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2024 Week 40: Least #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 The two great-great grandmothers that I know the least about are my two Irish great-grandmothers, one paternal and one maternal, Sarah Diamond and Jane Chambers. That is not surprising since Irish records can be difficult to research and to find. So what do I know of them and what information am I missing?

Sarah first appears when she marries my 2 x great grandfather, William Boag in Glasgow in 1819. Both were working in the textile industry.

Source: Scotlands People

 Their marriage in the Gorbals was conducted by an independent minister, the significance of which was lost on me at the time but became clearer once I started looking for the baptismal records of her children, whom I had found in the 1841 census for Eaglesham, where William was a cotton spinner. Although I could find her sons' baptisms in the Church of Scotland records, it was only when I checked the Catholic records that I found her daughters! That suggested that Sarah was an Irish Catholic and why her marriage to William had to have been conducted by an independent minister as 'mixed' marriages were frowned upon and Sarah would not have been able to marry a Protestant in her church, nor marry in his, unless she renounced her faith. A compromise seems to have been reached, whereupon her daughters were baptised as Catholics and her sons as Protestants! 

So I know Sarah was an Irish Catholic. But what else do I know? Not much at all. I have been unable to trace her beyond the 1841 census. Her daughter Mary's own death certificate in 1869 reports her mother as deceased. I have been unable to find any record of her death. Her husband William is living with another woman by 1850 and goes on to have two children with her. However, there's no evidence come to light of a marriage to this other woman either. I presume Sarah may have died between 1841 and 1850, but it is also possible that she didn't. For all I know she could have gone back to Ireland - maybe she still had family there. If so, who were they and where were they? 

Irish records from the beginning of the 19th century are very hard to trace. From sources online, I have found a Sarah Diamond, born to a John Diamond and his wife Ann in County Carlow, which lies in the south of Ireland, but as Sarah used neither of these names for her children, it is hard to say that these are her parents. So I don't know for certain where Sarah came from and I don't know what happened to her in the end. 

My other Irish great-great grandmother, Jane Chambers was a Protestant. She married Matthew Keir, a weaver, in 1848 and they lived in Kirkfieldbank, near Lanark in Scotland. She had at least four children with Matthew, but he died a 'pauper'  at age 39 of consumption. Jane also worked in the textile industry as a winder. She remarried a decade after Matthew died and died herself in Glasgow aged 65. So, unlike Sarah, I do what happened to her in the end. And it was her 'end' that gave me information about her 'beginning' as her death certificate gave her parents as  Benjamin Chambers and Elizabeth Mitchell - my Irish 3 x great grandparents. I have been able to trace them to a county in the north of Ireland, County Monaghan. So I do know more about her than I do Sarah. 

However, what I don't know is why they both came to Scotland, though I can surmise it was to find work. They both came over pre-famine, so looking for work is the most likely reason and both found work - and husbands -  in the textile industry. I don't know when they came over - no passenger lists exist for travel between Ireland and Scotland. Where did they go to when they arrived at first? Did they have family here already?? And how did they feel at having to leave their home country? - scared? relieved?? 

In any case I'm glad they came and made a life here. These two woman gave me the 27% Irish component in my DNA!

Source: AncestryDNA

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