Person in this family
Ellen Cooney
Born 1 August 1894; death not recorded
Daughter of Peter Cooney, farmer of Derrycriff, and Margaret Needham, born on 1 August 1894 and registered three weeks later by her mother, who made her mark. She married John Corcoran. A family tree had her as "Helen, 22 May 1895, Island Eddy"; every part of that is wrong.
Family story - not yet proved
the daughter a family tree turned into two people
Born at Derrycriff, Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland
Recorded as: Ellen Corcoran, Helen Cooney
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Gina D. Cacace’s no relationship found in this archive
Abigail Ann Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s no relationship found in this archive
Kevin Leahey’s no relationship found in this archive
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
Life
Ellen Cooney was born on 1 August 1894 at Derrycriff, in the parish of Islandeady, County Mayo, the daughter of Peter Cooney, a farmer, and Margaret Needham. Her mother went in to the registrar at Islandeady three weeks later, on 21 August, and made her mark: entry 128 records “Margaret Cooney, her ✗ mark, Mother, Derrycriff.” Every one of the ten informants on that page of the register made a mark, and every one of them was a woman — seven mothers and three grandmothers. In Islandeady the women registered the births, and on that page not one of them could write her name.
For a long time this archive held two girls where there was one. A family tree recorded a Helen Cooney, born 22 May 1895 at “Island Eddy”, and made her a daughter of the same parents. No record has ever supported her. Island Eddy is in County Galway; this family is in Mayo, and the resemblance between Islandeady and Island Eddy is the likeliest explanation for how the tree went wrong. The archive was right to refuse to merge them on a resemblance, and said so plainly: they should stay separate until something connected them.
What connected them was the register image and the census standing together. The register gives one daughter of this couple born in the mid-1890s, and the 1901 census of Derrycreeve finds one girl of that age in the house, with her five older brothers and sisters and her grandmother Bridget Durkan at ninety. Had Helen and Ellen both existed there would be two small girls a year apart in that household, and there is one. The tree had her name wrong, her date wrong and her county wrong, and it had turned a single child into a pair.
She married John Corcoran. Her brother Peter, who became a sergeant in the United States Army, named three sisters — Bridget Horan, Annie Farley and “Nellie”. The first two match her sisters exactly, and Nellie is the ordinary familiar form of Ellen.
Family
Parents
Siblings · birth order
Spouse
Children
See this family in the family treeWhere they lived
Use the place list first. The map below is optional.
Places listed on this page
- Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland
- Derrycriff, Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland
- County Mayo, Ireland
- Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey
- New York City, New York
- Ireland
- France
- New York
- 37 West 50th Street, Manhattan, New York
The map could not load. The complete place list is above it.
The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 3 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.
Timeline
Birth registered
Her birth was registered on 21 August 1894 by her mother, Margaret Cooney, who could not write and made a cross. As written: “Margaret Cooney her ✗ mark, Mother, Derrycriff”
Proved by a record
Her brother killed in action
Her brother Peter Cooney was killed in action in France on 14 October 1918, serving as a Sergeant with Company M of the 165th Infantry. Army correspondence about him names his three sisters — Bridget Horan of Jersey City, Nellie Cooney and Annie Farley — of whom she is Nellie Cooney.
Proved by a record
Original records
Tap to open a larger copyCivil birth register, Ellen Cooney, 1 Aug 1894, Derrycriff
Civil registration means an official government record of a birth, marriage, or death.
