Portumna Workhouse birth

Mariah,

I looked up births on rootsireland.ie and found John Hughes born on April 29 1866 at Portumna Workhouse. His father was John Hughes and his mother was Clare Lynch. The father's occupation is not recorded, nor is the mother's occupation. The sponsor was Ann Lynch.

There is also a record for Patrick Hughes born on 29 April 1866 at Portumna Workhouse to Clara Lynch with father John Hughes. The father's occupation is given as a 'smith' and the mother's occupation is a nurse at the workhouse. The sponsor was Harriet Cavanagh, a nurse at the Workhouse. There is no record of the parents being married is written on the Notes section of the record.

The civil records of births, marriages and deaths in Ireland started in 1864 so I looked up the records ae irishgenealogoy.ie. There is no civil record of the birth of John Hughes, but there is a record for the birth of Patrick Hughes with father John Hughes and mother Clara Lynch. The father was a 'Smith' and was from maybe Coole (near Gort), but it could be something else. The birth was reported by Harriet Cavanagh. See the record at this link https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_retur….

So, there is one record in the parish records for John, but in the civil records there is only Patrick. The parish record for John gives Ann Lynch as sponsor and the civil record for Patrick gives Harriet Cavanagh as the witness. The rootsireland.ie records show both Patrick and John. You might consider twins?

Best wishes, Kieran