Patrick McDonald

[Maiden Stone]

Kiltaglassan reply #18. I did a post on Edward Blewitt either after the  presidential election November or inauguration January. As a family historian with Mayo ancestry, I'm grateful to Edward Blewitt for his work.

Maiden Stone, is this the one you are referring to?   Reply #16
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=844685.msg7121209#msg7121209

That post was sometime after the one I was thinking about which was specifically about Edward Blewitt. I think the first thread was closed because it became political.
Some of the content in the post you linked is relevant to spelling variants. I referenced the report on name variants by the Registrar General of Ireland in 1901.

[heywood]

By the way, visited Mayo many times and stayed in lovely hotels.
The coastal scenery is breath-taking..

It certainly is KG. I have Blewitts somewhere in a distant DNA connection.

I am wondering if I got that birth wrong. The family certainly looks right in 1861.

1881
Aiskew, Yorks
Sarah MacDonald widow Lodging House Keeper b Ireland
Flora  -do- Granddr 5 yrs b Yorks, Bradford

1891
Scruton, Yorks
Sarah MacDonald 67 yrs b Ireland
Florance Mary -do- granddaur  13 yrs b London

I had seen an earlier marriage which I thought might fit with a birth I had seen but as you can see the details differ so not sure where/when Florence was born.

[Maiden Stone]

Is that not the family then in 1861?
Patrick enlisted in York.

They seem likely candidates.
Their location Kirkby Fleetham was the same place where Joseph married Mary Jane Tweedy in 1880.

 1881 census Kirkby Fleetham, Yorkshire, Registration district Bedale
Joseph McDonald       head 38 born Ireland
Mary Jane McDonald  wife   18
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27B-GJJQ

This looks like Joseph with his parents on 1871 census.
Fencote, Yorkshire
Great Kirkby Fleetham. Sub-district Bedale.
Walter Macdonald   head   58   born Ireland,  bricklayer's labourer
Sarah MacDonald   wife    51   born Ireland
Joseph Macdonald  son    28    born Ireland  agricultural labourer
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBZ8-299
 

[groat]

This certainly looks a distinct possibility. I'm afraid it had never previously occurred to me that Patrick hadn't come straight from his family in Ireland to enlist in the British army - stupid of me I know, but none of my family records or memories have suggested otherwise. I'm just surprised that none of my family ever mentioned that Patrick had relatives living in England, and that my grandfather's generation (Patrick's children) left no record of having cousins in Yorkshire. I'll go back to family papers with that in mind and see if I can find anything. Thank you everybody for all your help.

[heywood]

Just wondering who Florence belongs to. I saw that birth with mmn Dicker and then a possible marriage in 1865 but that is unlikely now, I think.

[Maiden Stone]

Just wondering who Florence belongs to. I saw that birth with mmn Dicker and then a possible marriage in 1865 but that is unlikely now, I think.

I think Grandma Sarah was a different woman to the wife of Walter on 1861 census in which case Florence is a red herring. That's assuming I'm correct the Walter & Sarah with sons Patrick, Edward & John on 1861 census was the same Walter & Sarah couple with son Joseph on 1871 census. 20thC population of the village of Kirkby Fleetham is around 500. 

Amendment. Ignore my comment that Sarah, grandma of Florence was a different woman to Walter's wife. I had no evidence for that statement. See later posts for Walter's death + possible deaths of sons.   

[Maiden Stone]

This certainly looks a distinct possibility. I'm afraid it had never previously occurred to me that Patrick hadn't come straight from his family in Ireland to enlist in the British army - stupid of me I know, but none of my family records or memories have suggested otherwise. I'm just surprised that none of my family ever mentioned that Patrick had relatives living in England, and that my grandfather's generation (Patrick's children) left no record of having cousins in Yorkshire. I'll go back to family papers with that in mind and see if I can find anything. Thank you everybody for all your help.

If Patrick had been in Ireland when he decided to join the army he would have enlisted there.
Emigration continued to be high after the worst of the famine years. There was construction work for Irish labourers in England as well as work on farms and in factories.   

[Maiden Stone]

Death registration of Walter McDonald in Bedale district 1878. 

[heywood]

I think Grandma Sarah was a different woman to the wife of Walter on 1861 census in which case Florence is a red herring. That's assuming I'm correct the Walter & Sarah with sons Patrick, Edward & John on 1861 census was the same Walter & Sarah couple with son Joseph on 1871 census. 20thC population of the village of Kirkby Fleetham is around 500.

Do you think so? That’s disappointing.

Deaths
Edward 30 yrs 1878
Walter 70 yrs 1878
James 43 yrs 1891
Sarah 84 yrs 1907