Help finding information on orphan from Ireland

Question

I have a photo of my husband's grandfather as a child with his parents.  On the back is a handwritten note that his mother was an orphan,  Mary Agnes (Byrnes) Hanrahan - Burns-13359.  The 1910 census states she immigrated in 1879.  She was married 21 Sep 1887 and the 1930 census states she was married at 19, born 1868 or thereabouts.  Which would make her 11 when she immigrated.  I know many children came to the US from Ireland on their own.  Is there a source that would be helpful?  I have not had any luck with the normal channels.  

Her death certificate lists her father as Charles Byrnes, mother unknown.  

Thank you for any help!

Answer 1

Hi Cindy. I've found a Mary Burns born in 1868 with a father named Charles. The birth date is different than the one I see on FS, but those kinds of things can get mixed up for orphans (my Great Grandpa had a similar problem - they thought he was 3 when he was taken in, but he was really 5).

Of course, it's quite possible there are several Mary/Charles relationships.

Here's the certificate 

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1868/03444/2264517.pdf

(About Irish Civil Records, if you haven't used it before.

You'll need to click to say you're not a robot, and then enter a name & checkmark to agree to privacy rules... There's no sign up required though)

I've also found an Agnes Byrne with a fathers name that looks like Chs Byrne (I believe that's an abbreviation for Charles) on 2 April 1867 in Rathmichael, Rathdown, Co Dublin, Ireland

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1867/03487/2289254.pdf

It also looks like this family (Charles Byrne and Catherine Cooke) had another child Mary Anne Byrne on 7 April 1869, also in Dublin. Ancestry link https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2533&h=151378765

And these other children:

Christopher Byrne, 15 May 1872 

Charles Byrne 25 May 1878 

And a death record for Charles Byrne in 1876 (age 29) which would line up with being an orphan at 10 years old

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2534&h=1680284 

And there are some 'prison register' records that might be worth looking at for Catherine Byrne around that time.

Just theories at this point, but maybe there's a lead in here somewhere? 

Cheers,

Loralee

Comments

Thank you so much.  It is nice to have something to "work" on with her!

---

I hope it leads somewhere :) I had fun searching for those birth records... I spent a whole week going through those records looking for missing info about my GGF's siblings (there were 14 in total).. If you're looking too and some records don't match up I found a trick to find the right one - send me a message and I'll get the deets to you.

Irish geneology is quite the interesting challenge for that time frame, due to all those records that were destroyed in 1920...

Have fun, and reach out anytime!

Cheers,

Loralee

---

p.s. do you still have access to ancestry records? I assumed, because I saw your profile on Ancestry while I was grabbing records...but if not, I can paste links to the images I referenced.