Looking for the Family of James Leith from Bandon/Cork City,

Hello,

My name is Trish Forte'.  I am a first generation Canadian.  My Mother's family is from Glanmire, she grew up at the Cottage Eastcliff in Glanmire.  I am searching for information regarding her father's family and here is what I have so far.

Robert Leith - born in October 1903 is Castlemartyr, Robert's mother was Cathrine Leith, born 1878 in Greenock, Scotland, her parents were Mary Anne, born 1856 in Fermanagh, and James Leith born in 1853 in Fermanagh.  They had two other daughters, Martha born in 1888 and died at age 19 in 1907, and Margaret Jane, born about 1881 and died in 1944 in Peterborough, England.  The family is listed as living on Castle Street in Bandon on the 1901 census.  However, from there things seem to have gone downhill somehow.

On the 1911 census my Grandfather Robert Leith and his sister Margaret Leith were living in Rathcooney with the Spillane family as "borders".  I was able to track his Mother, Cathrine, who went by the name of Kate Leith from 1906 through early 1912 as she ended up as an alcoholic and a prostitute and I have all 26 arrest records that stop in February of 1912.  Up until May of 1910 she listed her father James as her next of kin, first at 8 Knapps Sq. and then at 13 Blarney St., both in Cork City.  After May of 1910 she listed her mother Mary Anne Leith, c/o Sister Jessie, Cork Union which I have learnt is the workhouse in Cork City.

After February of 1912 there are no further arrest records online that I can find whatsoever for Kate or Cathrine Leith.  And I cannot find any information on Mary Anne Leith at all except for one document that says a Mary Anne Leith died in Peterborough in 1915 at the age of 59 and this would fit as her daughter Margaret Jane married a George Platt in 1901 and moved and lived in Peterborough the rest of her life.

There are stories that my grandfather Robert Leith saw a woman at the gates of a Mental Hospital in Cork who called out to him calling him "bobby" and didn't he know her...but as he was in the Irish Volunteer Army and was marching he did not stop.  Only his immediate family called him Bobby.

His sister Margaret Leith was born in 1900 and went by the name of Madge.  We already new hew father was Samuel Salter from South Main St., in Bandon and on the census of 1901 she is listed as an 8 month old in the Leith Family but her last name says Salter.  Madge was sold or put into servitude in England when she was about 18 and I have found that she was listed as next of kin on Grampa Robert Leith's military records as living in England in 1922 in Peterborough, England.  So this all fits.

I also know that Samuel Salter and his father Robert Salter and sister Annie Salter all lived together and owned the clothier shop on South Main Street, not far from where the Leith Family lived on Castle Street in Bandon.  I would love to know what the name of the shop was and what happened to it.

We cannot find out what happened to Kate Leith, James Leith or Mary Anne Leith afdter 1912 and would appreciate any information that we can get hold of.  Further prison or workhouse records< death certificates, anything at all would be helpful.

Thank you,

Trish Forte'