Need help with information of John Francis Corrigan and Doran Family Ferney Moorefield County Tyrone Kilskeersy Parish

The paid site Roots Ireland as well as the free site irishgenealogy.ie have a birth record for John Francis Corrigan in 1897.

John Francis Corrigan, DOB 19 Apr 1897, residence Gargrim, RC parish Fintona, Tyrone.

Parents - James Corrigan (farmer) & Mary McGirr. Sponsor - James Gargrim. (yes, surname is same as residence)

There is a second birth in the above mentioned records for a John Corrigan born in May 1897 to an Anne Corrigan in the Omagh workhouse...no father listed. 

This information does not match the information you have, however I did not find any other births within a four year range of 1898.

Regards,

Hi Carolyn, Thank you for getting back to me. The John Francis Corrigan born on the 19th of April died aged 6 weeks on the 29th of May 1897. Gargrim Fintona .  father James Corrigan present at death. 

I am still not 100% sure if the John Corrigan born in Omagh workhouse to Anne Corrigan is or isnt anything to do with our John Francis Corrigan. 

Thank you for your successions Carolyn. Any hints are welcome. 

There are a number of pieces of information here that make me wonder about James Corrigan’s origins.

Firstly, the absence of a birth certificate (or at least one that can definitively said to be his), secondly the discrepancy over whether he was born in Tyrone or America, thirdly the vagueness as to what happened to his parents, fourthly his father apparently being in America and also a police officer possibly in the RIC (hard to reconcile) and finally the curious description of him as a “friend” in the 1901 census. That seems an unusual term to use for a 3 year old. To me this looks like a smokescreen to conceal his true origins. In which case, one possibility you need to consider is that he was illegitimate and that’s the real reason for the lack of transparency about his origins.

Bear in mind that information on marriage certificates was only as accurate as the informant’s knowledge. No documentation was required and so you could invent a father’s name and occupation quite easily.

Have you searched Kilskeery RC parish baptism records for a likely baptism around 1898 (possibly illegitimate)? Might be worth a try. The records are probably still with the parish so you would need to contact the parochial office.

You could try DNA testing but otherwise you may struggle to determine his parentage.

Hi again,

I meant to say in my first reply, that since the 1901 & 1911 census states he was born in Co. Tyrone, then that's probably accurate. It seems a bit far fetched to have someone go to the US to retrieve a toddler given the cost/length of the journey.  In my own Irish roots research, I have come across a number of "tall tales" that were passed down by those who emigrated that were not true as I later discovered. Do you have the 1926 marriage record of John and Isabella to attach? I could not locate it.

Regards,

Hi, Carolyn, only by going down the years until I hit it by accident did I get the marriage record on GRONI. I tryed sending you a picture of it but it is to big to send. John Francis was married on the 23rd of June 1926 st marys killyclogher Omagh No.2 Union of Omagh County Tyrone to Isabella McNulty. I know that I am finding big time brick walls in finding John Francis's birth records. I have got my Husband to do a DNA Ancestry test and he is only coming up with very distant matches. I have tryed to link his dna to different family trees in Ancestry and it isnt getting any matches. It would be a miracle to find anyone who is connected to our John francis. It really is head scratcher. I found it really werid that he was only but down as a Friend to the family at the age of 3 years aswell. I think that you are right that I should go to Kilskeery Parish records to find out who was born around that year.  Thank you for looking for me.

Have you seen this death record for Anne Corrigan in the Omagh asylum where you mentioned John Corrigan worked? She died a spinster at age 40.....IF she is his mother, then she gave birth to him at 25 years old, and was born around 1872. It shows that she was from Blacklion. Cause of death "melancholic exhaustion, years". Maybe his mother after all??

Regards,

Ann and I seen this as well and we thought that it could be a route we could go down and do some research. I was trying  to look up any Anne Corrigan's from Cavan on the National archives as well. 

I have found on GRONI a John Corrigan who's parents were Susan Weir and Edward Corrigan From  Ednerney Irvinestown born 19 Feb 1971 Could be a possible father to John Francis. It is the only John Corrigan born between 1865 to 1871. Trying to see the Irvinestown connection.

We were trying to rule out the America connection and see if one of the Doran Sisters Isabella or Anne were the Mother of John Francis but Isabella did not  marry and not sure if the Ann we are seen who married Patrick Hughes had John. I was looking for any John Corrigan living in Rhode Island at the same time as the Doran Sisters and most of the Corrigan's are found in later Census so didn't pass away. We had looked for Passengers coming back from between 1898 to 1901 with all the surnames connected to the Doran family and so far we aren't having much luck. I have build a Doran family tree and am hoping though www. ancestry.co.uk that I get a connection with someone who knew the family. Definitely really hard to get anything solid as there was very little information passed down to the family. I would be delighted to even find his birth record and to see who his parents were.

If John Corrigan was illegitimate, his birth certificate may not show his father's name. With illegitimate births (in Ireland anyway) the father's name only appears on the statutory birth certificate if he was present at the registration and confirmed paternity. In many cases that didn't happen and so the birth is registered under the mother's name only. No mention of the father's identity at all.  However if you can find  a baptism record, sometimes the father's name is recorded there. (I have seen annotations that name him, or sometimes say things along the likes of "father reputedly John Smith.")

Thank you for your advice Elwyn it is much appreciated. I will have to go down the road of searching for Parish records for John Francis and see what that comes up with. The only other simpler Census I seen with a family in kildrum Dromore surname spelt in the 1901 Census( Corry) and in the 1911 Census spelling of Surname (Corey).

They have a Joseph Corrigan surname spelt Corrican aged 3 years in 1901 and is recorded as a boarder with to different surnamed Boarders. Joseph Corrigan is still with the family in the 1911 Census aged 13 and is still recorded as boarder. 

I don't know if it was common for a family to take in a child that wasn't related to them in the early 1900s or not.

You ask if it was common for families to take a child in. Formal adoption law wasn’t introduced in what is now Northern Ireland till 1929/30. Prior to that things were arranged on an informal basis, sometimes with the assistance of the church. (I have never come across any paperwork for such arrangements but have heard folk mention the church’s involvement). You do see foundlings in the baptism records and so presumably these were sometimes homed in that way.

Families would often look after their own, so illegitimate children to one of their immediate family might also be taken in, but in the census records they would usually appear with the family surname, rather than a different one.

In my opinion, Francis’s mother and father probably both came from Kilskeery. Farmers don’t travel around much and Francis’s background was probably local too. They may have had some knowledge of his parentage.

Here’s someone who was informally adopted by a family in Co Antrim around the same time. They didn't give the child their family surname. From local knowledge of the family, I know that the baby was left in the milking shed at about 5 in the morning. The mother must have known someone would be along shortly to milk the cows and the baby would surely be discovered, and would be warm till then. They never found out who the mother was but she must have been local and knew them. The child’s surname is the farm name. They lived in Rock Cottage and so gave the child the surname Rock. In this case it is described as an orphan on the census, but they might have said “friend.”

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Toome/Brecart/1…

Thank you Elwyn. It could be possible that maybe someone abandoned John Francis, and the Doran family took John in. I always thought that is was funny that the Doran family did not  give him there surname and also called him friend. If they wanted to hide the identity of John Francis is would of been easier to call his Doran rather than Corrigan. Thank you for looking for me Elwyn.