What the records say
3 of 5 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
Irish Gleanings extraction
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Irish Gleanings | Peter COONEY kia 1918-10-14 Sergeant, Co M, 165th Infantry, 3 sisters - Mrs Bridget HORAN, Jersey City, NY, Nellie COONEY & Mrs Annie FARLEY, W 50th St, NYC; his mother died in Ireland in 1921 date 1921-06-02. | Mrs Annie FARLEY | 37 W. 50th St. | Mrs Annie FARLEY, W 50th St, NYC | Company M, 165th Infantry, | 37 W. 50th St., New York City. | serial/service number, | place of birth, | 37 W.Show the full recordHide the full recordFull record, about 150 words
50th St., New York City | Mrs Annie FARLEY, W 50th St, NYC. | 15 Apr. 1867 to 30 Mar. 1881. | his mother died in Ireland in 1921 date 1921-06-02. [COMPILED] “Peter COONEY kia 1918-10-14 Sergeant, Co M, 165th Infantry, 3 sisters - Mrs Bridget HORAN, Jersey City, NY, Nellie COONEY & Mrs Annie FARLEY, W 50th St, NYC; his mother died in Ireland in 1921 date 1921-06-02.” [CONFLICT] The Derrycriff Margaret’s civil death was 17 March 1922.
Record exhibit
Peter Cooney household, 1901 census of Ireland, Derrycreeve, Islandeady, County Mayo
A census is a government list of the people who were living in a home.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Record exhibit
Irish civil birth register — Ellen Cooney, 1 August 1894, Derrycriff, Islandeady, Co. Mayo
Civil registration means an official government record of a birth, marriage, or death.
Proved by a record
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
First August 1894 | Derrycriff | Ellen | Female | Peter Cooney, Derrycriff | Margaret Cooney formerly Needham | Farmer | Margaret Cooney, her x mark, Mother, Derrycriff | Twenty-first August 1894 | Thomas Ullman, Registrar
Record exhibit
Index
An index is a list that points to where the full record can be found.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
The exact words from this record have not been typed out yet.
Record exhibit
Logainm official placename record
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
county Gaillimh/Galway, | civil parish Droim Mucú/Drumacoo, | Oileán Eide/Island Eddy. | county Gaillimh/Galway | civil parish Droim Mucú/Drumacoo.
Historical context
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What Sponsors and Witnesses Can Tell Us
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Sgt. Peter Cooney and the Fighting 69th
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Reading Irish Civil Registration
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Farmers and Labourers in North Cork
Two words in the Cork records—“farmer” and “labourer”—describe different positions in the same rural economy. When John Fitzgerald married Margaret Fraher at Kildorrery in 1870, the register called John, his fa…
Islandeady and Derrycriff, County Mayo
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The Irish Road to Ipswich, Queensland
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What we still don't know
- [HELEN RESOLVED INTO ELLEN] This archive carried a separate Helen Cooney, born 22 May 1895 at Island Eddy, from a family tree. No record ever supported her, and Island Eddy is in Galway while this family is in Mayo. The civil register — entry 128 of the Islandeady book, read from the image — gives Ellen, born 1 August 1894 at Derrycriff to Peter Cooney and Margaret Needham, registered by her mother with a mark. There is one daughter here, not two, and the tree had her name, her date and her county all wrong. Merged 8 August 2026.
- [UPGRADED ON THE 1901 CENSUS] The parent link on this page was carried as unchecked until 9 August 2026. The 1901 census of Derrycreeve settles it: this child is in Peter Cooney and Margaret Needham's household at aged seven, exactly the age the civil birth registration implies.
- [INFERENCE] Nellie can be a familiar form of Ellen, but the compiled sister name does not prove that the Derrycriff child was the sergeant’s sister; no Corcoran marriage was established.
- [LIKELY RESOLVED] The “Nellie Cooney” named as one of Sgt Peter Cooney's three sisters is almost certainly this Ellen — Nellie being the ordinary familiar form of Ellen — since the other two names in that group, Bridget Horan and Annie Farley, match her sisters exactly.
References
- [1] Irish Gleanings extractionBack to citation 1
- [2] Peter Cooney household, 1901 census of Ireland, Derrycreeve, Islandeady, County MayoBack to citation 2
- [3] Irish civil birth register — Ellen Cooney, 1 August 1894, Derrycriff, Islandeady, Co. MayoBack to citation 3
- [4] IndexBack to citation 4
- [5] Logainm official placename recordBack to citation 5