Thomas Curley - 1911 census

Background
My grandfather Cornelius Curley's parents were Thomas Curley and Mary Driscoll. Thomas Curley's parents were Thomas Curley (b1859) and Jane Hennigan (b1863). I have a longer post detailing what I have found out about Thomas here.

In short this is what I know:

- he was born in 1859 to Michael and Margaret Curley in Birmingham.

- in 1861, aged 2, he is living in Greens' Hill, Birmingham with his parents. He is the eldest child with a younger brother John.

- in 1871, living on Bath Row, Birmingham with his parents and 3 more younger siblings (Mary Ann, Jane, William - John is not listed)

- in 1881, his father has died and Thomas is living with his mother and five younger siblings (Michael and John in addition to 1871) at Myrtle's Row, Birmingham. He is now a spoon and fork polisher.

- he married Jane Hennigan on 24th Feb 1888 at St. Catherine's Church, Birmingham. Thomas' occupation was spoon polisher and he lived on Beak Street.

- in 1891 I cannot find him with 100% certainty (see previous post above). This would be the census where I should find him living with his son Thomas (my great-grandfather).

- in 1901, he is living on Hackers Bldng, Holliday Street and is a jeweller's polisher and has 6 children - Mary Ann, Margaret, Jane, Jonah, Michael, William P.

- on the 26 Dec 1904, he is present at the marriage of his son Thomas Curley to Mary Driscoll and his occupation is described as metal polisher. His son's residence is 3 Holliday Street.
In order to fill in the gaps of Thomas' life I shall need to get the birth and marriage certificates of some of his children, as well as get church records.

What the 1911 Census says

I managed to find Thomas still living on Holliday Street. He is living with Jane and he says that they have been married for 30 years (it was actually 33 years by this time). The children living with him are Jane 19, Jonah 13, Michael 11, William 9, Bernard 8, Peter 6 and Martin 1. Jane Hennigan was 49 years old at this point ! Thomas is described as a spoon and fork polisher, working in a factory.

The census also says that Thomas and Jane had only 7 children all of whom are alive - I know that they had had more by this time, so I'm thinking that they did not completely understand the question and just put down how many children were living at their house, not how many they had had in their marriage.

This census matches very nicely with the 1901 census, meaning that I can now list the children as:

Thomas b1884-5?

Mary Ann b1885

Margaret b1891

Jane b1893

Jonah b1899

Michael b1900

William b1901/2

Bernard b1903

Peter b1906

Martin b1910

From family information, there were also children called John and James - these may be the older children on the 1891 census where I think I've found Thomas with his parents but I'm not sure. This census lists the children as being - John b1879, Thomas b1886, James b1888 and Margaret b1890. The children's names match family information and the birth dates are within an acceptable margin of error, but unfortunately there is no Mary Curley despite her being aged 4 years old or so at this time. Also the father's name is William (not Thomas). I thought that this might be an error made by the enumerator (which is possible) as his age and occupation are both correct and Jane's name and age are correct - but it is possible that there was another Curley family with the same wife's name and many of the same children's names with similar birthdates living in the same area !. I'll have to dig around to be more certain.

The nicest thing about the 1911 census is that it confirms that the family living on Holliday Street are my Curleys, as at Thomas's wedding in 1904 he was living at the same address as the family are living in 1911.

Cornelius Curley - 1911 census

I have just found out about the early release of the 1911 census. I thought that I would get what information I could from it, as my writing up of my older genealogy information is on the back burner. I'm not sure why clicking on the census images doesn't make them bigger - i'm working on that.

I have found my grandfather Cornelius Curley (b1905) living in Birmingham in the 1911 census

with his younger brother John Thomas (b1907-8?) and sister Doris Mary (b 1909). At least 9 more sons were born to their parents (Thomas Curley and Mary Driscoll) after this date - at least that I'm aware of. I also believe an elder sister, Mary was born in around 1906-7 but did not survive. The background to the family is here and here [or just to click on the CURLEY tab on the sidebar to get all relevant info].

