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St John the Baptist Church, Cobh (Queenstown) Via: Cobh Heritage Centre |
In the last year I've obtained my certificate of entry on the Foreign Births Register, so I'll be celebrating (using the term loosely under the current pandemic) St Patrick's Day for the first time as an Irish Citizen. Growing up, I knew my grandmother had lived in Ireland, but her father had always claimed to be Welsh (nope) and we had no idea where she was born until I began this research. Having now obtained her Irish birth certificate, I was able to apply, but we still thought that my family were just immigrants in Ireland. However, in a somewhat circular story, the family had settled in Ireland, because we already had Irish roots, through my 2x great-grandmother.
Having contacted Cobh Parish Office, they were able to tell me that my 2x great-grandparents, Thomas Jones and Mary Harty had married, on 7 January 1844, at St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Cobh (Queenstown). St John the Baptist was the Catholic Church for Cobh from 1810 to 1868, when it was demolished to make way for the bigger St Colman's Cathedral.
Thomas Jones, we can be fairly confident was born in 1817 - he gives the same information on the census and his naval record at least. Thomas was a sailor with a long career in the Navy - which I'll cover in detail in later posts because it requires so much more research - and as a Coastguard. As I've previously covered, he was posted to Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire until 1851.
On the 1851 census in England Thomas is listed as having been born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, but looking for a Jones birth there redefines the meaning of looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. He appears to be consistent and truthful, so I have no reason to disbelieve it, but see no way of either proving or disproving it, nor discovering who his parents were.
(The 1844 parish marriage record is very scant in detail and does not include the names of the bride and groom's parents and there wasn't civil registration in Ireland at that date, so there aren't the usual hints to follow.)
But briefly, having been promoted from Able Seaman to Captain's Guard - presumably, a handy sort of bloke - while on HMS Belleisle (during the First Opium War) in 1842, Thomas transferred back to HMS Caledonia (he was on this ship previously in 1841), also as Captain's Guard, in late 1843 and was still serving on that ship at the time of their marriage. One assumes that it was this promotion that gave Thomas the salary necessary to afford a wife.
Mary Harty, according to what records there are for her, must have been born around 1821. Although she married in Cobh, I cannot assume that she was from there originally. My late cousin in Ireland had said that Mary later went "up country" to where her people were from, so perhaps she may have come to Cobh for work and met Thomas there. What we do know from that 1851 English census is that Mary was born in Ireland and, later from the 1901 Irish census, that she spoke both Irish and English. But I've found no records that tell me where her exact place of birth or original parish was though.
We do know that Mary had a younger sister, Ellen Harty (b. 1825), who was visiting them in Sutton Bridge, England in 1851, but who was also one of the sponsors at Nicholas Jones' baptism, in Rath, Ireland in 1853.
Having married in the January, from 1 Mar 1844, Thomas transferred to HMS America, also as Captain's Guard. Just enough time to start a family:
- Mary Ann Jones, born in Ireland in 1844
- Rees Jones, born 25 May 1849 in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
- David Jones, born 10 Jul 1850 in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire
- Anna Jones, bap 4 Oct 1851 at Sacred Heart Church, Rath
- Nicholas Jones, bap 17 May 1853 at Sacred Heart Church, Rath
- Thomas Jones, bap 17 Sep 1854 at Sacred Heart Church, Rath
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Coastguard station and coastguard cottages: Mariner’s Row, the terrace of coastguard houses on the edge of the Cove in Baltimore, Cork |
From Thomas' Pension Record, we know that he'd joined the Coast Guard service as a Boatman on 28 Dec 1847. That may have been when they went to Sutton Bridge. The Coastguard Establishment Books for Ireland (ADM 175/19) at The National Archives at Kew show that Thomas Jones was posted to Baltimore, West Cork on 2 Jun 1851 and I can only guess that this was a request to be posted back to Ireland because Mary wanted to be in her own country and nearer family. Griffith's Valuation of 1853 shows that Thomas rented a house and office in Tullagh civil parish from John Goodchild.
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Section S of the Clonmel Old Church Cemetery (Cobh), Cork |
“Erected by David Jones In memory of his beloved father Thos. Jones Who died Jan. 8th 1873 aged 56 years”.
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