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Mary Anne Harding of Dublin (born about 1835) married to William Wilson, jeweller or silversmith of Dublin

I am looking for any information on William and Mary Wilson of Dublin, who are my maternal great great grandparents. They had four children, all born in Dublin (Elizabeth, b 1854, William b 1867, Harriet b1868, Richard b 1862), Apparently William was a jeweller or silversmith, as was his son Richard and grandson. Sometime in the late 1800'sthey emigrated to England. Any information on a Wilson family in Dublin involved in the jewellery or silver/gold smith trade in the 1800's would be appreciated

IrelandXO member

4 replies

I was not able to find any births or baptism for your Wilson/Harding family in Dublin city or county but did locate a possible match for the birth of a Harriet Mary Wilson on the 23rd April 1868 (entry 339 in the register) to William Wilson and Mary Anne Harding in Ballycumber which is in King's County (Co. Offaly) and near Ferbane in Parsonsonstown/Birr registration district.  Williams occupations is shown as some type of overseer.

I also located several possible siblings to Harriet which I'll check out back to the start of civil birth records up to about 1878, all born Ferbane/Ballycumber area.

There's a probable marriage for William and Mary Anne on the BMD Index in 1863 in Athlone registration district - since it's before 1864 it's either a non-Catholic or registry office marriage. A cert or register image would add further details such as date & place of marriage, residences of the bride & groom possibly their ages (may be given as "full" i.e. 21 or over), occupations, father names, names of witnesses. Many of the civil BMD registers are available on the free IrishGenealogy website, but only back to 1870 at the moment, earlier registers will be added hopefully this year.

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Shane, thanks so much for your prompt response. I am doing this research primarily for my 91 year old mother, Patricia Daws (Wilson), who has wondered all of her life about her Irish ancestory, but has been unable to find out very little beyond her grandfather, Richard Wilson (B 1862). We were under the impression that the prior to emigrating to England, the family came from Dublin, but had come across some references to Ferbane, so this would correspond to what you have found out. There is a family story that Harriet went to Trinity College and knew Oscar Wilde! The family were not Catholic. Any additional information you can find out from the civil birth records would be greatly appreciated. I will check out the Irish Genealogical website, and have applied to purchase a copy of the marriage cert for William and Mary Anne.

Thanks again

Nick Daws        

IrelandXO member

I wonder if the year of birth you have for him is correct ..  do you have a marriage cert for him ?
It might help confirm the occupation for William..

I see a possible match for Richard snr. on the England 1901 census in Hornsey St Peter, Middlesex born Ireland reported age 36 (year of birth 1865), wife Emma, along with son Richard age 2 - Richard snr's occupation is Jeweller, place of birth "Ireland", also a match for him on the 1911 census as a widower where he gives his age as 48 (born c1863) place of birth "Dublin, Ireland".

Maybe the story passed down regarding a Jeweller really referred to Richard snr. ?

Civil records of birth started here in 1864, so if Richard was born very soon after the marriage and before that year there would be no birth registration for him. Some Church of Ireland baptism records are available on RootsIreland (pay-website) but no sign of your Richard that I can see. If Richard was born before the marriage he would probably have been baptised under his mother's surname.

These are the other children that I found - all with parents William Wilson and Mary Anne Harding :

William Wilson 28th July 1864 - Grogan(*), William's occupation farmer
John Wilson 2nd July 1866 - Ballycumber, William's occupation overseer
[Harriet Mary Wilson 23rd April 1868]
George Herbert Wilson 6th July 1870 - Ballycumber, William's occupation post-master
Louisa Jane Wilson born 5th March 1872 - Ballycumber, William's occupation post-master
Mary Ann Wilson 26th November 1873 - Ballycumber, William's occupation farmer (registered 16th Jan 1874)
Isabella Frances Wilson 1st July 1875 - Ballycumber, William's occupation farmer
Elizabeth Wilson 10th May 1878 - Ballycumber, William's occupation looks like road inspector

all links are to the free IrishGenealogy website, there could be other children in the family - Wilson is quite a common surname here (I have two seperate Wilson lines in my ancestry, one from near this area...)

* I suspect that "Grogan" is a reference to the townland of 'Grogan and Corroe' which is in Lemanaghan civil parish in Co Offaly/King's Co.
 

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Is this board still open? William Wilson and Mary Harding are my Great-grand parents.. My name is Stacy Andrew Veach.. I would love to hear from anyone related.. 

Stacy

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