Service Resumed...

I can hardly believe it's been 21 months since I last posted on this blog. Marilyn's genealogy answered a lot of questions and I think I ran out of steam as regards continuing to research the questions that remained. The small matter of a cancer diagnosis in September last year also took my attention away from family history. Thankfully, I'm back to full health again.

But just as my own interest in the subject was reviving in recent months it seems Marilyn had got a new spurt of energy too and she has been trying to sort out the several strands of Hendersons that run in our ancestry. That's still a work in progress and may well be the subject of another post. Meanwhile, I've just returned from a visit to the General Register Office in Dublin where the pre-1921 civil records for the six counties of Northern Ireland are held. Although I was focusing more on my mother's side of the family I did get hold of two death certificates from the Crozier side.

Catherine Crozier, my great grandmother, wife of Joseph Crozier (c1837-?1919) died on 1 March 1917 at Moorfield. Her age last birthday is given as 61. In fact she had just turned 72 as she was born on 8 February 1845. Her Rank, Profession or Occupation is recorded as Farmer's wife and the Certified Cause of Death was "Probably Influenza" but no doctor was in attendance. The death was registered on 6 March by her son Joseph Crozier of Moneygowan (known to us a Meenagowan).

Although I didn't get the certificate for her husband's death, the indexes to the registers show the death of a Joseph Crozier of Kilskeery in 1919. I hope to go down to Dublin again fairly soon and I'll get this certificate and will hopefully be able to confirm that it is my great grandfather. I also looked at the index for their marriage, which took place on 23 July 1866 and was registered in Enniskillen. Catherine's maiden name is recorded in that instance as Donnell.

The other certificate I got was for the death of Catherine's mother Jane. Jane's maiden name was Henderson, she came from Cabra, and, according to the Kilskeery Parish Records, she married Hugh O'Donnell, also from Cabra, on 27 October 1821. She died on 20 March 1864. Her age is given as 65 so if this is right, and we can't be certain that it is, she was born in 1799. Kilskeery records don't record the birth of any Jane Henderson in Cabra in that year or even 10 years either side. The death certificate notes that she was the wife of Hugh O'Donnel and Catherine's own name is also spelt with a single 'l'. The death was registered by her son-in-law Andy Armstrong of Laughterush (husband of Hugh and Catherine's daughter Mary) and he was present when she died.

The cause of death brought me up short - Ovarian Disease; and the certificate notes that she had had this for 10 years. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to have a deadly cancer back in 1864 with no access to surgery, chemotherapy or pain relief. I wonder what she must have suffered.

Having seen this, I now fully appreciate the value of actually getting your hands on the certificate, as it can yield so much more information than what's available from the index. So I'll definitely be back for more at some stage over the coming months.

In the meantime, best wishes to all the Children of Moorfield.