Michael Walsh And Mystery Of The Census Returns

[hallmark]

this search doesn't show him

[Maiden Stone]

I had wondered that about the children but thought it was odd she had the two youngest and not the others. There was never any talk of William leaving the country except as a married man going to England for work and we have his travel permit. He was a good one for stories so it would be odd not to mention it if he was abroad as a child.

I was thinking they might have been visiting relatives. Remember that a census is only a 'snapshot' of who was in the house on that particular night. What date was 1911 census in Ireland? Was it school holidays? One of my child relatives was in Ireland with her grandfather at 1901 census when her mother was in England. The child's GF couldn't read or write and whoever filled in census form wrote a short, phonetic version of her first name and a phonetic version of her surname, which began with a different letter. In addition, the transcription had her GF's age wrong by several decades.

[Miriam_90]

William Walsh 8 yrs +/- 5yrs b County Cork x tick ‘show all information’ to see the ones who are not shown as ‘son’.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01nri/

There is one W W 8yrs in the Workhouse.

There's so little information there I wouldn't be happy saying he is or isn't my William Walsh. Drives me mad when they only used initials on these forms. I might try to dig up workhouse records tomorrow to confirm it one way or the other

[heywood]

I am not saying he is your William. Why would he be in the Workhouse?

I was just trying to show you possibilities and sympathising re the difficulties.
Where did the family live after Michael left the army?

[hallmark]

Why do people always think of gloom and doom when they see "workhouse" especially in late 1800's. early 1900's...


it was probably a hospital by 1901...

[Miriam_90]

While I know it could have been a hospital I also know the Cork city workhouse operated well into the early 1920s, which is a horrible thought.

From what I can tell they stayed in Clonmel after he left the army. After partition his regiment was disbanded with the others around July 1922. He then enlisted as a volunteer with the Free State Army and was posted to the 25th Infantry. At the time he gave his address as 20 Quin's Lane.

When William married in May 1928 he gives his father as Michael Walsh, carpenter living in Clonmel.

As there is such a gap between James and William I imagine there was another child there, possibly born while Michael was posted abroad. Does anybody know how those births would have been registered? A barracks is usually considered the land of the occupying army so I assume they would have kept their own records and not just registered the birth locally?

[heywood]

Is it the correct William and Michael?

Have you got any other children’s marriages?

I am just wondering re the Carpenter occupation.

If there is a chance that Michael was posted to India, Family Search shows these baptisms.

Michael Thomas 1899 - parents Michael and Margaret
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGWL-HLL

Thomas Francis 1902 - parents Michael and Marguerite
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGQ9-NXJ

There is nothing to indicate that these are your family though.

[Miriam_90]

The parish record for William gives his parents as Michael Walsh and Margaret Carey living in Clonmel so I'm happy I have the correct family. Family anecdotes have Williams wife teasing him that he was either from Cork or Clonmel depending on how GAA was going as he was born in Cork and grew up mostly in Clonmel.

I haven't found any marriages for the other children yet.

As I don't know if Michael was 1st or 2nd Battalion I don't know if he was stationed in South Africa or Malta and India. His enlistment papers are proving difficult to find due to that record set being damaged.

I've tried to use the overseas birth search on ancestry but nothing matches. It's possible those records are connected to the family but I'd need to see the images and hopefully they'd have more info.

[Miriam_90]

Having compared Michael's children's births with the movements of the 1st and 2nd Bns I believe he was with the 2nd Bn which puts him in India for most of his service.

I'm still trying to find proof of Margaret being with him. I'll be looking to pay and muster records over the next few days. I'm planning a trip to the Dublin LDS centre to view the images of those two little boys born in Mhow. I'll decide from there if they are part of the family. This would bring the children up to 7 altogether as per the 1911 census for Margaret. Sadly this also means either James, Michael Thomas, Thomas Francis (if they are related) or Margaret Christina has to have died before 1911.