McDonagh brothers of Gurteen, Sligo

Hi Everyone,

Missing birth records. My husband's grandfather was known as Matthew Patrick McDonagh and he was born in Gurteen, Sligo, Ireland, however, he did not know when he was born. He wrote back to his brother, Michael, "When were you born? I am older than you."

Michael's daughter, told me that her father had a lot of trouble getting an old age pension, as his birth record could not be found.

The parents of Matthew and Michael were John McDonagh and Bridget Finn who married 23 Feburary 1866 at Bunnindaden, County Sligo.

Their children's birth records at Gurteen have been found for John 1866, James 1869, Mary/Maria 1871, Francis 1875, Peter 1877, Sara Jane 1879.

On Family Search I have now found transcriptions of Batty born 26/1/1874 and Martin 1/2/1874. Recently I have heard Matthew referred to as Matty and I am thinking that Batty should be Matty. I am also thinking that the years should be 1873 and 1874, but how Martin became Michael very confusing. (Film Batch No. C70155-4, GS Film 255896, ID v 4-1 p 115)

I am wondering if anyone can view the original records on either family search of findmypast and see if the transcription is accurate. Thank you Julie

[Merry]

Julie, You can use this site to look for free and see the original entries:

https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/

Chose Civil Records and it will ask you your name and that you are not a robot (!) but that's all. I was going to look at them for you until I saw how many matches there were!! The problem is, though the images have the mmn the indexes don't in the earlier years.

[Merry]

I searched McDonagh 1873 to 1875 and the first of the four Martin matches was one of yours. (To get you started!)

[Merry]

Oh, once you have the list of results you can click the county on the left. That would have made the list shorter!

[kiterunner]

If you look at the Martin birth registration, it is one on a page all registered 16 Mar 1874 by Hannah Dolan, present at birth, presumably the midwife. She "made her mark", so I don't suppose she was able to keep notes of actual birth dates.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy....56/2157661.pdf

And the Batty one (transcribed as Bartly on the Irish civil reg site) was registered 7 Feb 1874 by John McDonagh.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy....56/2157657.pdf

So I think they are both for the same child.

That is excellent ladies. The fact that both the nurse and the father couldn't write in English gives a fair explanation for error. With the nurse and the name Martin, the entry above is also Martin, which allows for an incorrect duplication. With the father I feel he probably said Matty and it was written down Batty, especially with a broad west Irish accent. In my mind the date the father gives is more likely to be accurate as he is only registering his child, not a list as was the nurse and her dates are all over the place. In my mind I have found Mathew's birth, but it is still possible it is Michael's. I would have thought though that when Michael was looking for his birth reg for his pension that it should have been found. I have found a birth for a Francis 5/8/1875 and he was on the Census in 1911 unmarried. I have now found a birth reg for a Peter on 20/6/1877, but I have not found him on the census or by family memory. I now the two older brothers were John and James and one went to USA and one to the UK, so I am sure that unless he died in infancy I would have heard about him. I am now wondering if this is Michael!!