Molly and Thady's Children: Kathleen Manning, b 28th July 1916 died 25th March 1935

The record of Kathy's baptism from Kilrush Church.  This is a picture of Kathy with her older brother Jimo sometime in the 1920s.  This might have been her confirmation - there is no date on the photo.

Molly and Thady's Children: James ('Jimo') Manning, b 19th August 1908 died 25th Feb 1973

 

This is one of the last photographs taken of my grandfather, Jimo Manning, before he died in 1973.  Here we see him at his younger daughter's wedding - my mother Catherine Hally.  On my mother's right is her elder sister, Mary and to Jimo's left is my father's sister, Marie.  Jimo's oldest child of the three - my uncle Timothy 'Teddy' Manning - is absent from this photo and was not at the wedding because his son had just been born 12 days previously in England where Teddy and his wife Kathleen had lived since the mid 60s.

Jimo was born in Hector Street  in Kilrush in 1908 at the house where Thady and Molly lived.  We believe he was the second last child in that family of nine before Catherine was born in 1916.  Mary Manning above believes there were nine in the family in total even though we have Baptismal records of a ninth child Joannes born in 1912 before Catherine was  born in 1916 (she was either the 9th or 10th child).  My mother does not remember anything about a 'John' or Joannes either so the mystery remains here until we determine who this child was. 

Snippets of the Baptismal records of Jimo (Jacobus) 1908 and 'Joannes' 1912:

 

Molly and Thady's Children: Michael Manning, b 16th Sept 1906 died 1960(?)

 

Thanks to my mother's cousin John Burke we know that the poor soul spent most of his life being cared for by the State because of his mental condition.  Apparently he was 18 years of age when something occurred to cause him to lose his memory.  John Burke's mother used to visit 'Mike' each week in Our Lady's Hospital in Ennis and John describes him as having a condition like Alzheimers but from a young age.  

John believes that this is Mike above to the left of the photo and that he was buried in Kilrush around the age of 60. 

Molly and Thady's Children: Christopher Manning, b 9th Dec1894 died(?) Thomas Manning b 23 March 1904 died(?)

From the Census 1911 details in Mary Anne's post below we know that two out of 8 children were not living by 1911 and we are assuming they were Christopher and Thomas whose baptism records are shown here.

Molly and Thady's Children: Mary Ann Manning, b 11th May 1898 died 1st May 1933

Mary Anne was the fourth child of Timothy and Mary Brann (Thady and Molly).  She was born in Kilrush on 11th May 1898.  The Kilrush Parish records show her parents as 'Thady' Manning and Mary Brann but the Parish Priest had written Mary 'Crotty' by accident then changed it to Brann later.  

 

 A Maria Crotty was married to a Patrick Manning living in Crofton Street in the 1901 Census.  Below is an amalgamation of three Kilrush household records from the Census of 1901 and in the second family we see Timothy 'Thady' as head of household and Mary Ann recorded as a 3 year old child while Ellen is only a 7 month old baby.

We also have some Census 1911 records for the same families and Mary Anne was at home that day.  We see the family is growing and my grandfather Jimo (James) is there and he is only 3.  There is a lady named Mary Brann there who is 69 years of age and is labelled 'Boarder' - this could be Molly Brann's mother or aunt.

We see that by this time, Thady and Molly had had 8 children,  6 of them living.  We have records for a Christopher born in 1894 who doesn't appear later and we also we have the baptism of a Thomas born in 1904.  Since these people don't turn up on the 1911 Census we are assuming they were deceased by that time.

Mary Anne's Confirmation in 1911 a few months after the Census was taken:

She went to the U.S. at some point but we don't know how old she was then or why she went.  Below is a photograph of herself and her brother Joseph smiling in the back but the other people don't look too happy!  It may have been the Roaring Twenties from the appearance of what Mary Anne was wearing.

We have no other images of this woman besides this one above and the photos of her below with her other sisters.  There is probably no one around today who has any memories of this lady but it looks like she might have been good fun and she certainly mingled with her family on this side of the Atlantic and the other.

