family mystery and I'm stuck as to where to go next. My husband's grandfather was illegitimate and brought up by a different family. All sorts of stories were spread about who his mother was, where she went, who his father was, but living here and knowing lie of the land, I thought most of these stories were up in the air.
Finally, I found the great grandmother, Mary French, in South Dublin Workhouse.
She entered the workhouse in 1901; single, of no fixed abode, a servant. She was there until 1903 when she left, with a baby, who was a few days old. We couldn't work out how she got out with a baby. If she couldn't afford to live on her own, how could she be allowed to leave and support a baby? She was there over 2 years.
We were unable to read all the details on the record sheet but with a bit of help from Roscommon genealogy centre, we deciphered it.
In her workhouse record, there is a code, and then it says £11.00 paid for baby.
She left with the baby as on the baby's records it says 'discharged with mother'.
We know where the baby was from the age of 7, where he is recorded with the family who brought him up, the Wests.
We know Mary got pregnant whilst in the workhouse: we know she left unmarried still, and we are amazed that she received money from the workhouse at a time when it was very common for babies to be taken off single mothers. It would have been easy to make this issue 'disappear'.
There are records of women getting pregnant and members of staff being sacked for doing the deed so to speak but I can't find any details about Mary.
The baby grew up and married, and it says on his church record that his father was a Thomas French, a soldier. We know this isn't true. Because of the stigma around illegitimacy, his wife, my husband's grandmother, told different family members different stories about her husband's parentage. He himself would never talk about it but we think he knew exactly how he came into the world because he would get quite angry and refused blank to talk about it.
So, is there anyway to access workhouse records from the board? I know they used to record everything each day but these records aren't available online. Can anyone help me in regards to finding these?
And, does anyone have any ideas regarding how to find out what happened to this baby before he went to his new family. There was no adoption (not legal at this time anyway, not formally) and in the 1911 census records, poor little Thomas is recorded as a 'scholar' and still has his birth surname, French.
The early 1900s (and later if we are honest) were a terrible time for single mothers. To be paid and allowed to leave a workhouse with a baby conceived whilst in there has us all flummoxed!
Thank you xxxxxx