To shed extra light on how many children Thomas and Mary had, this census has three columns that state: 1) number of children born alive, 2) number of children still living, 3) number of children who have died. Thomas entered '3' for all 3 columns and then appeared to cross out the last one for the number who died. Meanwhile, it appears that the enumorator has drawn an arrow from the '6' in the column of "number of years of marriage" into the cell that has "number of children born alive". Unfortunately, this muddies the waters - did Thomas and Mary have 6 children in 6 years of marriage and only 3 survived until 1911? did they have 4 children and only Mary died (as I had previously believed), or did they only have 3 and all survived? I don't know the answer to this yet.

The occupation of Thomas is given as a cycle polisher as per the birth certificate of Doris Curley in November 1909 on this birth certificate. Mary is additionally described here as being employed in domestic work.

Interesting information is given about where they were living - they are at 22 Tennant Street, Birmingham, and their house has apparently 3 rooms in total. This information is signed by Thomas Curley. In November 1909 they had been living at 7 Back 88 Bishopsgate Street, but it was not uncommon for poor people like the Curleys to move around and anyway Tennant Street comes off of Bishopsgate Street (Tennant Street runs parallel with Broad Street in the middle of Birmingham).

Here is a picture of Thomas and Mary Curley with several of their children. Cornelius in standing on the top row, second from the left. 3rd and 4th from the left are John and Doris.

This is interesting extra information - though the major steps in the Curley research would be for me to fill in a lot of gaps - e.g. I can't find Thomas Curley in the 1901 census, and I have not yet gotten any church records for the Curley family.

Curley family memories

Here is a link to a website that has a large amount of information pertaining to Ladywood, the part of Birmingham that my Curley family lived during the last century. There is lots of history and photos of various streets, including Ryland Street which was lived on by my great-grandfather Thomas Curley and his family.

Under the "Memories of our Street" tab there are also some entries by my aunts describing some of their memories of their lives growing up in Ladywood.

Curley family pictures

Over the last couple of months I was able to scan a new photograph of my grandfather, Cornelius Curley (b. Birmingham, 1905) that was lent to my father by one of his sisters. This picture is similar to how I remember my grandfather as he appears to be about 65 (he always looked a little bit younger than his years).




I was also lucky enough to scan two family pictures that had been submitted from a David Curley to a local history book of Ladywood called Ladywood Lives by Norman Bartlam. David Curley is the son of John (Jack) Curley, who ran two pubs in Ladywood, including the Red Lion on Warstone Lane. Indeed, the picture on the left was taken inside the pub - and this is the first time that I have ever seen my grandfather or indeed any of his siblings in their younger years. Also, I had never seen a picture of my great-grandparents, and so this is a real treat for me.

In the picture, taken in the late 1940s, we find - Top Row: Billy, Con (grandad), John, Doris, Tommy, Jimmy, Terry and Leo. In the front row is my great-grandfather Thomas Curley and his wife Mary (nee Driscoll).


Also in the book was this picture of the three eldest Curley boys - John (b.1907) Con (b.1905), and Michael. This was also submitted by David Curley who states that it was taken pre 1920 when the Curleys were living at Bishopsgate Street in Birmingham. He also says that they later moved to Ledsam Street. It is amazing to be able to find that such photographs exist and I must thank David for submitting them to this book.

The original Curley

Introduction
In three previous posts - here, here, and here - I have discussed my Birmingham Irish ancestry along my Curley and Hennigan lines. To recap, my grandfather was Cornelius Curley, whose father was Thomas Curley, whose father was also called Thomas Curley. This Thomas Curley was married (according to family sources and some documentary evidence) to Jane Hennigan. It has not been easy to piece together the lives of either Thomas Curley or Jane Hennigan. One piece of evidence which until now had evaded my grasp was the marriage certificate of Thomas and Jane - well today I was delighted to receive through the post the following:

• 14th February 1888, at St. Catherine's Roman Catholic Church, Birmingham

• Thomas Curley, 28 years, batchelor, spoon polisher, of 9 Beak Street, father Michael Curley, labourer.

