I am trying to trace my ancestry for a family member who was serving in the coastguard & Died in 1895 in Clifden Hospital. (Benjamin Barber, born 1895 in Portsmouth England and with the service number 87319) My family have been seeking the grave/location of burial for many years but I have been unable to find anything.
The family narrative is that he was English but married to a lady from Donegal. When he passed away, she & her 3 children returned to Donegal but he was buried in Clifden as they did not have the money to bring his body to Donegal to be buried.
I realise this far back it is likely to be an unmarked grave but I would love to be able to tell the family the location (even cemetery)
Grateful for any information anyone can share!
Tuesday 29th Oct 2024, 10:01PM
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Benjamin’s death in 1895:
He died in Clifden workhouse. Don’t read too much into that. It doesn’t mean he was destitute. Workhouses provided free medical care and so folk who were ill often went there just for treatment. After Benjamin’s death his family would have been invited to collect his body, but if that did not happen the workhouse could bury him in the workhouse graveyard. Such a grave would not have a marker. Nothing of the old workhouse remains today, the GMT factory occupies the site, but there is reportedly still an unmarked graveyard next to the south boundary wall.
Birth of son Benjamin in 1895 which gives the mother’s maiden name as Fanny Doherty:
Just a couple of months before his father’s death which must have been hard for the widow. Here's their marriage in Buncrana:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_re…
This looks to be Fanny's death in Buncrana in 1914:
Looks as though after her husband died, Fanny went to live with her mother. Family in 1901 & 1911:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Donegal/Buncrana/Buncrana/491587/
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Tuesday 29th Oct 2024, 11:38PM