A short time ago I wrote about my search for the birth registration of Mary Quigley and the death registration of her father James Quigley. The death certificate I ordered since it wasn't available online, arrived last week. While it took longer than the usual time to receive, it was still well within the thirty days the GRO warned it might require. The document itself has left me a bit puzzled though.
For one thing, it says the death of James Quigley, a laborer, occurred at Raheen in the Parish of Baltinglass on 3 January 1869. For another, it's signed by the mark of Judy Connors who was present at the death. This presents several problems. Firstly, all documents I've found for James and his family place him in Baltinglass proper with the exception of the baptism of his first child. There was no civil registration of births in 1859, but the Baltinglass church baptismal register records the infant was born at Ballyraggan, County Kildare. That could be because Ballyraggan was the home of his mother-in-law Anne Donahoe McGarr, and James Quigley's wife Anna McGarr may well have gone home to her mother for the birth of her first child.
Then there's the matter of Raheen. There are several in Ireland but none in the Parish of Baltinglass according to Google Maps. However, other maps place Raheen under two miles from Baltinglass, (thank you Dara)! Two miles is not a deal breaker, so I'm not ruling this registration out on that basis.
The occupation of laborer is more troubling. When the birth of James' son John was registered in 1864 in Baltinglass, James' occupation was given as, "dealer". Dealer of what I can't tell. His son Daniel's registration two years later says James was a shopkeeper at that time. Why would he be a laborer three years later? I guess it's possible he fell on hard times and lost the shop. But who was Judy Connors? The death certificate states James was married when he passed, I was expecting the document would have been signed by his wife Anna, that would have made things nice and tidy but it was not to be. I found what I believe is Judy Connor's death in Raheen in 1873 at the age of fifty-three. She was widowed and there was no mention of a maiden name so I can't determine if she was a relative. I looked for a marriage for her but nothing promising was found.
On the other hand, there are parts that do fit. The name for one, there weren't many James Quigley's in the area and this man's age is what I would have expected given Anna McGarr's age. A baptism in nearby Hacketstown Parish just across the border of Wicklow and Carlow shows the baptism of Joannes Quigley of Knockagilky on 13 May 1830. The parents were Joannes Quigley and Sarah Whelan, also what I would have expected. The children of the Quigley/McGarr marriage, in order, were Anna, for Anna's mother, Sarah for James' mother, John for James' father, and Daniel for Anna's father. I can't account for James' name being recorded as John, but stranger things have happened in church records.
Also, I know my James Quigley was indeed married when he died. When James and Anna's last child Mary was born on 30 April 1869 at Baltinglass, her registration notes that her father James Quigley was deceased. That means he must have died between about August of 1868 and April of 1869. The date of January third would fit nicely. Like her older brother Daniel, Mary's birth registration was singed by Kate Haydon, another mystery lady.
While I plan to spend more time analyzing this, I think it probably is the registration of James Quigley who married Anna McGarr. If anything changes I will be blogging about it again...
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