Sorry that this goes on a bit, but it is the current brick wall.
The problem is to determine why members of two apparently separate branches of the McDermott family referred to each other as “cousins”. We have Hugh Patrick McDermott – otherwise Hughie - (b. Waterford 1874) on one side and two members of the other side
- Frederick Hugh McDermott (otherwise “Freddie Mac”, b. 1898, Cheshire)
- Mary Wardle Thompson (b.1896, Derbyshire) – otherwise “May Savage” or more formally as Mary Thompson Savage.
May Savage is of particular interest, as she stayed in Dublin with Hughie McDermott in 1941 at the time of the blitz on Belfast. Her oldest son (Joseph – or Joey) was shot down over Belfast (as an Air Gunner, on night-fighters, in the RAF), and May came to Dublin with her two remaining sons (Gerald and Stanley). My wife can remember Gerald and Stanley trying to console May after the news of Joey’s death. Thus, my wife, a grand-daughter of Hughie McDermott, met May Savage, Stanley Savage and Gerald Savage, in the house of Hughie McDermott.
Each branch of the McDermotts used a lot of the same first names for their children in the late 19th Century. This could be just co-incidence, or it could suggest that there was a lot of communication between the two sides. The branch that went to England in the 1870s has a family legend about “Another branch heading into the South of Ireland”, but we have no proof either way. We have the branch that went to England pretty well sorted, but can find no connection with the Waterford/Dublin side.
Geoff
The problem is to determine why members of two apparently separate branches of the McDermott family referred to each other as “cousins”. We have Hugh Patrick McDermott – otherwise Hughie - (b. Waterford 1874) on one side and two members of the other side
- Frederick Hugh McDermott (otherwise “Freddie Mac”, b. 1898, Cheshire)
- Mary Wardle Thompson (b.1896, Derbyshire) – otherwise “May Savage” or more formally as Mary Thompson Savage.
May Savage is of particular interest, as she stayed in Dublin with Hughie McDermott in 1941 at the time of the blitz on Belfast. Her oldest son (Joseph – or Joey) was shot down over Belfast (as an Air Gunner, on night-fighters, in the RAF), and May came to Dublin with her two remaining sons (Gerald and Stanley). My wife can remember Gerald and Stanley trying to console May after the news of Joey’s death. Thus, my wife, a grand-daughter of Hughie McDermott, met May Savage, Stanley Savage and Gerald Savage, in the house of Hughie McDermott.
Each branch of the McDermotts used a lot of the same first names for their children in the late 19th Century. This could be just co-incidence, or it could suggest that there was a lot of communication between the two sides. The branch that went to England in the 1870s has a family legend about “Another branch heading into the South of Ireland”, but we have no proof either way. We have the branch that went to England pretty well sorted, but can find no connection with the Waterford/Dublin side.
Geoff
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