Advice sought tracing an orphan

sashasdad · 12-01-2011 8:04pm #1

The information I have on my Great Grandmother, Annie Bird, is that she was an orphan, trained as a 'French Polisher' and met her husband whilst 'swinging from a lamppost' on Townsend Street (ya gotta lov family lore!).
I've found her on the 1911 census, aged 20, living as a boarder in Townsend St., profession is given as 'French Polisher' and place of birth is given as Co Dublin. I cannot find a matching Annie or Anne Bird in the 1901 census.
I searched through the births register, 1889-1890-1891 and found two possible Anne Birds. However, I've found both of these Anne Birds living with their parents in the 1911 census.
Would anyone have ideas?

pinkypinky · 13-01-2011 10:42am

What does it say about her father on her marriage certificate? I don't have specialised information on dealing with orphans/adoptees, however, some general points. I would widen out your parameter years for her birth and the counties. She may not have been born in Co. Dublin and she may have been wrong about her own age, if she didn't have parents to confirm exactly. Another question to consider: is Annie Bird her birth name? If she was born outside marriage and given away, her name may have been assigned to her in an orphanage. Have you looked at where the surname Bird is concentrated? Check out this on the census and the parish registers on irishgenealogy.ie. I have seen parish baptismal registers note things like "this child was left on a doorstep in Westland Row so I have christened him James Westland".

ETA: If she was in an institution (like an orphanage) on the 1901 census, she'd only be recorded by her initials to protect privacy.

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/950e221207735 - Baptism of an Annie Bird in 1891 in Townsend St - too much of coincidence? She's not on the 1901 on with the family but is there in 1911 so presume is one of the ones you found.

Have you considered that she wasn't an orphan and just said she was?

sashasdad · 13-01-2011 12:07pm

Thanks for the tips. I think the next record to search for will be her wedding cert. The Anne Bird who's Baptism is on irishgenealogy is one of the two I've ruled out as in 1911 she's living with her family in Townsend St, strange that both her and my Annie Bird are living in Townsend St during 1911.

pinkypinky · 13-01-2011 12:16pm

There's 3 Anne or Annie Bird marriages between 1911 and 1930 on family search:

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=recordResults&placeId=1928918&alivePlaceLoc1=Dublin%2C%20Ireland&givenName=annie&surname=bird&toYear=1930&year=1911&searchType=close

If you search for your great-grandfather's name, you should easily find the cross-reference.

shanew · 13-01-2011 12:56pm

just a quick point about the place of birth detail given on the 1911 census - 'Co. Dublin' would usually mean somewhere outside the city boundary, so a birth search should probably include the county registration districts - i.e. Rathdown, Balrothery and Celbridge *

* both Rathdown and Celbridge include areas in other counties.

Not many of the parishes in county area are on the IrishGenealogy at the moment.

Shane

pinkypinky · 13-01-2011 1:41pm

Excellent point, Shane.

Does Celbridge cover a bit of Dublin as well? I knew about the other 2.

shanew · 13-01-2011 2:13pm

The registration district of Celbridge covers area in counties Dublin, Kildare and a few in Meath.

Rathcoole, Lucan would be in the district.

The district of Dublin south extends quite a bit to the south west - to around Tallaght I think. Celbridge covers the section further south and west.

Shane

shanew · 13-01-2011 2:40pm

forgot two districts..

Dunshaughlin - this included a section of Co. Dublin around the town of Garristown

The village of Brittas was in the registration district of Naas at one time (not sure of the years). The The Dublin/Kildare county border is a just few hundred meters to the south of the Brittas Inn.

Sometimes the district boundaries were altered over the years, to cope with population changes etc.

Shane

sashasdad · 20-01-2011 9:19pm

Advice on ages given in the census turned out to be spot on. Annie Bird was actually four years older and didn't become an orphan until her late teens/early twenties. I've managed to find two sisters and two brothers of hers, one of which I found a death record for and the others I'm still searching for. Her mother has an illegible entry in the 'infirmity' column of the 1901 census so I'm assuming she was either in an institution in 1911 or had died before then, so the search continues http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003733517/. I found a record for Annie's fathers death and have also discovered a brother of his and his family.
My mothers a bit taken aback with these newly found great great uncles, aunts and cousins. She was led to believe that her Grandmother had no family at all, I sense a story/scandal!

pinkypinky · 20-01-2011 11:32pm

that's a great breakthrough - well done.
That infirmity looks like it has 2 Fs in the middle.

Advice sought tracing an orphan

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