Is it Fact or Fiction?
In 1800 at the time of Francis birth William and Elizabeth were living in ringsend, Dublin, looking at the map of this time it was right on the outskirts of the city, in 1817 when Elizabeth was born there address is still listed as Ringsend/Irishtown: which on a side note is interesting as this is where Francis (frank)(Francis' grandson) is married in 18xx to fox. Another problem we have in doing family history research is naming conventions, My Gosh, the list of available first names must have been limited in the 18th and 19th century. On one of the wives sides that we'll look a briefly later, 3 generations had marriages of William and Catherine's' , which make life very confusing expressly when the children of one era are getting married and the parents are still putting out babies, I.E.there uncles and aunties'. Anyway, as Dublin was expanding so was the opportunity for work within the ship wright profession. Again at this stage we have found no supporting evidence as to the occupation/professions of either Alexander or William in the latter part of the 1700's. Research documents by "Genealogist of Ie" have found a "marrage licence record" for Francis and Mary Anne McCullen in 1827.
This then opens a totally new line of inquire, as the Warnock Resister has Francis' first and only wife being Jane Turkington in 1837. Our Research in Ireland in 2014 does show Francis Warnock of Sir John Rodgers Quay being married to a Mary Anne McCullen in 1827 and two children to the same people, same address in 1833 and 1836. This is all well and good but Francis gets 'remarried' on 11 sept 1837 to Jane…..so does Mary Anne die in child birth? With health and sanitation not the best does she 'pass' from some affliction of those times? No records can be found around the time period for deaths in Dublin for those names. More questions than answers! 1800 to 1837 more than enough time for another family. But with records as sketchy as they are, who can tell? After just watching an episode of "who do you think you are" we hear that in that time period of the early 1800's divorce was not common, and if you had the means you might just simply remarry! Bigamy was illegal and a prison sentence was often handed out but this was not common. So at this stage we'll run with Francis being married in 1827 and wife and child/children passing away.
History of Irish census records
" The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War, probably because of the paper shortage. The returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were, apart from a few survivals, notably for a few counties for 1821 and 1831, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Civil War." - know wonder Irish History is so darn dificult to follow!
Censuses of population are taken by governments to establish numbers and characteristics of a country's inhabitants. The first full government census of Ireland was taken in 1821 with further censuses at ten-yearly intervals from 1831 through to 1911. No census was taken in 1921, because of the War of Independence. The first census of the population of the Irish Free State was taken in 1926. The censuses from 1851 to 1911 were taken under the supervision of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The 1926 and all subsequent censuses were taken under the Statistics Act, 1926. The responsibility for taking censuses was transferred from the Registrar General to the newly established Statistics Branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce. The Statistics Branch has since become the Central Statistics Office (http://www.cso.ie/).
To date censuses have been taken in 1926, 1936, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1979 (the census due in 1976 was cancelled as an economy measure), 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2002 and 2006. The returns for 1926 - 1946 and part of those for 1951 are held in the National Archives, but they remain under the control of the Central Statistics Office, to the extent that the staff of the National Archives are not permitted to examine them for any purpose. The more recent returns are still held by the Central Statistics Office. The 1926 Census Returns will be released to public inspection in January 2027.
:) Quote from the National Archives.Ie
