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Grace/Gaynor children baptism records? What are the odds?

TipperaryRoscrea (Tipperary)

Hello!

One of my great great grandmothers emigrated to the U.S. in 1854 under the name Mary Grace Melville (she was about 15 or 16 years old). Her sister Mary Ann (Fannie) Melville emigrated a short time before her. Despite the surname differences, they both claimed in various documentsthat Martin Grace and Margaret Gaynor Grace were their parents and that Teresa Graceand Julia Grace were their sisters (all of whom emigrated to the U.S. within the next decade or so). There is also evidence of another sister who has not yet been identified.

At rootsireland.ie I found baptismrecordsforTeresa, Julia, and Catherine Grace born to Martin Grace and Margaret Gaynor in Roscrea. The baptismal information for Teresa indicates a birth year of 1846 rather than the 1852 date estimated from U.S. census documents and the death certificate.The baptismal information for Julia indicates a birth year of 1844 rather than the 1848date estimated from U.S. census documents and the death certificate.

The only other piece of information that I have about origins is Martin Graces death notice, which claimed that he was a native of County Limerick.

Does anyone have an opinion as to howlikely it is that the baptism records from Roscreaare those of the ancestors I am researching (or are those names so common and/or the birth year discrepancies so large that they could be another family with identical names)?

I really don't have a sense for the odds in a situation like this, so I thought I would ask the experts! (And if you have any advice on how I might discern my great great grandmother's true relationship to Martin and Margaret, that would great, too!).

Many thanks in advance -

John

John Ripper

4 replies

Hello John,

I think you can safely say that you have found the correct records.  It would be extreemly unusual to find two families with the same parents names and the same children's names.  Especilly as the name Gaynor wouldn't be the most common name.  I would suggest that you have the correct family.

Most people who emigrated were illiterate and undocumented.  They didn't know how to spell their names and hadn't a clue as to what age they were.  At the port of arrival their names were recorded phonetically, their ages were only guessed, and this is the information that followed them for the rest of their lives.

The proof of this occured in 1909 when the old age pension was introduced into ireland.  People had to prove their ages and were forced to go through baptismal records to establish when they were born.  That is why there is such HUGE discrepancies between ages in the 1901 census and the 1911 census of Ireland.  Dates were found to be out by many many years in some cases.

We tend to forget that people back then had no social security numbers, and were not tracked from the cradle to the grave as we are today.  They didn't celebrate birthdays, as it was all they could do to clothe and feed themselves.  So I would advise that people bear this in mind when researching.

Up Tipp !!!

Kind regards,

Anne Dennehy

IrelandXO member

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Anne! I appreciate the feedback.

- John

John Ripper

Message sent, Eamonn.  Thanks!  :-)

John Ripper

Thanks Eamonn and Anne. Hope the new info is useful John

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

IrelandXO member

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