• Jane Hanigan, 25 years, spinster, of 9 Beak Street, father Michael Hanigan (deceased), labourer.

• Witnesses - William Curley & Annie Underhill

How does this help?
1. Michael Hanigan is confirmed as the father of Jane Hanigan. As posted earlier, Michael Hennigan was born in Ireland in 1832 and died in Birmingham in 1885. He was a bricklayer's labourer and the latter part of his life was spent in the workhouse. He is confirmed as deceased on this marriage certificate.

2. One of the witnesses is Annie Underhill (a French polisher), who in 1881 was living as a boarder in the house of Jane's mother Catharine. This is good confirmation that I have the correct Hennigan family. Further confirmation is that Jane Hanigan's address is given as Beak Street where she and her family had been living in the 1881 census.

3. Jane Hanigan is named a spinster. This is important as it shows that she was not previously married and widowed. Therefore the children that she may have had before she married Thomas Curley will have been illigetimate. The added fact from the certificate that both Jane and Thomas lived at the same address - 9 Beak Street - suggests that Thomas and Jane had been living together and having children before they married. I have no idea currently why they delayed in getting married.

4. Thomas Curley's father is given as Michael Curley, which is new information to me! William Curley is another of the witnesses - he may be a brother, uncle or cousin to Thomas.



Michael Curley - the first 'English' Curley
Knowing Thomas' father's name I have been able to find out further information about the Curleys in the census. In the 1871 census I found Michael Curley with his wife Margaret and children Thomas, Mary Ann, Jane and William. They were living in a room in a house at 100 1/2 Bath Row, Birmingham, in the next house to the 'Trees Inn' public house. The licensed victualler in 1871 was William Hicken who was born in Shustoke. The pub is pictured (available online at digital Ladywood) - it survived until the mid 1960s before it was demolished. Wheeleys Lane runs off to the left in this picture. I believe that Michael Curley and family would have lived behind and to the right of the pub.

Michael and Margaret were born in Ireland, but all their children were born in Birmingham. I have yet to find a reference to when they came from Ireland, but it must have been prior to 1859 when Thomas was born. Soon after they arrived, in 1861, they are living in the heavily Irish area - Greens Village. Michael is working as a castor and Margaret is working as a nail cutter. In addition to Thomas, they also have a son called John. They may have had several other children who died in infancy - I would have to look at the Roman Catholic Church records to find this out.

It appears as if Michael Curley died at some point between 1873 and 1881. In the 1881 census, Margaret Curley is living at Myrtles Row in Birmingham and is said to be a widow. Her youngest child is John Curley who was born in 1873, therefore it is likely that Michael Curley died between these dates. According to the GRO index, there are two possible matches for the death certificate which I shall obtain in time.

In 1891, the widowed Margaret is now living at Suffolk St. 6 Court House 2 with her youngest sons William, Michael and John, as well as a grand-daughter Mary Ann Curley and a boarder Mary Caston and her child. I cannot find Margaret Curley in the 1901 census, so she may have re-married or passed away.


Summary
I have therefore managed to get back my Curley ancestry to the Curley who came over from Ireland. Michael Curley was born in 1837 in Ireland and came to live in Birmingham. I do not know if he came by himself or with his parents. Nevertheless, he is, in my family, the original Curley - I am therfore a sixth generation English Curley! Unfortunately I do not have any idea whereabouts in Ireland he came from. The Curley name is most common on the West coast of Ireland in Galway and Roscommon, but until I can find some other records I will not know for sure.

What I can piece together about the life of Thomas Curley jnr ?

In a previous post I discussed the evidence for the names of my great-great-grandparents, Thomas Curley Snr and Jane Hennigan. This was getting a little bit ahead of myself, as I had not really mentioned very much about my great-grandfather, Thomas Curley jnr. I have not been able to find many pieces of documentary evidence about the life of Thomas - but genealogy is very much a 'work in progress', so in this post I shall put together what I know about him in a timeline (see here for picture).

Thomas Curley jnr Timeline
1884 - birthdate of Thomas working back from the age on his marriage certificate (20 years in 1904). Father is 'Thomas Curley'.

