Lo and behold in black and white, meet the Driscols. Now we have our usual spelling variations, Driscoll - Driscole.
In Eliza's wedding her name was Driscoll but I gather that means nothing more than the scribe who wrote it thought it was a good idea at the time. I gather most entries in Co Cork RC records are entered as Driscole, and Ellen is mostly mangled to Elen. This is from a census of 1841, Limehouse, Middlesex, London.
It reads as if mum and dad Denis and Ellen have their 3 daughters at home with them; Ellen, Eliza & Julia. My ancestor is Eliza, and she stated on numerous court appearances in Buninyong she hailed from Co Cork. I think she also didn't know how old she was from a very young age. The search on South Cork yields Denis Driscole and Mary Murphy in about every second entry, so it gets hard to pick 1 Denis from another.
Wife Ellen appears not to be the mother of these daughters. The only sane conclusion I can draw is she was a second wife, marrying Denis around 1839. There are so many Denis Driscoles running around in South Cork, which of them is the right one marrying Ellen someone becomes a lottery draw. This is because the foundations upon which we make our reverse logic is built on corrupted data. It seems that the folk of the time had an inkling towards rounding off folk's ages. Subsequently, Julia ages 8 years between 1841-1851, wife Ellen ages 15 years, and Denis seemingly died, so we can forgive him for a no show. The Ellen Sullivan I have concluded as most likely to have married Denis late 1830's is the right age and location of birth baptismal record to be 45 in 1841, but apply the round off rule, well there you have the lottery.
Ancestor Eliza's estimated birth date most closely corresponds to a record of baptism, 1829, to Denis Driscole and Mary Hayes. Here's where it gets murky, as if it ever wasn't. There is no marriage between a Denis Driscoll and a Mary Hayes. The census record of 1841 lists James and Ellen Heas or some totally mangled spelling effort. The record searches support that James is a son born to Mary Hayes 1812, Margaret is his Cork born wife, and Mary Hayes became Mary Hayes via marriage to a Denis Hayes. Mary Hayes' maiden name, Donovan. Husband Denis died, husband number two is named, who else but, Denis.
So;
question 1. Did records of South Cork list the bride by her maiden name in cases of it being a second or later marriage?
question 2. Are there some gaps in the records of South Cork?
I have finally abandonned efforts to find records of Ellen/Elen or Julia born to Mary Hayes & Denis Driscole. While the census lists daughters Ellen and Julia, they just don't come up. I did however find 2 other children born to this couple, a Margaret 1823, and yet another Denis, 1831. In 1831 I should be getting a record of a Julia, making her 2 years younger than Eliza, and instead I get Denis.
question 3. Does this support the notion that the record of Eliza is not my ancestor Eliza by virtue of the sisters not coming up?
Alternately,
question 4. Are the records of the sisters so mangled in spelling I can't jag them