Are These the Same People?

[Wexflyer]

In 1879, Thomas Stirling marries Mary Stanford in Kilrane, Co Wexford.
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/marriage_returns/marriages_1879/11069/8050347.pdf

Unfortunately, this marriage is not in the parish register, which has entries for both parents names.

This is followed in 1880 by the birth of a daughter, Mary, mother Mary Stanford, and address is the same as in 1879 - Ballygeary.
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/birth_returns/births_1880/02882/2056231.pdf
Tagoat parish register also gives same names for both parents.
https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000634093?locale=en#page/18/mode/1up


But then in 1884, Margaret is born to a Thomas and Mary Stirling in Wexford, but mother's surname is now Doyle. Thomas has the same occupation as the Thomas in Ballygeary.
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/birth_returns/births_1884/02699/1994185.pdf

Wexford parish baptismal register also gives the mother's surname as Doyle, so not a simple misprint.
Same, or different couple?

Note, Ballygeary was adjacent to end of Wexford and Rosslare railway.

[Sinann]

I had a similar case, it might give ideas for more research on this family.
When the parents married, his surname was A but all the children were baptised surname B.
Three of the daughters married using surname B, one had her first child in their home parish where B was her maiden name on the birth certificate, but when she and her sisters moved they all changed to surname A on the children’s birth certs.
When one of the three girls died her mother was the informant and used surname A.
The only reason I could see for all this name changing was a second family with surname A in the same small townland, but that isn’t unusual, so who knows.

I see there is a Doyle as witness on the marriage cert and a Doyle informant on Margaret’s birth, they might be worth investigating if possible.

[Wexflyer]

I see there is a Doyle as witness on the marriage cert and a Doyle informant on Margaret’s birth, they might be worth investigating if possible.

I am afraid that Doyle is far too ubiquitous a name in Wexford to allow any tracing.

I noticed the discrepancy on an Ancestry tree. At first I thought they were simply sloppy, but then when I looked it turned out to be real.

[shanreagh]

Just pondering...also noting the ubiquity of the name Doyle in Wexford.

On the marriage certificate the ceremony was carried out by James Doyle.  He does not appear anywhere else on the page of marriages. Often it was a great point of family pride for a son of the family to carry out family ceremonies such as marriages.  He may have travelled from somewhere else especially to do this.  A witness to the marriage is a Lawrence Doyle.  So despite the undoubted ubiquity we may have some Doyles who are possibly closer to this couple than other Doyles in Wexford.

Then on the birth certificates we have Thomas Stirling registering Mary Ann Stirling born 17/2/1880 with the mother's maiden name being given as Standford

Then on the birth certificate of Margaret Stirling born 14/2/1884 we have a Margaret Doyle registering her possible namesake but with no relationship to the mother given. This certificate has the name Doyle given as the mother's maiden name.

So we have four Doyles possibly connected to this family:
James Doyle the priest who took the marriage ceremony
Lawrence Doyle a witness at the wedding
Margaret Doyle the birth registrant of the child Margaret
Mary Standford/Stanford possibly Doyle later Stirling the wife/mother

I know some families if a wife went to register something legal they may use their maiden name, not as slavishly as they may have in Scotland, so could Margaret have thought the prompting about maiden name meant her, Margaret's, maiden name and not that of her daughter? 

Were there any other births to this couple registered between Feb 1880 and Feb 1884?

[shanreagh]

On the marriage certificate in 1879 the bride's father is a John Stanford, living and a labourer.
There is a death certificate dated 20/3/1898 for a John Stanford/Doyle  The certificate states it is for 'John Doyle commonly called John Stanford from Green Street Wexford'

https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/deaths_returns/deaths_1898/05837/4653354.pdf.

So the Stanford/Doyle 'duality' may go further back than a possible maiden name for mother of Mary Stanford later Stirling perhaps coming down her paternal side.

[Wexflyer]

On the marriage certificate in 1879 the bride's father is a John Stanford, living and a labourer.
There is a death certificate dated 20/3/1898 for a John Stanford/Doyle  The certificate states it is for 'John Doyle commonly called John Stanford from Green Street Wexford'

https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/deaths_returns/deaths_1898/05837/4653354.pdf.

So the Stanford/Doyle 'duality' may go further back than a possible maiden name for mother of Mary Stanford later Stirling perhaps coming down her paternal side.

Congratulations, you have cracked the case!
My interpretation is that John was the illegitimate son of a woman named Doyle, and a father named Stanford. Hence the Doyle/Stanford duality, a duality that was seemingly passed down to his daughter.

I did look to check Stanford deaths myself, but gave up when IrishGenealogy said there were over 1,300 Stanford deaths in Co. Wexford (over all years). However, this is mainly due to IrishGenealogy returning Stafford deaths along with Stanford.  Selecting exact name matches only, reduces this to a more managable 33 Stanford deaths, acoss all years.

I am a distant DNA match to a person on Ancestry who has this family in their tree. At first glance I thought the name change was simply one of the all too common sloppy errors that one comes across on Ancestry. Proved to be a wrong assumption in this case!

[shanreagh]

Wexflyer do you need any more information either on the Doyle/Stanford families and/or any of the Doyles I gathered up from various records and who may be connected/related?  Happy to try to help further if need be. 

'James Doyle the priest who took the marriage ceremony
Lawrence Doyle a witness at the wedding
Margaret Doyle the birth registrant of the child Margaret
Mary Standford/Stanford possibly Doyle later Stirling the wife/mother'

[Wexflyer]

Wexflyer do you need any more information either on the Doyle/Stanford families and/or any of the Doyles I gathered up from various records and who may be connected/related?  Happy to try to help further if need be. 

'James Doyle the priest who took the marriage ceremony
Lawrence Doyle a witness at the wedding
Margaret Doyle the birth registrant of the child Margaret
Mary Standford/Stanford possibly Doyle later Stirling the wife/mother'

Thank you for the kind offer. While I have a distant DNA link to a person with this family in their Ancestry tree, I don't think this family is how we are related. DNA links to US or Australian families can be straightforward to work with, as there is often only one Irish or Wexford family in their family tree, so where a link lies can be obvious. In this case, however, the link is to a Wexford family, so (too) many possibilities! It looks though, from shared matches, and locations, that my link to this person lies somewhere amongst several families from the vicinity of Ferns. So, no need to pursue this family in detail. I mainly posted about this as it is a somewhat unusual case!

Rev. James Doyle was the CC (curate) in the parish of Tagoat from July 1878, and Tagoat included Kilrane. So nothing special about him conducting the marriage service.

[Wexflyer]

As an aside, Tagoat parish church was designed by the celebrated architect, Pugin.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/15704816/saint-marys-catholic-church-grahormack-tagoat-wexford