23/4/1887 - birthdate of Thomas according to information gathered from family (Thomas' sons).

March Qtr 1888 - Thomas' father Thomas Curley marries Jane Hennigan (according to GRO indexes). According to family information, Jane Hennigan is Thomas' mother. (update here).

5/4/1891 - 1891 census. I believe that he may be living in a one room tenemant building on St. Martin's St., Immanuel Parish, Birmingham. I need to be satisfied that this is the correct Thomas though.

31/3/1901 - 1901 census. I cannot find any trace of Thomas Curley in this census.

26/12/1904 - Marries Mary Driscoll at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Birmingham. His occupation is brass polisher and he lives at 3 Holliday Street. See marriage certificate above.


20/4/1905 - Birth of eldest son, Cornelius Curley (my grandfather). Occupation - cycle polisher. Abode - 158 Tennant Street. See birth certificate above.

1905-1909 - Birth of a daughter, Mary (died in infancy), and son, John. Unknown where living. Information gained from family members.

8/11/1909 - Birth of daughter, Doris Mary Curley. Occupation - cycle polisher. Abode - Back 88, Bishopgate Street. See birth certificate above.

1910-? - Birth of 9 more children - Michael, Dennis, Thomas, James, Terrence, Leopold, Percy & Sidney (twins who died in infancy), William (Bill). Information gained from family members.

I do not know when Thomas died.


Finding a birth record of Thomas Curley is still a priority. I have not been able to find one indexed in the GRO, so I shall need to consult the Roman Catholic parish registers in the hope that one might be there. Also, baptismal records of Thomas Curley and Mary Driscoll's children will give me more information about where Thomas was living after 1904. As I don't have time to do these myself, I think I shall employ a Birmingham researcher to do them for me. Finally, if I can accurately find Thomas Curley in the 1891 and 1901 censuses, that would give me much more information. Please read this poem for an insight into the life of Thomas Curley and Mary Driscoll.

The Curley Clan - a poem by Doris AM Lawrence

"The Curley Clan" is a poem by my first cousin-once-removed, Doris A. M. Lawrence. I hope that she does not mind me reprinting it here. Doris kindly sent me a photocopy of the poem a few years ago, when it was published in a book edited by Carl Chinn along with other poems about Birmingham families by local writers.

This poem is a lovely commentary on aspects of the social history of the Curley family who lived in some of the poorest areas of Birmingham. The poem talks about my great-grandmother (Doris' grandmother) Mary Driscoll, and her thirteen children. My grandfather, Cornelius was the eldest. Doris' mother Doris was the fourth child of thirteen. Mary Driscoll and her husband, Thomas Curley, had two girls and eleven boys in total.

From the ages of the children named in this poem, I would think that Doris has placed the events of the story occurring just after the first world war. Unfortunately with the photocopy I have, a line or so is chopped off one of the verses, but it still makes very interesting reading. I have also been informed that in one of the Carl Chinn Birmingham history books about local areas, there may exist a couple of pictures of some of the Curley brothers as youngsters. I hope to be able to find these and put some up on this website.

Thomas Curley and Jane Hennigan

Introduction
The father of my grandfather Cornelius Curley was called Thomas Curley, a polisher of brass (in 1904 on his marriage certificate to Mary Driscoll) and bicycles (in 1909 on birth certificate of his daughter Doris Mary). Information from relatives had told me that Thomas Curley's parents were called Thomas Curley and Jane Hennigan, who both came from Birmingham. The family tree above has been constructed from this family information. However, actually confirming the family tree in the records has not been easy or successful just yet.


