52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - A Small Detail I Love

 

Margaret McLoughlin nee Flanagan 1835-1908

Thanks to my cousin Marilyn (and other cousins too, I suspect), I am very lucky indeed to have a picture of my 2nd-great-grandmother, and I think it speaks volumes. At first glance, you could describe her countenance as grim. And she has not let what I suspect is the bible fall from her grip.

Scratch the surface of those slim facts, and her expression reflects the many struggles that she faced.

Margaret was born around 1835 in Fermoy, County Cork.¹ Her parents were married in the workhouse there by Rev Dr Barry on 16th August 1830.² I have not been able to find a record of her birth, but one website tells me that 1832–1834 was a period of "great distress" for Fermoy when a cholera epidemic struck.³

Somehow, Margaret made her escape, and the next record shows her marrying Patrick McLoughlin in Prescot, England, in 1858. Neither party to the marriage could write. Patrick is described as a labourer. Margaret has no rank or profession. Her father was described as a painter. Witnesses seem to have been members of the family they were lodging with at the time.

It has not been easy finding migration records for Margaret, but she joined Patrick in country New South Wales about 1865 with three of their children, Anne, Patrick and Mary. They went on to have a further four children.

One small newspaper article from The National Advocate, Bathurst's newspaper, records the memories of Bishop Dunne of his early years in the Oberon district. I was delighted to read that he remembered being:

 "as comfortable as mortal could be with the McLoughlin family at Sodwalls."⁴ 

This small detail, a recollection from a highly regarded member of the clergy at the time, is what I love. This would have been about 1871. By now there would have been six children in the home, and I do not imagine it was a grand home at all. Patrick was still described as a labourer around that time. Despite her grim expression in her portrait, Margaret must have made the then Very Reverend Dunne very welcome.

It strikes me, writing this, that the warmest evidence I have of Margaret at all comes to me this way — not in her own words, but in a bishop's fond memory of her hospitality, set down decades later in a newspaper. Even the one moment where someone clearly noticed her, it was a man's voice that was recorded.

John Dunne hailed from Mitchelstown, County Cork, twenty miles from Fermoy.⁵ It must have been wonderful for Margaret to have someone from the home country; for her to hear a familiar accent. Dunne was known as the Builder Bishop. An article in the Freeman's Journal from 1907 describes his return to Bathurst after a year away visiting Europe and America.⁶ Despite his express wishes not to have a public welcome, there was a large gathering of the clergy and laity to welcome him home at the railway station.

The only other fact I can glean from Margaret's life is a move to Balmain in 1905, after her husband died, presumably to live with her eldest, unwell and unmarried daughter Anne.⁷ Margaret died three years later, in 1908, and was buried at Rookwood.⁸

Her daughter Anne died in 1920. An article in the Catholic Press at the time described her as an active member in all church functions, particularly in choir work, "being before her arrival at Rozelle principal soprano in Bathurst cathedral."⁹ Rev Fathers Hawe and Ryan were "most attentive during her long illness," and she was visited by many Sisters, several even travelling from Bathurst.

Did Anne develop the love of the Church at her mother's knee? Did they both gain solace during their trials and tribulations from contributing to and being supported by their local parish? I think so.

I hold a transcript of Margaret's death certificate, copied by a relative. The inscription on the gravestone read: "Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord! And let perpetual light shine upon her." Indeed.

This article was written with the assistance of AI. All research and errors and omissions are mine.

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Notes

1. Certified copy of marriage certificate, 15 November 1858, district of Prescot, county of Lancaster — Margaret is cited as being 23 years old. 

2. Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655–1915, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Provo, UT, USA, 2016. Ancestry.com. 

3. Blackwater.ie, "Fermoy" (history page), https://www.blackwater.ie/fermoy/history.htm. 

4. National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW: 1889–1954), Friday 15 November 1918, p. 1, courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia. 

5. Western Champion (Parkes, NSW: 1898–1934), Thursday 28 August 1919, p. 21, courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia. 

6. Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW: 1850–1932), Thursday 7 March 1907, p. 38, courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia. 

7. Sydney and New South Wales, Sands Street Index, 1861–1930, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Provo, UT, USA, 2010. Ancestry.com. 

8. Transcript of death certificate, received from a cousin — Margaret died 1 February 1908. 

9. Catholic Press (Sydney, NSW: 1895–1942), Thursday 26 August 1920, p. 34, courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia.