Looking for Granny

nikonuser

I recently posted a thread, 'India Connection’ (02/09) looking for suggestions in my search for why my Great Great Grandparents would have been in Calcutta approx 1854 and then to Ireland a few years later. Your suggestions and comments have been very helpful.

This time I am looking for the final resting place of my above mentioned GG Grandmother, Mary Anne Meroe. She was in Calcutta giving birth to a son, Thomas, in 1854 and from there to Dublin in 1864 giving birth to another son, Patrick, in 1864. She died 2 year later in 1866 of Cholera, aged 37 years.

In the 'India Connection' thread I mentioned that her husband, my GG Grandfather, John Meroe ended up in a paupers' grave in Glasnevin.

I have Mary Anne's Civil Death Certificate which does not say where she was buried. I have tried Glasnevin, Mount Jerome, Deansgrange, all to no avail.

Has anyone any advice where she may have ended up. She was living in Cook St when she died. Where else could she have been buried not having money, she had a poor existence I'm afraid.

Again, any suggestions are welcome.
J

shanew

Most of the burials would have been outside the city by then, so Glasnevin would the most likely, Deans Grange was only opened in 1865 so probably less likely.. after that it get more complicated..

There's a list of the graveyards in Dublin City and county on the Dublin Heritage/Dublin City Library website

p.s. for ref. her death is indexed as 'Mero'

nikonuser

shanew,
Thanks for that. I have used many variants for the name 'Mero", hardly any 2 entries are the same. I have had Glasnevin staff search more than once: her husband, daughter, 2 sons and nearly all the rest of the family is there but no Mary Anne.
I have been searching the Dublin Cemeteries, nothing so far.
I thought that possibly persons dying of infectious diseases that weren't very well understood at that time may have been buried separately from persons dying more gently. I know Cholera is a water spread disease but that would not have been known in 1866.
Thanks again.
J

nikonuser

Would there be any suggestions forthcoming as to possibly which cemeteries I should be concentrating my search on? Would there have been particular ones favoured for those in the Liberties and having been parishioners of St. Audeon's? Mary Anne's son, Patrick, was Baptised there in 1864.
J

KildareFan

There were other cemeteries in the area - the problem is finding an index of burials.

St James Street - see booklet http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/epubs/stjames'sgraveyard.pdf unfortunately this only lists headstones, not burials, so anyone who couldn't afford a headstone is not listed.

St Kevin's Cemetery on Camden Row. The headstones were all removed and stacked up against the wall - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Kevin's_Church,_Camden_Row,_Dublin

Hundreds of thousands of poor Dubliners, including cholera victims were buried in Bully's Acre in Kilmainham, but as far as I know no burials took place after the 1830s http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/epubs/bully'sacre.pdf

If Granny died in the South Dublin Union Workhouse it is possible she was buried in the grounds - South Dublin Union was located where St James Hospital is today; the earliest OS map shows a burial ground in the work house - see http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,713714,733665,11,7

nikonuser

KildareFan,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I will scour the 4 links you list and see if there is a glimmer of hope though an initial glance appears that it may be in vain.
I think Mary Anne would certainly have been one of those 'Hundreds and thousands of poor Dubliners,' judging by the deaths her children had, including 'malnutrition'.

The mystery continues as to why the extreme change in circumstances from Calcutta to Dublin. A story probably never to be told.

Thanks again.
J

tabbey

Cholera was quite common everywhere until pure water became the norm. There were outbreaks from time to time, even among the more comfortable sections of society. I suspect Glasnevin is the most likely burial place. It may have been misspelt on the record, and consequently difficult to find.

nikonuser

tabbey, thank you for that. My GG Granny was certainly not he only Dubliner dying of Cholera in that era as you suggest. I have been with the staff in Glasnevin twice to no avail. Even with Mary Anne's Death Certificate with date of death she doesn't seem to be there. As I said in the other relate thread, India Connection, our family had a little ceremony in Glasnevin for a good few of our family recently, it is just a pity that I haven't found her yet. Some recognition on a grave is a nice gesture.
Thanks again.
J

KildareFan

Hi

There was a cholera epidemic in Dublin in 1866 - see report on the epidemic at http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-34720790R-bk - I haven't had a chance to read it but it may give an insight into what happened to poor old granny.

nikonuser

Kildarefan, thanks for the link, I had a read.

Really scary. the time period for the report was the time my GG Granny died. My interest was piqued on Page 50, when a 'John Morrow' was mentioned but this man died during his illness. My GG Grandfather, John Meroe lived until 1879 and died in the South Dublin Union.

We take for granted now, our Triton electric showers, drinkable running water and a wardrobe of clean clothes to change in to. Reading the report, what must it have been like to be living in a tenement with so so many people, a communal pump outside, likewise a toilet? Even to change bedding was a major chore. Their lives must have been hard but some of their deaths were even harder.

I spent a good while this morning in Glasnevin Cemetery with one of their genealogists. Really helpful but alas no sign of 'Granny'. With the 1866 Cholera outbreak she said the authorities were reusing a mass grave for the victims. Though even those buried in haste, as they would have been, there were records kept. Unless Mary Anne's burial in the Cholera Pit was missed. Under the massive granite stone of Parnell's grave are the remains of over 13,000 people, from 1849 on, the Cholera Pit. Mary Anne could be here but it is looking like I will never know for sure.

Thanks again for all the suggestions & advice. I will keep searching.
J

nikonuser

I, with the good people in Glasnevin have more or less ruled out Glasnevin as a resting place for 'Granny', Mary Anne Mero. Even the Cholera Pit, with its 13,000 persons, is well documented.

At least I know not to spend any more time searching there. I will concentrate my search south of the Liffey from now on.
J

tabbey

A couple of questions,
1. what denomination was she? - RC would be more likely in Glasnevin, C of I, Presbyterian, etc, probably Mount Jerome.
2. How was the name pronounced?, this could help in guessing what variant spellings might have been used in records, eg Morrow, Murrow, Merrie, Morris, Norris, Nero etc. Between mispronunciation and mistranscription there are any number of possibilities.

Deansgrange was unlikely for an inner city resident in 1866, it was more a local cemetery until the Glasnevin gravedigger strike of 1921. From that period also, motor hearses made a funeral from the city more feasible.
I cannot rule out the possibility of a burial in one of the older parochial graveyards, but I think it is highly unlikely, most of them were full, and probably only took remains of those who already had family graves in them.
Goldenbridge of course is included in the Glasnevin digitised records.

KildareFan

What address was given on Granny's death certificate?

You mentioned Cook Street, but was it possible that she died in Cork Street Fever Hospital? There was a quakers burial ground across the street in this map http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,714363,733244,11,8

nikonuser

tabbey, thanks for you reply.
I have found up to 12 variations on the spelling of Meroe up to now. As for the pronunciations? Possibly Mary Anne and her husband, John were from India so how they pronounced Meroe is unknown.

As far as I can gather, Mary Anne was RC. she Baptised her son in 1864 in St, Audeon’s, Priest was Fr. O’Neill. I have found the clergy noting whether there were any issues in relation to religious affiliation, none noted in this case.

The staff in Glasnevin tried multiple spellings, searched by date, address to no avail. they are confident there is no record for her there. But, it is possible she was buried with no record of it, unlikely though, they say.

You mention ‘family graves’. The Meroe story is one of poverty with little money for graves or headstones. I have found 7 graves in Glasnevin, all but one of them unmarked in communal plots.

Where this leaves my search I don’t know.

Again, thanks for your suggestions.

nikonuser

KildareFan, I am looking at Mary Anne's Death certificate and 'Place of Death' is 58 Cook St. Cause of Death: Cholera 22 hours certified. The 'Informant' is a Jane Donnelly, 13 Cook St. It may be possible that she was brought to the Quaker Graveyard? I will try find records for it if there are any. It would be close to Cook St.
Thanks of that, J

KildareFan

Hi Nikonuser

This might be a wild goose chase:

You mentioned in another thread that Granny's maiden name may have been Caulfield. I have found a baptism for a Mary Ann Caulfield
baptised 11 May 1828, Pro Cathedral http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/b2a90a0177214

