Genealogy Chat

I am going round in circles (and round the bend!) looking for the marriage of Martin Melia born c 1846 in Ireland) with Mary O' Donnell (born c 1846 in Liverpool.) Their oldest daughter Sarah Ann Melia was born in 1872. I have the certificate which is how I have Mary's maiden name.

The family lived in Liverpool - I have them on census for 1881 / 1891 / 1901 living in the Toxteth Park area. I have looked on Ancestry, Lancashire bmd and Familysearch - but no sign of a Lancashire wedding - or one further afield for that matter. I have tried many different spelling of Melia - O' Melia, Mealey, Maley etc, and O' Donnell - Donnell, Donald etc.

I have bought a 1873 certificate for Martin Melia with Maria Guinan in case she had been married before, but Guinan was her maiden name - so no luck there.

Someone suggested looking at Ireland for a wedding, so I tried Familysearch and the Irish Family History Society online. Some Martin Melia entries came up, but there were no corresponding ones for Mary O' Donnell in the same County / year.

There is no sign of Mary's birth registered in Liverpool at the time, but there are 4 possible IGI Extracted records at roughly the right time. With no marriage certificate I don't know which one is mine. It is worse for Martin - no father's name and no idea which County in Ireland to start searching.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do next??

Thank you for ploughing through all this!
Christine

Christine

Possibly not a lot of help but, I was looking at this earlier & the best I could come up with (thinking outside the box & clutching at straws!) was the following marriage on FreeBMD - could Martin have changed his name? Have you found him on the 1871 census? What was his occupation on Sarah's birth cert?

Marriages Sep 1872 (>99%)
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Downes Elizabeth Liverpool 8b 405
FAGAN Arthur Liverpool 8b 405
McLaughlan Martin Liverpool 8b 405
O'Donnell Mary Liverpool 8b 405


Angela

Hi Angela

Thank you for that. I hadn't seen that one. Their daughter Sarah was born February 1872, and Martin's occupation was given as Dock Labourer - the same as on the census copies I have.

I have found a possible sighting of them in 1871 but they are under the name Martin & Mary Mealey (from Ireland & Liverpool respectively.) They have a son Michael Melia (aged 3) and a daughter Mary Melia (aged 10 months.) Martin - a Dock Labourer. I think this may be them.

I think I may have to follow some long shots here

Tina

Hi Joan

Thank you for your reply. Yes, unfortunately I have had to consider that they may not have married. If Martin was already married, maybe they would have had to wait until he was able to (I have had that in one of my families) but I have looked for Lancashire marriages upto about 1910.

I believe that this side of the family were very determined Irish Catholics, so hoped that them remaining unmarried was very unlikely.

Either way I just want to be sure that I have exhausted all possibilities before giving up

Tina

Although not related to the marraige it is interesting that in 1871 there was a Mary O Melia listed as a boarder and hawker age 26 from Westport in Ireland, living next door to the Martin and Mary

I see what you mean K. A possible sister? The Melias seem to pick up and drop the O' whenever they fancy. Martin's younger children, James and Maria, were Melia in 1891 and O' Melia in 1901. I have heard that many Irish Immigrants had to drop the O' in order to get work in Liverpool at the time - to seem more English. Maybe the men where more likely to do that than the women, or maybe the ennumerators had difficulty with accents / similar names?

Tina