Mary Anne died of tuberculosis on the 1st May 1933 at the age of 35 and is buried in Kilrush.

Molly and Thady's Children: Joseph P. Manning b. 17 March 1896 - 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers WW1

Joseph Manning was the third child of Thady and Molly and obviously from the photo above was a soldier for some time.  He served with the British Army during World War One with the Royal Munster Fusiliers,  2nd Battalion, Royal Garrison Artillery Corps .

Here is what happened to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers at the start of WWI:

2nd Battalion
August 1914 : at Aldershot. Part of 1st (Guards) Brigade in 1st Division.
14 August 1914 : landed at Le Havre.
14 September 1914 : after suffering heavy casualties at Etreux, left Division and became Army Troops.
9 November 1914 : transferred to 3rd Brigade in 1st Division.
30 May 1916 : absorbed troops from disbanded 9th Bn.
3 February 1918 : transferred to 48th Brigade in 16th (Irish) Division.
13-14 April: aborbed the 19th Entrenching Battalion.
19 April 1918 : reduced to cadre, surplus troops going to 1st Bn.
31 May 1918 : cadre transferred to 94th Brigade in 31st Division.
6 June 1918 : rebuilt by receiving troops from disbanded 6th Bn. Ten days later left Division and moved to Lines of Communication.
15 July 1918 : transferred to 150th Brigade in 50th (Northumbrian) Division
http://www.1914-1918.net/rmf.htm 

He spent four years as a prisoner of war in Germany and is listed in this Clare Library link with two other Mannings - Pat and PJ also from Pound Street, Hector Street in Kilrush - one of them held in Turkish hands.  Kilrush Men engaged in World War I.

He is also listed with a Patrick Brann who was wounded in France.  Could that Patrick Brann be a relative of Molly's?  Her brother maybe?  And who were the other two Mannings - Pat and PJ?

Molly and Thady's Children: Ellen Manning Nielsen b 26.8.1900 Kilrush County Clare

According to her great grand-daughter, Ellie Manning on the right of this picture left Kilrush for the U.S. in about 1918.  She was married to Anton Nielsen in St. Mary Magdalen Church in Omaha Nebraska in-------

St. Mary Magdalen Church 109 South 19th Street in Omaha Nebraska

and may have went to the U.S. in 1919 from a ship's record below found by a relative.  Mary Ann her older sister of 2 years pictured on the left above was living at the time in the U.S.  Mary later returned to Ireland and died of T.B. in Kilrush in 1933 aged 33.  Ellie lived in Omaha Nebraska for ----- years until her death in ------.

From one ship's manifest in 1919 :

Ship: The Baltic
Departure Port: Liverpool
Arrived in New York Dec. 19, 1919
Age: 19
5'6" brown hair blue eyes
Complexion: fair
Place of Birth: Kilrush Ireland

Pictured below is Anton Nielsen and Ellie Manning, married in the U.S. and who had four children - Helen, Mary Ann, Michael and Robert.

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Today 18th of January was a lovely day in Kilrush and myself and my mother, Cathy Manning Hally, daughter of Jimo spent a few hours searching through parish records and taking photographs of graves. 

   Old Shanakyle* is in a beautiful location about one mile outside Kilrush on the north bank of the Shannon Estuary overlooking the islands of Hog and Scattery.  The graveyard was neglected in the past and became overgrown with virulent weeds, hedging, rhododendrons and all sorts!  At time of writing, this graveyard is being tended to by some local lads and it looks very well.

(*'Shanakyle probably originates from the Gaelic "sean cill", meaning "old church". It is the site of a graveyard outside Kilrush, County Clare, where famine victims were buried during the 19th century. Thirty-nine hundred people died in the Kilrush workhouse in the years 1847-1849'.  Link to this info  - I believe the population of Kilrush was around 8000 people before the Famine so if these anecdotes are true then the Kilrush was halved in size in a very short time - most of it from deaths.  Some people here believe the whole town in haunted and little wonder they do ... )