Person in this family

Patrick Farrelly

about 1857 – 10 June 1927

Patrick Farrelly was a farmer at Clara, County Cavan. On 8 May 1879 he married Margaret Boyle of Gartbratten at Miltown chapel; the marriage register names his father as Andrew Farrelly, farmer. He died at Clara on 10 June 1927 aged 70, of bronchitis, with his son Patrick present at the death. His age implies a birth about 1857, consistent with his being of full age at his marriage. Whether he could write is genuinely unsettled. He made his mark registering his son Andrew in July 1880 — but the register records no mark at his marriage in 1879, none registering Bernard in 1881, and none registering Ellen in 1884, on pages where the same registrar recorded marks for other informants. Both readings are kept here. No autograph of his survives: every one of these pages is a certified copy in the registrar's hand.

Proved by a record

Patrick Farrelly is presented in our family tree as Margaret Boyle’s husband and the father of a large Farrelly family.

Birth: From our family tree - no record found yet

How is this person related?

Show the relationship to

Andrew John Leahey’s great-great-grandparent

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:
Patrick Farrelly is your 2× great-grandparent.

Life

Our family tree presents Patrick Farrelly as the husband of Margaret Boyle and father of Andrew Joseph Farrelly and several other Farrelly or Farley children. The same family information recorded here also places Margaret Boyle in Patrick’s parent list, an internal contradiction that prevents the relationships from being accepted at face value.

One original birth record elsewhere in this archive does name “Patrick Farrelly” as the father of Andrew, born on 10 July 1880, and calls him a farmer; Andrew’s mother was “Margaret Farrelly formerly Boyle.” That record supports Patrick and Margaret as Andrew’s parents. It does not by itself confirm all the other children attributed to them. Patrick’s own birth, marriage, residence, and death remain undocumented here.

How we know this: Mixed: an original record supports Patrick as Andrew’s farmer father and Margaret Boyle as Andrew’s mother, but the wider family-tree family is inconsistent and unproved. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Whether they could write is unsettled

The registers disagree about this person. At least one records a cross, and at least one other records none — on pages where the same registrar did note other people's marks. Both readings are kept.

Four civil records name him and they do not agree. Registering his son Andrew at Clarah in July 1880 he made a cross. But no mark is recorded against him at his marriage in May 1879, nor registering Bernard in September 1881, nor registering Ellen in February 1884 — and on each of those pages the same registrar, G. McHearn of Ballyconnell, did record crosses for other people. A man who signed in 1879 does not make a mark in 1880 and sign again in 1881, so one entry is a slip and the register cannot say which. No autograph survives either way: all four pages are certified copies in the registrar's hand.

As written in the register: “Patrick Farrelly his mark, Father”

Family

Work and occupation

Farmer

Where they lived

1881: Clare, County Cavan, Ireland
1879–1880: Clara, County Cavan, Ireland

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

Places listed on this page

Ballyconnell, County Cavan, Ireland
Bawnboy, County Cavan, Ireland
Cavan, County Cavan, Ireland
Ireland
County Cavan, Ireland
Clara, County Cavan, Ireland
Gartbratten, County Cavan, Ireland
Miltown Roman Catholic Chapel, County Cavan, Ireland
Killeshandra registrar’s district, Cavan, Ireland
Kildallen Catholic parish, 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

8 May 1879

Married Margaret Boyle at Miltown RC Chapel

Patrick, full-age bachelor and farmer of Clara, son of farmer Andrew Farrelly, married Margaret Boyle, full-age spinster of Gartbratten, daughter of farmer Patrick Boyle. Thomas Corr C.C. officiated; Patrick Lappin and Bridget Boyle witnessed. [8]

Proved by a record

21 May 1879

Marriage register records no mark against his name

Neither Patrick Farrelly nor Margaret Boyle has a mark recorded at marriage no. 1. Marriage no. 2 on the same certified page carries four — John Duffy his ✕ mark, Mary Martin her ✕ mark, Pat Halpin his ✕ mark, Kate Martin her ✕ mark — so the absence is the registrar's, not an omission of habit. This contradicts the mark he made fourteen months later. Read from the register image 11 August 2026. [8]

Proved by a record

10 July 1880

Registers his son Andrew, and makes his mark

The civil birth register for his eldest son at Clarah, entry no. 352, names him as informant and records “Patrick Farrelly his mark, Father, Clarah”. Three other informants on the same certified page are recorded with marks — Mary ✕ Taylor, Anne ✕ Donoho and Thomas ✕ Baxter — so the registrar, G. McHearn of Ballyconnell, was noting them systematically. This is the only one of the four records naming Patrick Farrelly that carries a mark; see the 1879, 1881 and 1884 entries, which carry none. Read from the register image 11 August 2026; the entry had previously been cited to the wrong record (src-455, Bernard's 1881 birth). [1]

The record itself

Civil birth register, Andrew Farrelly, 10 Jul 1880, Ballyconnell district

Proved by a record

1880–1884

Farmer and father at Clare

Andrew, Bernard and Ellen’s civil births repeatedly name Patrick Farrelly, farmer, and Margaret Boyle as their parents. [1]

Proved by a record

10 September 1881

Registers his son Bernard, with no mark recorded

Entry no. 495. The informant column reads simply Patt Farrelly, Father, Clara. Three informants on the same page are recorded with marks — Thomas ✕ Brennan, John ✕ McDermott and Edward ✕ Johnston. Read from the register image 11 August 2026. [2]

Proved by a record

9 February 1884

Registers his daughter Ellen, with no mark recorded

Entry no. 295. Again no mark, against a page carrying three — John ✕ Rudden, George ✕ Scarlett and Ellen ✕ Sheenan. Read from the register image 11 August 2026. [3]

Proved by a record

7 January 1890

Does not register his son Patrick — a woman present at the birth does

Entry no. 222, read from the image for the first time on 11 August 2026 — the archive had this record from the index only, which stops at the father's rank. The informant is not Patrick Farrelly. It is Mary Farmer of Glentygrigny, who made her mark and was present at Birth. The surname is Farmer, not Farrelly: the registrar wrote Farrelly twice in the same row with its doubled l and long y descender, and the informant's surname is stroke-for-stroke the word Farmer he wrote in the rank column. On these Ballyconnell pages a present-at-birth informant is characteristically a midwife or neighbouring woman rather than kin, and no person has been created for her — there is no Farmer anywhere in this tree. [12]

Proved by a record

1901

In the 1901 census at Claragh

Enumerated at Claragh, Bilberry DED, County Cavan, aged 47, occupation “Farmer”. [10]

Proved by a record

1911

In the 1911 census at Claragh

Enumerated at Claragh (surname indexed “Ferrelly”), aged 65, occupation “Farmer”. [11]

Proved by a record

10 June 1927

Died at Clara

Died at Clara, County Cavan, aged 70. Cause: “Bronchitis, 20 days, certified”. Entered as married and a farmer. The informant was his son Patrick Farrelly, present at the death, of Clara. [9]

Proved by a record

Original records

1 further record is shown in the timeline, beside the event each one documents.

What the records say

12 records transcribed.

Record exhibit