(Or did I have a doppelganger grandfather who lived in a parallel universe?)

WHAT I KNEW

Not a lot! I had a paternal grandfather called Thomas McDermott, who had a mother called Bridie. He was born in 1888 in Carrick on Shannon, Leitrim, Ireland, where he raised his family that included my father, and where he lived his entire life. I “met” him when I was little more than a baby and he died when I was very young.

When I began researching my family tree, my father and all but one of his siblings had died, so I had almost no-one to whom I could direct questions, not that I had any pertinent questions to direct.

Some years ago, my father’s only surviving sibling – Aunt Chrissie – then in her late 70’s, went to Ireland and while she was there, she tried to get a copy of Thomas’s birth certificate. She was told that his birth had not been registered. But apparently she found the record of his baptism, and discovered (with a certain amount of shock) that he had been illegitimate. That was what she said, nothing more, nothing less.

Being relatively new to genealogy, I didn’t ask any intelligent questions, or any questions at all, such as, where was he baptised, what exactly did the record say, can you get a copy of it? Etc. Etc.
Now wasn’t that silly??

WHAT I DISCOVERED

In 1901, 12 year old Thomas McDermott is in Kiltoghert, Carrick on Shannon. His family consists of:


A bit of a complicated family set up, but easy enough to dissect.
In order for Bridget to be his step daughter, William Gallagher was clearly not Margaret’s first husband. I presumed she had been previously married to a McDermott and was a widow when she married William. Bridget (McDermott) had obviously married a Delaney since Thomas’s birth and had three further children.

Then I acquired Thomas’s army record. He gives his age, in January 1908, as 19 years, his residence as Kiltoghert, and his next of kin as mother – Bridget, residence The Green, Boyle, Roscommon (where Bridget Delaney was living in 1911) and grandmother – Margaret.

All a perfect fit so far!

As I believed Thomas’s birth was not registered, I didn’t even look for it. Instead, I searched for a marriage for a Bridget McDermott to somebody-Delaney, probably early in the 1890s. But there was no such marriage. Nor was there a relevant marriage for a William Gallagher – to anyone. So, I searched for the births of the Delaney children. They were easy to find. Father, Patrick Delaney, mother – not the Bridget McDermott she was supposed to be - but Bridget Keegan.
WHAT ...................??!!!

Then Bridget’s marriage came to light. She married, as a spinster, in 1893 in Roscommon, daughter of William Keegan. Of course, Thomas’s birth had been registered, just not as McDermott! Thomas Keegan was born on October 16th 1888, in Carrick on Shannon Workhouse to mother Bridget Keegan and no father.

So how on earth did granddad Thomas acquire the name McDermott? General consensus of opinion and the most likely explanation was that McDermott was the name of his biological father, presumably put on his baptism record. It sort of made sense, but only if his father was “around” and had stepped up to his responsibilities. Otherwise, it just made Thomas’s illegitimacy even more obvious. There was also this nagging question of why, in that case, Bridget had not married her McDermott paramour.

No baptism record for Thomas McDermott could be found. But Thomas Keegan ............!

Thomas Keegan was baptised on October 17th 1888, in Kiltoghert Parish. Mother Bridget Keegan, father Thady Keegan. This was the day after Thomas was born, which was the norm. There were no other Thomas Keegan’s (on available records) around at the time and what sort of name is Thady anyway????

This had to be my Thomas, whose real identity, (and mine too!) was now suddenly, very questionable indeed.

At this point, I have to give massive thanks to all the people who have helped me with this conundrum. There have been many knowledgeable people on genealogical forums, and especially the people on the other side of the Irish Sea, who have gone well out of their way to help me. The parish churches at Carrick and Boyle; Leitrim main library, Carrick on Shannon History Society – they couldn’t have done more to help.

About 19th century Irish Baptisms

A lovely Irish priest taught me much about baptisms in the 19th century. In the first place, illegitimacy had no more stigma in Ireland than it had in England at the time. It certainly had far less stigma than it has these days.

A father HAD to be named on a baptism record. It didn’t matter if it was the alleged father, or even the slightly suspected father, a father-of-the-child’s name was mandatory. The named father had no right of objection either! As this was Church Law, the mother was under threat of Hell Fire and Damnation if she wasn’t completely honest about the father’s name. In small towns and villages, the parish priest probably had a fair idea of who the father of the child was anyway! In large towns, or where the mother wasn’t known to the priest, she could risk Hell Fire and Damnation and on occasions probably did, by putting any father’s name she wanted to.

But, illegitimacy was NOT routinely recorded on baptism records. A priest could make a note of the fact, but it would be unusual, because most priests neither asked nor cared about the marital status of the mother. All they cared about was saving the soul of the child. And having a father’s name on the record!


