Mary Ann McMonagle b 17 July 1860

[squasher55]

Hi folks,

This one is a mystery for 25 yrs. but now I have discovered she was born in Londonderry, so that should help...on 17 July, 1860. We do not know anything about her parents. She also married in Londonderry in Jan-march, 1879 to Tenison V W Edwards. They then left for Canada, where they both lived and later died in Toronto, Ontario.

Any info on her birth or her parents would be much appreciated.

[Raffaele]

I googled Londonderry Births Marriages Deaths and this repsonse looked quite interesting

http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/index.php?fo...nty&county=205

The General Register Office (GRO) has details of all births, marriages and deaths from 1837 to date for England and Wales and are available with most genealogy sites.
The Scottish GRO is covered by Scotlands people.

I am not sure about Ireland as the British rule was rather different. Londonderry is Northern irelenad so the GRO records should be preserved. There are some references to this on the site I found.

[squasher55]

I just found her marriage record, with her name spelled Mary Ann M'Monagle. This is interesting, and I believe she did come from an uneducated background, and spelling may not have been their strong point.

But this seems to make searches more difficult.

[Raffaele]

It gets even worse with O' surnames. It can be dropped all together, abbreviated, treated as a middle name etc.
Add to that the indexing mistranscriptions when the records are put online and it is a nightmare.
Well done on that find.

[olliecat]

As this was pre-1922, you can order the marriage certificate through the GRO at Roscommon.The names of their fathers should be on the certificate as well their ages (unless it says full age), which should make searching for a birth certificate or a baptism easier. If you ask the GRO for a research copy (a photocopy) it works out cheaper than a certified copy. A photocopy was €4.00 the last time I checked.

You will need these details from the index...

Marriages Mar 1879 Londonderry 2 264
Mary Ann M'Monagle
Tenison W Edwards
Note: On the same page 6 others are listed. Also please check the details for yourself in the index, in case I've made any typos.

As for the spelling of her surname, the clerk may have written her surname that way and she didn't notice or she was illiterate and didn't realise or she may have believed that the spelling was correct as the spelling of names did vary a lot during the 19th century. Or, the surname was badly written on the certificate and was meant to be McMonagle.