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Seeking information on Ellen Doyle c1847-1923

Wicklow

I am seeking information on the family of my great grandmother, Ellen Doyle, said to have been born during the Great Famine on Christmas Day c1847 in County Wicklow. Ellen was the daughter of Edward Doyle and Ellen Holahan or Wolahan. (Her mother's maiden name was given as "Holahan" on her marriage certificate in 1866 and as "Willowhan" on her death certificate in 1923.) Ellen migrated to Australia aged 16 aboard The Duke of Newcastle which sailed from Liverpool on 16 February 1864 and arrived in Melbourne (Australia) on 23 June 1864. Ellen Doyle was travelling with another girl named Ellen Wolahan, aged 20 on The Duke of Newcastle, who was possibly a cousin.

Ellen Doyle married Michael White from Dunmanway County Cork in September 1866 at Stringer's Creek, a gold mining town in Victoria. At the time of her marriage, Ellen gave her age as 21 1/2 presumably to bypass the need for consent of a parent or guardian to the union. Ellen would have been 18 in 1866. Michael was twelve years older than Ellen having been born in 1836, the second son of Thomas White and Mary Doyle of Gurteenasone, Dunmanway, Cork.

Ellen and Michael had ten children, two of whom died as infants:
Thomas,    born 1867, died 1888
Edward Michael,    born 1868, died 1939
William,    born 1870, died 1871
Mary Ellen, born 1871, died 1930
Richard, born 1873, died 1926
Catherine, born 1875, died1937
Annie,    born 1877, died 1965
Helena,    born 1879, died 1953
James William,    born 1888, died 1908
Michael,    born 1884, died 1885

Ellen's husband Michael died aged 47 in Germanton (Holbrook) NSW in 1883, leaving Ellen a widow at the age of 35. She was pregnant with her tenth child Michael jnr at the time of her husband's death.

Ellen ran a number of successful dairying enterprises in Albury and Glen Innes and was reputed to have a remarkable capability in business affairs.

I would first of all like to determine what parish in County Wicklow that Ellen hailed from. I'd aslo like to find out if Ellen had siblings and if so what happened to them? Did they migrate, stay at home in Ireland or die during the Great Hunger? What became of her parents? Is it possible to go back further into the past with her ancestry?

Any help you could provide would be gratefully received.

Ellen was a survivor and a battler and I would like to know more about her forebears.

zarook

3 replies

Marg,

I have some Doyle's in my family that came from Southern Co. Wicklow and in Sept. of last year I visited there and spoke to the local Parish priest who helped me with my research. If you want to e-mail me, I will forward his information to you. 

Sincerely,

Robert Graham

r63graham@gmail.com

r63graham

Hi, I'm Jody I'm trying to trace my grandfathers family, I'm just wondering if your Ellen Doyle who married Michael white had a relation Patrick aloysius doyle who married Ellen McCabe and lived in grey st east Melb ? Any help would be great thanks 

Jody@mjbearthw…

Hello Jody. Sorry it has taken so long to reply. I only checked back in here today. As far as I know, I do not know of any connection between your Patrick Doyle and my Ellen Doyle. However, since I last posted here I have found out more information about Ellen Doyle's family.

As I mentioned in my original post, Ellen was the daughter of Edward Doyle and Ellen Wolaghan/Holahan and hailed from County Wicklow. She arrived in Melbourne in 1864 and married Michael White at Stringer's Creek (now known as Walhalla) in 1866. She came with another girl, most likely a cousin, Ellen Wolahan.

Recently, thanks to a DNA test I took, I was able to establish that Ellen Doyle had siblings and at least one - Maria (born 1840) - came to Australia and married Thomas Savage. This DNA connection to Maria gave me confirmation that Ellen Doyle's surname was Wolaghan/Wolahan and so I started searching Irish records to see what else I could find about her.

Yesterday I discovered that Ellen Doyle's family lived in Ballintemple in the Parish of Arklow in the county of Wicklow. According to records Edward Doyle married Elinor Olaghan (another variant of Wolaghan) at Arklow on 7 April 1834. Witnesses were Thomas McGrath and Mary Murray. There is no record of an Edward Doyle marrying Ellen Wolaghan so I believe the likelihood is that Elinor Olaghan is Ellen Wolaghan. Ballintemple is a very smaill are in Wicklow according to Griffith's Valuation of Ireland.

Edward Doyle and Elinor Wolaghan/Ellen Wolaghan had at least ten children between 1835 and 1853 in Ballintemple, Arklow:

Pat in 1845 (mother Elinor Wolaghan, sponsors James Hanaghan and Catherine Wolaghan)

Eliza in 1836 (mother Elinor Wolaghan, sponsors John Woolaghan and Catherine Byrne)

James in 1837 (mother Elinor Wolaghan, sponsors Patrick Murray and Judithe Wolaghan)

Eliza in 1839 (presumably the first Eliza didn't survive) mother Ellen Wolaghan, Sponsors James Wolaghan & Eliz Grant)

Maria in 1840 (came to Aus & married Thomas Savage) (mother Ellen Wolaghan, sponsors Bryan Brady & Bridget Graham)

Esther in 1842 (mother Ellen Wolaghan, sponsors William Wolaghan & Mary Byrne)

Margaret in 1843 (mother Ellen Wolaghan, sponsors John Wolahan & Bridget Magrath)

Ellen in 1845 (this is my great grandmother, born two years earlier than I had previously thought - who came to Aus and married Michael White) (no mother's name given but everything else fits, sponsors Andrew Wolaghan & Jean Byrne

Catherine in 1846 (mother Ellen Wolaghan, sponsors William Wolaghan, Mary Bracken)

Edward in 1853 (mother Ellen Wolaghan, sponsors Andrew Wolaghan & Mary Doyle)

 

There is also possibly another child born to Ellen & Edward but the data may have been wrongly entered in the parish records:

Julia, born 1848, dau of Edward Doyle and Catherine Wolaghan, sponsors Rev J Remond & Catherine Wolaghan. Mothers are not permitted to be sponsors and this birth was also in Ballintemple, Arklow, so unlikely that two men named Edward Doyle married Wolaghans in the same area and that one pair only had one child. Seems more likely that Catherine, the sponsors name was wrongly entered in the records twice.

I was also able to establish the origins of Ellen Wolahan who accompanied Ellen Doyle aboard the Duke of Newcastle to Melbourne in 1864. She was the daughter of Miles Wolaghan and Mary Bracken (mentioned above as sponsor of Catherine Doyle). She was born in Johnstown in Arklow. Her baptismal sponsors were William & Elizabeth Bracken. Ellen Wolahan married Matthew Ryan in Melbourne in 1866.

So I've made some progress on finding out more about the two Ellen's since I posted originally in 2013.

I'd love to hear from any other descendants of the two Ellens. Feel free to contact me here or via e m a i l at

mahu at zarook dot com

The original parish records mentioned above can be viewed at https://registers/nli.ie/parishes/0457

Marg Hutton, 29 October 2019

 

zarook

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