Advice dealing with a dead-end - Looking for birth of maternal grandmother

[shauniibd]

I am a relatively new and passionate researcher of my family tree, and have been working on my Irish lines, with surprising success. I have now encountered a problem - I was given anecdotal info of my great-great maternal grandparents family (BOYLAN of Clontarf, Dublin) by my own grandmother, which I was mostly able to evidence with BMD records, and the 1911 census.

However, having found well documented birth records of her sisters (Annie Boylan b. 1906, Margaret "madge" Christina Boylan b. 1908, Mary Catherine Boylan b. 1909 and Eileen Boylan b. 1910), I cannot find any record of my grandmother's birth - who I knew to be Jean Boylan b. 1928. This name is used on her marriage cert.

As you can see, she was born 18 years after her youngest sister, and though not impossible, this info, plus talk in my family of a secret, I am wondering whether Jean Boylan was not born into this family, and was maybe adopted.

Herein lies my problem. I am at a total loss where to go next - how to investigate a possible adoption/orphan in 1928 (before compulsory adoption records) with only the name "Jean" and a full D.O.B.
Does anyone have any advice at all on tracing a birth record with such little info, or what I can do next? I would like to be able to give my grandmother the answers to questions she has always wanted to ask, but never did.

Thank you!

[trystan]

Hi Shaun,

Welcome to RootsChat - and great that you have found us.

We have a policy on RootsChat to not give the names of living people, so the replies that you get may be in general terms if there is a risk that there could be living people involved.

They can also contact you by Personal Message too. This is enabled once you've made a few posts.

So a big welcome again,
Trystan

[brigidmac]

Welcome to rootschat.. I think the first thing to check is whether she could be birth child of an elder sister or other relative .
From the way you worded it i assumed Jean B is deceased
If you give full birth date there are people here who are good at finding births
In searches if it's a single mother only one  surname is shown .
Also was she likely to have been baptized ..? In which case a church record may hold more details.
Have any of her descendants done DNA tests?

[aghadowey]

Welcome to Rootschat 

You've likely used Irish Genealogy site to view births of your grandmother's sibling (born 1906-1910) but births less than 100 years old will not be shown on that site.
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/civil-records/help/what-civil-records-are-on-line

In 1911 mother Margaret Boylan is listed as age 30 so possible to have a child born 1928. It also says she was born in Co wicklow- perhaps your grandmother was born there?
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Mountjoy/St__James_s_Avenue/13570/

Eileen's birth (1910) shows mother's maiden name as Henderson-
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1911/01540/1623752.pdf

[heywood]

This is a death for Patrick Boylan, 14 St James Avenue which would link to the 1911 census if I have the right family.
He died July 1927.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1927/04972/4354215.pdf

[shauniibd]

Wow, thank you all so much for such speedy replies, and thanks for the lovely welcome!

Yes, Jean B (my great grandmother - may have misworded in my original post) is deceased - died 25/11/2002 in England. My initial thoughts were that she was perhaps the child of a sibling/relative, and then raised by Patrick Joseph Boylan and Margaret Emily (née Henderson). I looked into the sisters (as listed) but found nothing from that search.

I wasn't sure whether it was common practice to post full DOBs here - so didn't include it initially, but would be fantastic if anyone could help with that info - Jean B's DOB is 25/8/1928, to our knowledge.

I think it is likely she was baptised - she was religious throughout her life (RC) but then again, I wasn't sure whether any possibly 'difficult' context of her birth would have affected/prevented this without her knowing - I am currently trying to find out whether any family members know for certain that she had a baptism cert.

That's such a great point!! I have been mostly using Irish Genealogy in my search. Does anyone know of alternative resource bases for births post 1920, in Ireland?

And yes, the Boylan family in question lived at 14 St James Ave. for many years (you got there far quicker than I did!  )  I hadn't managed to find record of Patrick B's, so thank you so much! His occupation also correlates to everything else I have found - listed as a clerk/shop assistant many times.

Family tree searching is a rollercoaster of progress isn't it! So grateful for you all!

[heywood]

Birth indexes to 1958 are here https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

Do you kniw who raised her in Ireland?
Does she give a father’s name on her marriage?
Was she the only family member to emigrate to England?

As Patrick died July 1927, he couldn’t be Jean’s father but Margaret would be young enough and also her daughters.

[shauniibd]

My grandmother told me about her mother's 'parents' - Patrick and Margaret Boylan, so I assumed they raised her - that is until we just discovered that Patrick died the year before Jean's birth. My grandmother said that she met/knew Margaret in her childhood and remembers her passing away (which I found record of: 6/10/1956), and described Patrick as her grandfather but that 'he had died before she was born'.

I have only been able to view the marriage index on Family Search, which only shows month & year, so I don't know who her father was recorded as on the cert. This is the marriage of Jean Boylan and Colm (Columbus) Gaynor, July 1946, N. Dublin.

I am fairly certain she was the only family member to emigrate (I have personal/anecdotal evidence that the other Boylan sisters lived and died in Dublin). One of the sisters - Mary Catherine Boylan - was unknown by my grandmother, and so she may have continued to live and emigrate, but I suspect she may have died as a child but haven't been able to evidence this...unless she is part of this story, and became estranged for one reason or another...

I've just searched the index you suggested for any "Jean"s born in 1928, and found nothing useful - I thought perhaps if Margaret went on to have another child after her husband's death/one of the sisters had had her, that it would have flagged something up.

[aghadowey]

Jane is the more common form of the name in Ireland than Jean or perhaps her birth was registered originally with another Christian name or even without a name having been chosen.