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I am desperately seeking information on my grandmother and her family.I have not been able to find anything over the past few years as it appears that my grandmother, Mary Henry (nee Lyons) was born in Portumna workhouse in 1904 and the workhouse have advised that the registers cannot be located.

I have looked at the census from 1911 but I cannot find anything there either. Mary was a very intelligent and well educated lady so I believe she must have attended a school nearby or else she may have been educated by the Mercy nuns. Her father is not named on her birth cert. Her mother Elizabeth (Eliza) Lyons was born on 13/14 June 1865, I think in the Sragh, Woodford area.

Eliza’s mother, also Elizabeth, died in 1872, aged 39 and as a result her father Patrick and brothers Francis (17), Michael (15), Thomas (14), and William (3) and Eliza (7) went into Portumna workhouse for assistance. This is really the only information I have on her background.
I would dearly love to gather some information for my mother and her sister and brothers who are all getting on in age now. My grandmother never spoke of her mother or her past or mentioned the workhouse and I know that there was a huge (and unimaginable today) stigma attached to being born to a single mother and also to being resident in a workhouse and sadly my gran carried this with her until she passed away in 1993.
I would appreciate any help at all, if anyone has any relevant information at all or can steer me in the right direction.

Thanks a million.

Della

Thursday 27th Sep 2018, 09:54PM

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