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Pat Gilleece and Ann Gilleece (nee Anne McMannus) family

FermanaghKinawley (Fermanagh)

Looking for further information onrmy family line leading backfrom my 3rd Great grandfather and grandmother, they are Pat Gilleece who married Ann McManus from the Kinawley area of County Fermangh. No DOB records located

However, their daughter Ann Gileece (born 1848) married Daniel Murphy (born 1837) on 15 th November 1869 at Crossroads RC Chapel in Florencecourt. These are my second great grandparents)

Their son James Murphy was my great grandfather and he was born in Enniskillen on 11 August 1873 and married Anastasia Sweeney (born 1876) on 28 August 1891 in Liverpool.

Would be great to get back further than Pat and Ann if possible but don't know if the records exist and also if there are still any family members still living in the Enniskillen/Florencecourt area.

As a seperate issue I have found that one of Pat Gilleece and Anne McManus children was called Catherine Gilleece and she apparently married Thomas Reilly, again in the florencecourt area. I have found 2 records for their daughterBridget Reilly but they are confusing as one is a baptism record which shows her baptised on the 12th June 1878 and then there is a birth record which gives her dob as 10 January 1879. Could it be possible because of the poor record keeping that the birth recordcould be recorded and datedso long after the baptism?

Many thanks for any assitance possible. Regards Terry Green

terrygreen

2 replies

Terry,

The RC parish records for Kinawley only start in 1835 so it’s no great surprise that you cannot find any birth records for Pat & Ann. And getting back to earlier generations will be difficult if not impossible.

The likely explanation for the discrepancy between Bridget Reilly’s baptism on 12.6.1878 and her statutory birth registration on 10.1.1879 is that the parents didn't get around to registering it at the correct time. There was no financial benefit in registering a birth (in terms of government payments etc) and mostly it was seen as a bureaucratic chore. Folk in rural areas often had to travel some distance to attend the local registrar and so might often put it off. Births were supposed to be registered within something like 3 weeks and there was a small financial penalty for late registration. So what families generally did was simply provide the Registrar with a date of birth that didn’t incur any penalty.  In the RC faith it’s normal to baptise someone within a few days of the birth. I would therefore take the baptism date as pretty accurate. The statutory birth registration 6 months later probably has an “adjusted” date to avoid the late registration penalty. 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Many thanks Elwyn. A lot of very useful information particulalrly in respect of the baptism and dob info.. Best Regards Tery

terrygreen

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