Where does Bridget Keegan fit into all that? I don’t know if she was “known” to the parish priest in Carrick, or what she was doing there. Her mother (according to the 1911 census) married William Gallagher circa 1880, but as I can’t find the marriage, I don’t know where they married so cannot even guess where they might have been in 1888. True, they were in Carrick in 1901, but that was 12 years later.

WHAT DOESN’T ADD UP

Firstly, if, as is most likely, the baptism for Thomas Keegan is actually Thomas McDermott, how did my aunt find it? She didn’t mention the name Keegan when she told me and she came home still saying that Thomas’s birth hadn’t been registered. The people in Carrick and Boyle (where his mother settled) do not have a baptism for a Thomas McDermott. If illegitimacy isn’t recorded on a baptism, how did aunt get that information?

I now suspect that Aunt Chrissy didn’t personally find the baptism record at all, nor did she see it. At the time I was quite impressed that she’d even thought to look for it! I think she must have spoken to someone in Carrick about her father (the family being well-known in the town), possibly someone connected to the Church, who did a bit of genealogical digging on her behalf, or possibly someone who already “knew” about Thomas. Perhaps they didn’t like to tell her the whole story. She was after all, an elderly (and somewhat excitable) lady. This doesn’t sound terribly plausible, but I can’t think of any other explanation.

Secondly, Aunt Chrissy must have known Thomas’s mother. This was her grandmother, and she lived until the 1950’s. My father certainly knew her and mentioned Bridie on many occasions. Aunt must surely have known that her grandmother’s surname was Delaney and not McDermott. Did she never question that? My father never mentioned it either, and yet two of Thomas McDermott’s Delaney half-siblings were at his funeral, so they were known to the family. Did Bridget and/or Thomas preserve both their reputations by perhaps telling the family that she had been married to a Thomas* McDermott and had been widowed before marrying Patrick Delaney?

*I use the name Thomas as it is a Thomas McDermott that Thomas junior names as his father on his marriage certificate. I’ve no idea if that is the real name of his father; if that is who he was told was the name of his father; or if he just put in a likely name rather than leaving “father’s name” as a blank space on the register.

If so, how, where and why does Thady Keegan come into it? The only Thady Keegan in 1901 is in Cavan with his family. But ........................ his eldest child is 11, and his wife was from Leitrim. Therefore, was he perhaps in Leitrim 12 years earlier when Thomas was born?? If he was Thomas’s biological father, it makes Thomas’s acquisition of the name McDermott even more of a mystery.

Along the way of this research, I have collected over 100 names – marriage witnesses, baptism sponsors, every piece of information I can find about anyone connected to the family. That coupled with granddad Thomas’s long and detailed obituary that named everyone who send a mass card, a sympathy card, or who turned up to the funeral means I have a list of what must be every Irish surname in the country. Except one. There are no McDermotts. The one name that is obvious by its absence. This may, or may not be, coincidence.

If Thomas’s father was a McDermott, then presumably he had McDermott grandparents; aunts, uncles and cousins. Where were they? Either they didn’t know about his existence, or they were having nothing whatsoever to do with him. Or they didn’t exist .........?

It’s tempting to search out and size up every Thomas McDermott for miles around as a potential womanising cad and absent father. It’s very tempting to be extremely suspicious of Carrick’s very own McDermott family, the prestigious and wealthy owners of the Bush Hotel, where Thomas (coincidentally?) spent some of his working life. I would dearly love to know where 16 year old Bridget Keegan was working when she became pregnant ................!

Incidentally, Anthony Trollope’s first book was called The McDermotts of Ballycloran, and some of the story is set in the Bush Hotel in Carrick. The McDermotts in the book are described as subversives! I can well believe that!

A more realistic small claim to literary fame – granddad Thomas actually features in a book. Written by Neil Shine, a descendant of a Carrick resident, it’s called Life with Mae. There is a photo of Tommy “the Glazier” McDermott. This is interesting as it implies that maybe granddad took over William Gallagher’s (his step-grandfather) glazier business. But very strange that on Thomas’s obituary, 9 years after the photo was taken, Tommy “the Glazier” is said to be a butcher, with no mention at all of his being a glazier!

I have researched in every conceivable direction. I have grasped enough straws to stuff a medieval mattress. I have contacted all and sundry. I have found a new Irish second cousin along the way; I even contacted a descendant of my grandfather’s next door neighbours, whose family tree I found on Ancestry. I have several more names of families in Carrick who remember my family. I’m going to be known as the Mad English Carrick Stalker soon.

But who was my granddad and by default, who am I? A McDermott or a Keegan. Or both.

My gut feeling is that there is Something Wrong with this whole situation, or I am missing some vital piece of information, but I can’t even think of what or how. I somehow doubt that I ever will.