Searching for Thomas Curley's parents in the records
a) The marriage record of Thomas Curley jnr
Thomas' father was confirmed as Thomas Curley, from his marriage certificate. He was married on 26th Decemeber at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Birmingham: age - 20 years, occupation - brass polisher, address - 3 Holiday Street, father - Thomas Curley, father's occupation - metal polisher. The witnesses at the marriage were Lillian Turner and John Hennigan. From a marriage certicicate, there is obviously no more information about the mother of Thomas Curley, though from what I know from the family John Hennigan may be a relative.

b) Finding a record to the marriage of the parents of Thomas Curley
One of the first things I tried to do was to find the marriage of Thomas Curley and Jane Hennigan, as these were the names I was given for Cornelius Curley's grandparents. It took me a long time for two reasons. The main reason was because I was searching for the marriage up to 1884 (as Thomas Curley jnr was married aged 20 in 1904, giving him a birthdate of 1884). The other reason was because foolishly I did not anticipate the number of ways in which one could spell Hennigan. I have finally found what I think is the GRO index to their marriage.

Thomas Curley & Jane Hanigan Birmingham 6d 237 March 1888

The only problem here is that the marriage appears to be registered four years after the birth of Thomas Curley. There could be a few reasons for this including: 1) The marriage was late in being registered, which seems unlikely, 2) Jane was not the first wife of Thomas, and Thomas jnr may be the son of a different wife. I have not yet got the marriage certificate, but I'm hoping that it may clear up these questions. Also, I have still not had chance to visit the Roman Catholic records in Birmingham. They would likely provide many answers.

A third possibility is that Thomas and Jane lived together but did not marry for some time. This would seem to be very unusual in Roman Catholic families, but it is not entirely impossible, especially as I have been told by relatives that Jane may have had an eldest son, Bernard Hennigan, out of wedlock prior to her marriage to Thomas Curley. (update here).

c) Finding a birth record for Thomas Curley jnr
Finding the birth certificate of Thomas Curley jnr (born c1884) would also give information about the mother and father of Thomas. However, I have yet to find anywhere in the GRO index a reference to the birth of a Thomas Curley in Birmingham (or thereabouts) in the 1880s. A family member told me that they thought that Thomas Curley was born on 23rd April 1887, but until I find the birth record in either the GRO or Roman Catholic Church Records, then there is no way to be sure.

d) Any assistance from the census?
From the marriage certificate of Thomas Curley we know that he was born in about 1884 and that his father was called Thomas Curley. We also know that they were living at 3 Holiday Street and that both Thomas' worked as polishers. Searching the 1891 and the 1901 censuses, the picture becomes even murkier.

Here is what I believe to be the family in 1901, living in Hackers Building, Holiday Street. Thomas is listed as a jeweller's polisher. Many of the children's names match with those given to me by relatives. However, Thomas junior is not there - Indeed, I cannot find him anywhere in the 1901 census - I have tried numerous name combinations without success.

In the 1891 census, I have the reverse problem! I can find a son Thomas Curley with a mother Jane. But here, the father is called William. However, I think this may be an error - the occupation of this William is a spoon polisher like Thomas' should be. Also both William and Jane's birthdates are the same as those from the 1901 census. Finally, one of the children - Maragaret has the same birthdate. I am not too worried that not all of the children's names match, as according to relatives they had at least 13 children - so it would not be too unusual for not all of the children to be living in the one room under one roof on census night. In this census, they are living in one of the rooms in a house in St. Martin's Street, Birmingham. Again, I cannot find a Thomas Curley snr anywhere in the 1891 census. Significantly, a William Curley of this age does not appear on any other census, and so could be Thomas though this is yet to be proved. Finally, a Jane Curley from Birmingham only appears indexed once in both the 1891 and 1901 censuses - each of those being the above entries.

Overall, the census has proved to be very confusing and has not provided any concrete evidence. I am still trying to put this information together and to think of new leads (any suggestions welcome). I think it is important for me to get the marriage certificate of Thomas Curley and Jane Hennigan in 1888. It would also be good for me to get hold of the baptismal, marriage and death records in the Birmingham Roman Catholic Churches, but I've not had the time for this yet.

e) Any other solutions?
Another solution may be to try and follow some of the extra lines. For instance, following the Hennigans - such as Bernard Hennigan (the supposed illegitimate son of Jane) or John Hennigan, the witness at the marriage of Thomas Curley and Jane Hennigan. I'll talk more about these in later posts - see here for example.