aussie needing hekp with brick wall

I am not sure some of the timings are quite right here. Robert James married Anne Wigglesworth on 23.10.1871 in Roscommon town, at which time he was a sub-constable in the RIC. (I note that his father had also been a police officer).

So his joining the Manchester Police must surely post-date this? Have you searched for Robert’s service records to get the dates he joined and left?  (You could also search for his father’s too if interested).

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_re…

 

I checked Robert’s RIC service records, there’s a note included stating ‘compulsory resignation’ 13th November 1871. The Manchester Police Index show a likely match for him signing on with that force in 1872, where he’s described as age 27, married, C of E, born in Ireland, the transcript  I checked gave no indication of how long he served here.

I haven’t been able to locate him or Annie on the 1881 census in England, so far the only possible birth I’ve found for ‘Annie’ in either England or Ireland...is of a Hannah Maria James born 1st Quarter 1875, mother’s maiden surname is shown as Wigglesworth, location is ‘Hartley Wintney’ registration district in Hampshire, England (index references are volume 2C, page 165) - The district where this Hannah was born is over 290 km  (~180 miles)   from Manchester, but given the distinctive combination of surnames this might be worth checking into in case it’s your Annie.. 

I've attached a screen shot below of the GRO search showing the index references for Hannah's birth, mother's maiden surname etc

 

I notice an Anne Maria James who died in Sligo on 17.6.1878. Aged 30 wife of a labourer.  Could she be Robert James’ wife? The family perhaps having fallen on hard times? (I notice Anne’s name was given as Anne M. Wigglesworth when she married in 1871 and her daughter was named Ann Marie James).

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

Julie-Anne,

Unless the records for Sligo Co Infirmary have survived, and you can get access to them (they won’t be on-line), it may not be possible to say for certain whether it’s the correct lady.  No townland is given on the death certificate and the informant wasn’t family. But if his wife died, it wouldn’t be surprising if Robert then left his infant daughter with his sister (a typical sort of arrangement in those circumstances) and headed off. That could account for her later bringing Annie to Australia.

Perhaps worth checking migration records on Findmypast or Ancestry to see if you can find Jane James and Annie travelling to the US (1878 to 1900).

If Robert and his sister Jane were born in Riverstown, it’s in the parish of Taunagh. Their Church of Ireland records start in 1830 and are in the RCB library in Dublin. They are not on-line yet, so you would need to get a Dublin based researcher to access them. But you might find their baptisms and that of Robert’s siblings, that you mention. The records for this parish are highlighted in green in the Church of Ireland guide to their records. Green means: LOST - Parishes the records of which were lost in 1922, but for which subsequent materials were located and lodged either in the RCB Library or PRONI. Normally this colour code is followed by an RCB library or PRONI entry.

So it looks as though the original set of records was destroyed in the fire but that a duplicate set existed somewhere else and is now in Dublin. There is no RCB library reference shown in the records.

I found what looks to be Robert’s father’s death in May 1898, aged 91. (I mentioned he too was a police officer, as per the 1871 marriage). This looks to be his death in Collooney. So that links in with the information that the family did live there.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1898/05831/4651070.pdf

His wife was still alive and the informant was his niece Jane Breach of Belfast. John Jones wife Hanna(h) died the following month, again at Collooney. She was only 66 so might be a second wife. Informant was again Jane Breach, this time of Collooney. So that clue took me to John James marriage to Hannah Tighe in 1880. Both had been married before. His address was Riverstown.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1880/11041/8038443.pdf

Reflecting on that, I wonder if the death of Robert & Jane’s father (and their stepmother) in 1898 was the trigger for Jane James to leave. Had she been at home looking after them? After they died, she was released from that obligation. Did she head to the US and then Australia? Did she go to the US because she knew Robert was there? Presumably father and daughter might want to meet?

Finally, Hannah James left a will. The executor was Jane Simpson of Ballisodare, the sister.

http://www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie/search/cwa/home.jsp

Jane Breach living in Ballysodare in 1901 with Hannah’s sister:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Sligo/Collooney/Ballysadare/1682649/

 

 

There’s a John James in Riverstown in Griffiths Valuation in 1858. (The townland is Ardkeeran). He had plots 40 & 41 in the village which were a house and garden. Now that could be John Jones’ father (another John) or it might his home. Depends on when he left the RIC. By the time of John junior’s 2nd marriage he was describing himself as a farmer. However that was a euphemism that many police officers used. So it doesn’t mean he was a farmer. But if he was he would have obviously has some land. There’s no land shown in Griffiths. However the Valuation Revision books (in the Valuation office in Dublin) should show whether he did have land by the 1880s, and if so where it was.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameS…