Hi, I'm looking for information on my great grandmother Mary Bridget Woodhams (born 2/6/1920) she moved over to England (the Black Country, Dudley) in the early 1940s. She was born in Thurles. There is no record of birth or baptism (presumably because I'm sure she was born out of wedlock). I have found a lady - Annie Woodhams (born 1891) who lived in Templemore pretty much all of her life, because of her age and location and a couple of prison records of her being drunk and disorderly with a child under 7 in her care around the same time Mary was born I have speculated this could be a match, until I found record of John Joseph Woodhams who was a prisoner of war and died during it. His mother was Annie. Because of this I have manage piece together Mary being Annie's daughter because one certain point of information I have from family is that Mary had a brother called John Joseph who died as a POW. I have information on Annie's parents William and Eliza and intend on going further.
What I am struggling to find out is my great grandmothers life in Ireland. Here's what information I already have: She had a brother who died as a POW (as stated above), she spent time in the workhouse and she gave birth to a daughter - Bridget, who she left behind with her mother in hopes to return to collect her but shortly after she left her mother gave the baby up, I imagine she was shipped to the USA in an adoption program. (This information didn't come to life until she was on her death bed).
Apparently she was very vague when it came to talking about her life in Ireland and would only ever say "My life changed for the better when I came over here, I didn't have a very good childhood but I made up for it when I had a family of my own". If anyone is able to help me find out any information on her life in Ireland I would be so grateful, I am especially on the look out for Workhouse records and travel records for when she came over to England. I intend to visit Templemore in the future to see if I can delve a little deeper, if anyone knows where I can find any record or a specialist who can help while I'm there that would be lovely. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
Sunday 8th Mar 2020, 11:57AM
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Birth certificates from before 1916 are available on www.irishgenealogy.ie so I was able to find the certificate for John J's birth:
This shows he was born in Thurles Workhouse in 1914, which was ran by P. Russell.
In 1918, a death was registered for a five month old baby girl named Annie Woodhams in Thurles Workhouse. Could she have been another sibling of Mary Bridget and John? As she died as a baby before Mary Bridget was born, that would explain why she was never heard of. Her death cert states she was the "daughter of a labourer". I found her registered in the birth index on www.findmypast.ie in 1918 and a Mary Woodham registered in 1920.
Thurles Workhouse Records are available on www.tipperarystudies.ie but only 19th century records seem to be available online. Perhaps if you emailed studies@tipperarycoco.ie and asked, they might be able to look through their records about the Woodhams for you.
I could find no mention of any Bridget Woodham on any birth index. Even if the child's parents were unmarried, the births were nearly always registered (the births of John, Annie and Mary Woodham were all found on the birth index on www.findmypast.ie). If she was a victim of the adoption programmes ran by the Irish clergy, her name was more than likely changed and a fake birth certificate prepared for her adopted parents. These adoptions were rarely recorded so your best chance of finding out what happened to her would be dna testing.
Hope some of this helps!
Alicia
aliciamccormack
Sunday 8th Mar 2020, 03:42PM -
Hi Alicia, all I can say is wow, thank you so much! Since you helped me I've managed to find a lot of records and discovered there was another brother born 1924 who died at 8 days old. I can't believe I've spent years always hitting brick walls to now have this much information. I have been in touch with Tipperary Studies and asked for some workhouse documents, just waiting for them to get back to me - fingers crossed. Thank you again
Monday 9th Mar 2020, 10:30AM