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Trigamy! Michael Burns

AntrimBallymoney (Antrim)

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right Ballymoney but the newspaper didn't specify. So Michael Burns my gggf and his wife Mary Ann (Fleming) were married and lived in Strabane. He was absent on both the 1901 and 1911 census. I have since found many newspaper articles that have him in court accused of Bigamy/Trigamy. It is from 1910 and says he has a wife and family in Coleraine and one in Ballymoney.

 

So I am looking for the children and or the wives to no avail, can't seem to find him in either census in those locations and have gone through nearly every birth and marriage record i can find.

 

Any help appreciated

 

Sarah

glenister.86@g…

3 replies

Sarah,

Coleraine & Ballymoney are about 8 miles apart so I suspect you have found the right Ballymoney.

I searched the marriage records for Coleraine and for Ballymoney 1884 to 1910 but did not find any where the groom was a Michael Burns. I also couldn’t find any record of a bigamy trial post October 1910 in the on-line newspaper archives. And it’s something that would likely be widely reported.  So though the police may have said a bigamy charge was pending, it doesn’t seem it came to trial. One reason might be they couldn’t find any subsequent marriages either.

It’s possible that Michael had relationships and children as claimed but he may not have actually been married to either woman. That’s all I can suggest. 

Michael’s absence from both censuses was probably fairly deliberate. Given that he was reportedly well known to the police, I suspect he made very sure he was “away” on census night.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer
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