My Irish Lines: Paternal: Kelly, White Maternal: McNally, Campbell, Flannaghan (and variants), Regan

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In Search of Lost Flannaghans

Anyone who's ever tried to trace their Irish ancestry will know how devilishly difficult this can be. Most Irish immigrants to the UK and elsewhere were fleeing the Potato Famine and a bit too busy dealing with English prejudice, appalling social conditions and moving about a lot to be worried much about registering their children. When you do get back to your first ancestor born in 'Ireland', you often can't get anything more specific out of the British censuses. Most Irish censuses were burned in 1922 and often times their Catholic Church registers aren't that readily accessible.

So, I was jolly chuffed to get as far as tracking down my 3x great grandfather Dennis Flannaghan on census for 42 Silver St, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1851. Including Dennis, his wife Ann (nee Regan) and daughter Hannah (although I think this is supposed to be my GG grandmother Ann Flannaghan), there were a grand total of 11 people there on census night and tantalizingly a good number of them seem to be related. Sadly, the enumerator didn't pay too much attention to detail, however, recording them simply as 'relation' or 'visitor'. If any of the following makes sense to you, I'd really love to hear from you:

'Relation'

Name	Age	Place of birth	Marital Status
John Flannaghan	25	England	Un
Catherine Flannaghan	17	England	Un
John Regan	33	England	Marr

'Visitor'

John McCLean	45	Scotland	Wid
Thomas Caverney	20	Ireland	Un
Michael Teully	21	Ireland	Un
Rose Dohalind (?)	39	Ireland	Un

And Amazingly 'Servant' This one HAS to be an error!

Mary Flannaghan

12

Ireland

Un

Moreover, there are a number clues to other Flannaghans and Regans (possibly the same as in the above census) amongst the baptisms of those we do know are part of the tree, which we so far cannot tie in. Do you recognize any of the following?

1. Mary Flannaghan: Godmother to John Flannaghan son of Dennis and Ann nee Regan bapt Newcastle St Andrew’s RC 1854
2. Catherine Flannaghan and John Regan: God parents to Ann Flannaghan daughter of Dennis and Ann bapt Newcastle St Andrew’s RC 1850
3. Laurence Flannaghan son of John and Margaret Flannaghan bapt 1849 Newcastle St Andrew’s RC to whom Dennis Flannaghan was God father.
4. Mary Flannaghan: Godmother to Catherine Campbell daughter of Ann Flannaghan and Patrick Campbell bapt St Joseph’s RC Gateshead 1878

Again if any of this makes sense to you, I’d love to hear from you.