Genealogy Chat

I have been searching on and off for the last 25 yrs for information on MARY JEAN MCKEOWN. I would appreciated any tips or advice on where to go next., or if some one knows of an online search for births in Ireland. Here goes:- Mary Jean McKeown had a baby 4th september 1944. I have the birth cert of the child. The problem is on the birth cert it doesnt tell us anything else about the mother except her name! No age. Dont know if she was married. NOTHING so as you can imagine very difficult to search. We have looked at births from 1900 - 1932 which would have made her between 12yrs and 44yrs when she gave birth. We have drawn a blank for England so assume she was born elsewhere ie Ireland. She could also have been married which again is impossible because we would have to view every marriage cert for a male McKeown pre 1944 to see if he married someone called Mary Jean ...........(surname). We Do know that she was a nursing assistant. Before the birth she was living at 52 St Davids Hill Exeter, which was a nurses home. She then went into a catholic mother & baby home in Broom Lane Manchester until after the birth of the baby. when she moved to Honiton Devon. The baby was born in Boundry Park Hospital Oldham. Does anyone have any ideas about what the next step should be apart from waiting another 40-50 yrs for the 1941 or 1951 census! I might just about be alive but I doubt it. Carole (granddaughter of Mary Jean ..............? McKeown

Have you searched forward for a marriage for Mary Jean? You may have to search forwards in order to be able to then work back. If she returned to Devon, it suggests that she was settled there. Have you looked for her on electoral rolls? Gwyn

Id have thought the mother and baby home would be your first point of contact. Nudge up the adoption thread on here for better advice.

Carole, Agree with comments already made - electoral roll is a particularly 'hot' trail to follow. This looks like it might have been a 'wartime romance' which resulted in a baby - in which case, tracing the father will be nigh on impossible without 'personal testimony' from the mother. The timeframe is relatively recent, hence the difficulties ... however, if her link with Honiton was a permanent one, you might be able to do some local detective work. You never know, there might even be someone who remembers her. Have you tried getting 'plugged in' to the local family history/local history organisations there? I've had quite a lot of success by getting in touch with local community associations too. Good luck - keep us posted! Regs Annie

Carole, Have you got a death certificate? Annie

I wonder if 'McKeown' was her real name ....

can searches be done on electoral rolls online? The poor woman is prob dead now.

Wonder why Manchester? OK, it was a 'specialist' Catholic establishment, but surely there must have been others? Seems like a long way to go ....

We have had contact with mother and baby home but they dont have any more details than we already know not even an age of the mother which would be a big help. My Mum went to the social workers and had counciling before they tried to find out more information but they only came up with what we already knew We already had the adoption cert. They tried the courts to see if there were any other records but that was blank aswell.

Carole, Try having a chat with the local library in Honiton about electoral rolls. Unlikely they're online ... yet. Local library archivists can be REALLY helpful - and some will even do lookups for you if it's an easy one. Annie

We have searched for a marriage in England after the birth of the child in 1944 but no success

We have searched deaths for a Mary Jean Mckeown for quite a few years after the birth but no joy. a death cert would be next to impossible aswell because 1 We dont know if she is dead 2 we dont know if she is still called mcKeown 3 We dont know if she moved abroad or not.

She must have continued to work to support herself ... don't know what historical staff records hospitals might have, but it's worth finding out.

Tried hopital staff records but they either dont exist or they wont tell us anything. even tried for birth records this end (Manchester) my mum was a receptionist in our local hospital until she retired. tried the inside info bit but apparently no records

Carole, If you have the birth certificate of the child then you should be able to tell easily if the mother was married. If there is no father listed then chances are she was not married. Also, if she was, it would have her maiden name listed. I think you can probably safely assume she was single.

would love to know if she had any more children but would have to check every Mckeown baby with a mother called Mary Jean plus we could always find one and it not be her. There must be millions of people called Mary Jean ...........(Surname) it could be worse she could have been just plain MARY lol

no Maiden name on birth cert .........did she have to put one if she was married? suppose she could have just said she wasnt married.

OK, it looks like your best bet is trying to find her in Honiton in the late 1940s - electoral roll stuff. If you can track her, or even locate her once, that'll prove she existed under that name. Another thought ... she could have been married, husband away fighting WW2, had an illicit affair and was able to 'hush up' the birth of you mother by moving away and having her adopted before the husband returned from war. Annie

Yes we think she may have been married and got herself sorted before the return of the husband. She couldnt have had any other children though because she went back to working. I will definately try electoral rolls.

Hi Carol. I've just been through an almost identical situation to yours. I'm very close to making contact with my maternal grandmother's family thanks to some lovely people on this site. All I had was a name on my mum's birth cert. Mum searched for 25 yrs without success and I took over four months ago. You really should search through marriages and if it takes two or three weeks it will be worthwhile as you may find her married name. I had to do this and it took forever, but I'm so glad I did. Deb:)