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Seeking information about Bridget Brogan and her family of Killult, Dunfanaghy, Donegal, born circa 1856.

Bridget or Biddy Brogan is my 2x great grandmother. She married John Diver at the Gortahork Chapel on 28 Feb 1874. She was 18 years old, a spinster, residing in Killult, Donegal, Ireland and the daughter of Owen Brogan, a farmer. To date I have found 8 children of this marriage. Michael (1874), Patrick (1876), James (1879), Annie (1881), Sarah (1883), Denis (1885), Jiley or Julia (1888) were all born at Crossroads, Dunfanaghy, Donegal. The youngest child I have found is John who was born in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, Scotland. All of John and Bridget's children (except Denis who died in Crossroads and Sarah who I cannot trace) died in Scotland. They did not return to Ireland.

After she was widowed, Bridget married again. In 1903 she married another Irishman, James Maley, in the Uddingston Chapel in Scotland. Her second marriage entry records her father as John Brogan, agricultural labourer, deceased and her mother is Bridget Brogan, maiden surname Boyle. Her death record in 1930 has the same parental details except her mother Bridget Boyle is now recorded as deceased.

It looks like Bridget moved with her first husband John Diver and their surviving children from Donegal to Scotland sometime between 1888 and 1894. However, I have been unable to find her in the 1891 or 1901 census in Scotland or the 1901 census in Ireland. She is recorded in the 1911 and 1921 Scottish censuses.

When her son Patrick Diver was born in 1876, the informant was Nancy Brogan of Killult who was present at the birth. I assume this is either Bridget's sister, sister-in-law, aunt, or cousin but have not been able to confirm this in online records. I have found Jiley Brogan, daughter of Patrick Brogan and Nancy Boyle, residing in Killult. She may be a cousin to Bridget, and Jiley’s mother Nancy may have been the person present at Patrick Diver's birth but this needs further research. The name Jiley or Julia does seem reasonably uncommon in the records and it was given to Bridget’s daughter in 1888 so it may be a family name. Bridget’s son Patrick became a tailor, and Jiley Brogan’s father, Patrick (married to Nancy Boyle) was also a tailor which may just be a coincidence but they are the only 2 tailors I have discovered in my family tree research so I think there is a good chance of a familial link.

I am a descendant of Bridget through my great grandmother, Julia (or Jiley) Diver. As far as I can discover Julia was the only child of the John Diver and Bridget Brogan brood who produced grandchildren - 2 of her children remained in Scotland, 1 moved to England and 1 emigrated to New Zealand which is where I am writing this today.

I would be very interested in finding out if anyone has any information about Bridget Brogan and her parents Owen/John Brogan and Bridget Boyle, or suggestions on where else I could look to find more information on their lives in Donegal. Thanks.

ypenman@yahoo.co.nz

4 replies

Here’s a death in Killult for Bridget Brogan widow of John Brogan, farmer in 1888.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1888/06168/4762824.pdf

Her age is given as 90. That probably needs to be viewed as a guesstimate. If it was accurate then she was 58 when she gave birth to daughter Bridget which seems rather unlikely. Errors of 10 years or more on death certificates were very common as folk frequently didn’t know how old they were.

I see 5 Brogan households in Killult in the 1901 census, so sorting them out may be quite challenging.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Cross_Roads/Killult/

I looked in Griffiths Valuation (1857) and did not see John or Owen Brogan listed there, though there are plenty of other Brogans.

You mentioned not finding the family in the 1891 census of Ireland. That census was destroyed (along with 1861 – 1881) so it’s not possible to search it. The 1891 Scottish census does exist and if the family are not in it, the inference is probably they were still in Ireland. There are no passenger records for travel to Scotland. That was just a short domestic ferry journey (Derry/Londonderry – Glasgow) and no records have ever been kept for that type of travel.

Perhaps other contributors can help with ideas about this family.

 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for your information. I also saw the death entry for Bridget Brogan aged 90y and I don't think it is who I am after. As the Irish marriage entry records Bridget Brogan's father as Owen Brogan, I would assume that his widow's entry would also have named her husband as Owen. I have been through all the Owen Brogan's in the Irish civil records until 1874 (unsuccesssfully) but he probably died before civil registration and I cannot find anything in the church records available online. Bridget's father is only listed as John in her Scottish 2nd marriage and death records but that could have been down to an Irish accent being misheard and recorded by a Glaswegian registrar.  I will delve further into the Brogan records for Killult. Regards Yve.

ypenman@yahoo.co.nz

You said in your first post that the 1903 marriage showed Bridget’s mother as deceased. Are you sure about that? The copy on Scotlandspeople shows her to be alive (Only her father is shown as deceased). So she may be in the 1901 Irish census, though I cannot immediately identify her.

Mistakes on certificates are certainly possible due to differences in accents and sometimes due to illiteracy, but the person providing the information to the civil Registrar in this case would normally be the parish priest who conducted the ceremony, so I would somehow expect him to manage better. (They normally sent returns to the Registrar every quarter. By post one assumes, and the Registrar would be relying on paper records not oral information).

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks for your message. You are correct - according to the 1903 marriage record, Bridget's mother still lived but she was deceased by 1930 when Bridget herself died. (It was a typo so will amend my original post.) I will review the death records in Ireland and Scotland to see if I can find her.

I take your point that about parish priest knowing the bride and groom as well as their families and providing the written records for the registry office. However I would expect the Irish record of Bridget's first marriage to be most accurate - she was born there (her 1921 Scottish census record lists her birth place as Falcarragh, Donegal), she was married at the Gortahork Chapel, and all bar one of her children were born there - the parish priest would definitely have known the family and their relations. Bridget had only been in Scotland for a few years and had moved around Uddingston, Lanarkshire prior to being widowed and then remarrying and it is possible that the parish priest in Uddingston may not have been as familiar with her antecedents so John or Owen recorded for her father's name could easily have been mixed up.  One other thing that has bothered me is that I cannot find that Bridget has named a child after her father if his name was Owen. There are children named after her husband's parents and the youngest is called John but that could be after his father. 

One other interesting thing I have discovered is that in the 1921 Scottish census, Daniel Brogan aged 19 years and 3 months, was boarding with Bridget and her family. He was born in Killult, Donegal. While I have not managed to find Daniel Brogan born in March 1902 in Killult, I have found Daniel McGee who is the son of Manus McGee and Jiley McGee (maiden surname Brogan) born 3 March 1902. Jiley Brogan was the daughter of Patrick Brogan and Nancy Brogan (maiden surname Boyle) and possibly Bridget's cousin. Maybe I will get some DNA matches one day that confirm my hypothesis. 

Thanks again. Yve

 

ypenman@yahoo.co.nz

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