Thomas Steacy 1912 Kilkenny

[Papa Paul]

Thanks guys, good info, but still trying to connect Robert Steacy with Anastasia Kane.

[Sinann]

The only thing I managed to find after all sorts of searches was that Ballymahon Bray is a alternative name for Ballyman townland and house just outside Bray but in Co.Dublin but Anastasia isn’t there in the census but I’ve just found this lady in Carlow but from Kilkenny in the Census search forms and wonder if it could be her.
https://censussearchforms.nationalarchives.ie/reels/c19/007246691/007246691_01500.pdf
https://censussearchforms.nationalarchives.ie/search/cs/details.jsp?id=34260

[Sinann]

No probably this woman, not a widow when she married Kane/Cain
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/marriage_returns/marriages_1874/11255/8127956.pdf

[gaffy]

I think this might be Joseph's sister Sarah in 1901, it's quite a singular name, the birthplace fits, and it was about 10 miles from where Joseph was when he got married in 1898.  If I'm right, she was born around 1871 (I can't readily see a birth for her):
https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tipperary/Newcastle/Clashganny_West/1707447/

Anyhow, now to the main business. In the following bit of speculation, one possibility that has to be considered is that Joseph (and his sister Sarah) might have been the outcome of an extra marital dalliance, see what you think of the following.  Sarah Stacey's address in Joseph's army record was "Seaview, Murrintown, Wexford" which old newspaper references suggest was a farm with several tenants on the land. When I looked at "Murntown" in the 1901 Ireland census, the following folk caught my eye, for no other reason than the wife's forename was Anastasia:
https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Wexford/Rathaspick/Murntown_Lower/1801728/

Long story short, there are several children you can find for this couple on the "irishgenealogy" website with the mother's name given as Anastasia (or Anty or Anita) Kane / Keane / Cane. The earliest I could find was a son Richard in 1865, indicating that the marriage of Thomas and Anastasia may well have taken place before civil registration of non Catholic marriages in 1864 - in any event I couldn't readily see one. The latest child I could see was a son Martin born in 1882, so straddling the time period when Joseph and Sarah Steacey were born.

Just FYI:
- Anastasia senior and junior in 1911;
https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Wexford/Rathaspick/Gorteenminoge__Lower/692973/
- Anastasia's death in 1913;
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/deaths_returns/deaths_1913/05341/4487426.pdf
- the grave headstone;
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2014/318/138785069_1416073032.jpg

Added: With the usual caveat about potential inaccuracy, there are a few trees on the "Ancestry" website for Thomas and Anastasia, they reference a marriage on 3 April 1859 which you can see here in a Carrick-on-Bannow parish register (no mention in the trees about the Steaceys):
https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000634018?locale=en#page/120/mode/1up (left page near bottom)

[gaffy]

Putting aside the "railway clerk" description for Joseph Steacy's father in that 1898 marriage record for a moment, here's another speculative punt to follow up on as a potential father for Joseph.  It's a Robert Bartholomew Stacey who like Joseph was also a Colour Sergeant (15th Regiment), and served time in Tipperary to boot, for he had a son Robert Somers Crawford Stacey there on 28 August 1879, the birth took place at the Military Barracks, the mother was Jessy Jane Shaw:
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/birth_returns/births_1879/02906/2064938.pdf

I can see a marriage record for this couple, the marriage took place on 26 September 1878 at the Parish Church, Fulwood, Lancashire, Robert was 25 and his father was stated as John Thomas Stacey, a farmer, she was 20 and her father was David Shaw, a civil engineer, the address for both was Fulwood Barracks, where he was a sergeant in the 15th Regt.

I suppose the question is, long before he married Jessy, did any of his prior service bring him to Ireland and more speciically into proximity with Anastasia (Kane) Tubbert?  Worth pursuing, if only to eliminate him.

[Papa Paul]

wow !! thanks a lot guys but even more confused now, i will sift through this new info further and see what can be made of it all !!

[Papa Paul]

gaffy, do you think this looks right? the spelling of Steacy is wrong also why would the marriage say Railway worker if he was in the army?

[gaffy]

The spelling variation is very much par for the course in that era, I came across Steacey, Steacy, Stacey and Stacy and I'm comfortable that we're talking about the same surname. The issue about railway clerk could be explained if that was a post discharge job, or even a fabrication or incorrect knowledge / memory (if Joseph's father didn't play a part in his life).

What I do know is this:

- Sarah Steacey's address in Joseph's military record matches that for an Anastasia Kane who was having Tubbert children there in the late 1870s / early 1880s;
- the forename/surname combination of Robert Steacey (and variants) in Ireland is as rare as hens teeth, the 1901 Ireland census has one (out of over 4.4 million people) who can be ruled out on grounds of age, and now this new one has emerged in BMDs (a Colour Sergeant in Tipperary having a son in 1879).

In those circumstances, I think that particular Anastasia Kane and Robert Steacey need to remain on the books for consideration until evidence rules them out.