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Ellen Farrelly

Born 29 January 1884; death not recorded

Ellen Farrelly was born at Clara, County Cavan on 29 January 1884 to Patrick Farrelly, farmer, and Margaret Boyle. Her mother's 1928 death register names her as “Ellen O'Brien, daughter, present at death, Ardlogher”, which establishes both her married surname and her residence. Her husband's forename and her children are still unproved.

Proved by a record

Ellen Farrelly appears in our family tree as a daughter of Patrick Farrelly and Margaret Boyle and the mother of an O’Brien family.

Born at Clare, County Cavan, Ireland

Recorded as: Ellen Farley, Ellen O'Brien

How is this person related?

Andrew John Leahey’s great-grandparent's sibling

Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.

How this person is related to Andrew:
Ellen Farrelly is your great-grandparent’s sibling.

Life

Our family tree names Ellen Farrelly as a daughter of Patrick Farrelly and Margaret Boyle. It attributes ten O’Brien children to her, but supplies no spouse entry, dates, places, or quoted record. Nothing in this archive independently confirms her identity or family.

How we know this: Very weak: all relationships come from our family tree without a supporting document. [1][2][3]

Family

Parents

Siblings · birth order

Children

See this family in the family tree

Work and occupation

Where they lived

Use the place list first. The map below is optional.

Places listed on this page

  • Cavan, County Cavan, Ireland
  • Ireland
  • County Cavan, Ireland
  • Clara, County Cavan, Ireland

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. 2 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

Born at Clare

The civil register names farmer Patrick Farrelly and Margaret Boyle as parents. [1]

Proved by a record

In the 1901 census at Claragh

Enumerated at Claragh, Bilberry DED, County Cavan, aged 16, occupation “Dressmaker”. [3]

Proved by a record

Present at her mother's death

Named in her mother's civil death register as “Ellen O'Brien, daughter, present at death, Ardlogher” — proving her married surname O'Brien and placing her at Ardlogher in 1928. [2]

Proved by a record

What the records say

3 records transcribed.

Record exhibit

Civil birth registration — Ellen Farrelly, 29 January 1884

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.

January twenty ninth 1884 | Clare | Ellen | Patrick Farrelly | Clare | Margaret Farrelly formerly Boyle | Farmer | Patrick Farrelly | father | Clare | February sixth 1884.

Record exhibit

Irish civil death register, Margaret Farrelly, 9 April 1928, Clara, Co. Cavan

Civil registration means an official government record of a birth, marriage, or death.

Partly proved

Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.

Ninth April 1928 | Clara | Margaret Farrelly | female | widow | 70 yrs | Farmer's widow | Cerebral Haemorrhage 3 days No Med. Att. | Ellen O'Brien daughter present at death Ardlogher

Record exhibit

1901 census of Ireland — Farrelly household, Claragh, Bilberry DED, Co. Cavan

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.

Patrick Farrelly 47 Farmer; Marget Farrelly 46 Farmers Wife; Bernard 19 Farmers Son; Ellen 16 Dressmaker; Terence 13 Schollar; Patrick 10 Schollar — Claragh, Bilberry, Co Cavan

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What Sponsors and Witnesses Can Tell Us

Catholic registers often preserve the people standing just outside a family photograph. A baptism normally names the child, parents, date and sponsors or godparents; a marriage normally names the couple and wit…

Reading Irish Civil Registration

The year 1864 is the dividing line in this family’s Irish paper trail. Civil registration began in 1845 for non-Catholic and civil marriages, but from 1 January 1864 the law required registration of all births,…

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

Most branches on this site point toward New York or New Jersey. The Hickey–McGreevy–McGuire cluster points in the opposite direction, to Ipswich, Queensland. The Australian evidence is uneven: cemetery records …

What we still don't know

  • When and where did Ellen Farrelly live?
  • Who was the other parent of the O’Brien children?
  • Can original records confirm Ellen’s parents and children?
  • Find record proof for the compiled O’Brien child links; Ellen’s civil birth does not establish them.
  • Ellen's husband's forename is unknown. The O'Brien marriage is now supported by her mother's death register, but the individual O'Brien children attributed to her remain unproved.
  • [SURNAME] The family used Farrelly in Ireland and Farley in America, and both spellings appear for the same people. This archive had ended up holding some of Patrick Farrelly and Margaret Boyle's children twice, once under each surname; those duplicates are now merged. The change was not made at Ellis Island — inspectors there worked from passenger manifests written at the port of departure and did not record names at all. What actually happened is the ordinary thing: an Irish name got shortened in American mouths and American paperwork over years, and the family went with it. Andrew's own records show the whole transition, Farrelly in the Cavan registers and Farley on everything after.

References

  1. [1] Civil birth registration — Ellen Farrelly, 29 January 1884Back to citation 1a Back to citation 1b
  2. [2] Irish civil death register, Margaret Farrelly, 9 April 1928, Clara, Co. CavanBack to citation 2a Back to citation 2b
  3. [3] 1901 census of Ireland — Farrelly household, Claragh, Bilberry DED, Co. CavanBack to citation 3a Back to citation 3b Back to citation 3c

See also