Person in this family
Helen Cooney
Born 22 May 1895; death not recorded
Possible conflation with Ellen Cooney, daughter of Peter and Margaret at Derrycriff; “Helen, 22 May 1895, Island Eddy” is not supported. The record points to Islandeady, Mayo, not Island Eddy, Galway. The similar names may explain the family-tree entry, but Ellen and Helen cannot yet be silently treated as one person.
Partly proved
a claim recorded heres Helen Cooney was born on 22 May 1895, but the record may conflate her with Ellen Cooney, born at Derrycriff in 1894.
Born at Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland
Birth: From our family tree - no record found yet
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
Our family tree records Helen Cooney’s birth as 22 May 1895 at “Island Eddy” and makes her a daughter of Peter Cooney and Margaret Needham. No civil birth record in this archive supports that claim.
An original register instead records “First August 1894, Ellen” at Derrycriff to Peter Cooney and Margaret Cooney formerly Needham. The similar names may explain the family-tree entry, but they do not prove that Helen and Ellen were the same person. The place wording also matters: Islandeady is in County Mayo, while the official placename record places Island Eddy in County Galway.
No later record clarifies Helen’s identity. She should remain separate from Ellen unless a record explicitly connects the names.
How we know this: Weak: the claimed Helen birth is unsupported, while a nearby original record documents an Ellen instead. [1][2][3]
Family
Parents
Siblings · birth order
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
- County Mayo, Ireland
- Derrycriff, Islandeady, County Mayo, 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. 1 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
Island Eddy
From our family tree - no record found yet
What the records say
3 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
register image, row 128
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Proved by a record
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Eleventh December 1884, | Derrycriff, | Mary, | Peter Coony, | Margaret Coony formerly Needham, | Farmer. | Sixteenth February 1886, | Bridget, | Fifteenth February 1887, | Thomas, | Eleventh August 1888, | Anne, | Sixteenth October 1890, | Peter, | First August 1894, | Ellen, | Peter Cooney, | Margaret Cooney formerly Needham, | Island Eddy. | Roman Catholic Chapel of Islandeady | Derrycriff | Margaret Cooney formerly Needham | ISLAND EDDY | First August 1894 | Peter Coony/Cooney, | Farmer
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.
Eleventh December 1884, | Derrycriff, | Mary, | Peter Coony, | Margaret Coony formerly Needham, | Farmer. | Sixteenth February 1886, | Bridget, | Fifteenth February 1887, | Thomas, | Eleventh August 1888, | Anne, | Sixteenth October 1890, | Peter, | First August 1894, | Ellen, | Peter Cooney, | Margaret Cooney formerly Needham,
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
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
Islandeady is not an island off Galway. It is a rural parish between Castlebar and Westport in County Mayo, set among lakes and low hills in the shadow of Croagh Patrick. That distinction solves a long-standing…
What we still don't know
- Find an Irish or American record that explicitly connects Helen with Ellen Cooney.
- Determine whether the claimed 22 May 1895 birth and “Island Eddy” place came from a real record.
- [ABSENT FROM THE 1901 HOUSEHOLD] The 1901 census of Peter Cooney and Margaret Needham's house at Derrycreeve holds four children — Mary, Thomas, Peter and Ellen — and **not this one**, who would have been five. The parent link here rests on a civil birth registration rather than on the census, and that is the stronger record of the two; the absence is noted rather than treated as a problem. Three of the eight recorded children are missing from that sheet and it would be worth reading the image to see whether the index simply dropped them. **Bridget, absent from the same sheet, has since been shown by her own birth registration and her Social Security record to be exactly whose daughter this archive says she is** — so absence from that household has now failed once as a reason to doubt a parent link, and should not be used as one here either.
- Find a U.S. or Irish record that explicitly bridges Ellen/Helen; search under both names and the exact 1894 birth.