You also mention that Mary's address at her death was 58 Cook Street - there was a couple Andrew Caulfield and Catherine Dillon living at 59 and various other numbers in Cook Street around this time - see baptisms for their various children, some in St Audoens.
two of their children at http://bit.ly/1QzVUaV and http://bit.ly/1Lc7ybK Andrew and Catherine married in Rathmines RC in 1853 see http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/4296950010223

58 Cook St was also the address given for Patrick Mara/Meroe's baptism [parents Maria Coffey and John Mara] in 1862 http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/ea2b6e0284779

You'll be interested in this article [Fermanagh Mail and Enniskillen Chronicle, p2] 13 Sep 1866, p on the cholera epidemic in 1866 it mentions a Mrs Murphy from 58 Cook Street who died of cholera

KildareFan

and another account of cholera in Cook Street from the Freemans Journal which mentions a Mrs Caulfield getting cholera:

nikonuser

KildareFan, while with the staff in Glasnevin, they searched for burials by date & the Cook St address. Around that time, August & September 1866 there numerous deaths in Cook St. The Journal link highlights this. So much of it.

The links you provide for the birth of Mary Anne Caulfield may be just as valid as the one I have found for 1826 in St Helena. I know she was in Calcutta in ca 1855. The possibility of her being born in St Helena may be just as much of a coincidence as the record for John Morrow, 1819 on St. Helena. I have no proof that any of these 'Mary Annes' are mine but I will endeavour to follow up on the ones you provided, thanks.

I will be visiting the Representative Church Body in Churchtown on Wednesday with a view to ruling out some of the inner city graveyards that Mary Anne might be in. Though I am sure Mary Anne was RC, I have only one Church entry for a Baptism of a son referencing her.

Again, thanks for the reading material.

Cheers, J

nikonuser

I thought it was time to post an update on my search for 'Granny'. Though records are scarce for burials among the inner city churches and graveyards there are some, alas, Granny is not to be found among them as yet. I contacted the Quakers re the graveyard attached to their hospital in Cork Street but she was not there.
The search goes on. J

KildareFan

Hi Nikonuser

Have you seen last Sunday Independent Life magazine? Norah Casey is talking about her great granny Elizabeth Meeroe who was born in Calcutta - Elizabeth came to Ireland with her parents when 'the English army captain, to whom her father was batman, was stationed here'..... So it looks like Granny was Norah's great great granny.... fame at last.

Hermy

Good spot KF!

nikonuser

That's my gang all right.
Norah is a bit stretching the India facts though. I have no evidence at the moment that Elizabeth Meroe was born in Calcutta, her elder brother, Thomas, was (in 1854) and Elizabeth's younger brother, Patrick is born in Dublin in 1864 but where Elizabeth herself was born I can't prove yet. They obviously came to Dublin between 1855 & 1864 but when? I don't know yet. She went from the tenements of the Christchurch area to Barrow St where she lived in to her 90's, dying in 1952 and is buried in Glasnevin.
Her Father, John Meroe (GG Grandfather) is also in Glasnevin in a pauper's section and it John's wife and Elizabth's Mother, Mary Anne Meroe that is the original subject of this thread. John's second marriage after Mary Anne dies lists his parents being from Benares, West Indies. That search goes on.
So far, not fully proven as yet, I have Mary Anne born in St Helena in 1826, moved to Calcutta in 1854 and here to Dublin in 1864. She died in 1866 of Cholera, like so many others that year.
I still haven't found her final resting place despite all the help & suggestions from this group.
The plaque that Norah refers to in the article was organised by another cousin of ours and names Elizabeth's brothers, Thomas (Calcutta), his daughter & Patrick (Dublin), his brother as well as 5 others related to us. The grave was bought by Elizabeth in 1899 when both her brothers' died. Thomas in the South Dublin Union of TB and her younger brother, Patrick who was killed in a Tram accident in Ballsbridge a month later. A bad year for the family.
On a personal note when I originally found an unmarked grave that had 7 relatives of mine it was when made up my mind to uncover as much of their stories as I could. I have since found 6 more unmarked graves with relatives.
The search goes on, particularly for Mary Anne and where she is resting.
J