Agnes Haughey was my maternal grandfather’s maternal grandmother.  She was my great, great granny in other words.  From census, marriage and death records I know that she was born in 1836 in Glasgow and that in 1856 she married my great grandfather, Patrick Keenan.  The first document I found for her was her death record which states that her parents names were Hugh Haughey and Roseanne McGhie.  So, I added their names to the tree along with the names of her many children.  I did also find her marriage record  but it was from Catholic Parish records and didn’t have details of her parents.  I did have a look for her birth records using her parents details but with no success.  Then I’m afraid to say that I kind of left Agnes at that to go and look at other stories.  You will see from previous posts that I have concentrated more on my grandfather’s paternal side.

This week Scotland’s People are offering free access to the Catholic Parish Registers so I decided to have another look for information on the Haugheys and Keenans and basically have just searched for everyone with those names.  And there for 1836 I found the birth of an Agnes Haughey in Glasgow but with the parents given as Patrick Haughey and Rose McGhie.  Is this the same person?  Looking at her death certificate I see that she was registered by her son in law.  I think it’s fair to say that he may not have known his wife’s grandfather and wouldn’t have known his first name and perhaps got confused with the paternal grandfather who is called Hugh.

Then I realised that having been married in 1856 a full record should exist of the marriage.  So, I found the marriage of Patt Keenan and Agnes Haughy who were married in Hamilton on 6 May 1856. Her parents are given as Peter Haughy and ? McGhie.  The copy on Scotland’s People isn’t too clear.  What do you think?

I would expect the marriage certificate to be more accurate as the information was given by Agnes herself who would surely know her own parents names.  The witnesses to the marriage are both called Keenan.  I had hoped for a Haughey sibling but no such luck.

Back on the Catholic records, I did find a Patrick Haughey and Rose McGhie having  children in the early 1850s but that’s a fair gap and I suppose the names aren’t particularly uncommon.

I cannot find any record of a Haughey/McGhie marriage, nor can I find any records of their births or deaths or even census records.

Another thing that confuses me about Agnes and her family is that she seems to have ignored the naming conventions that my family otherwise seem to stick to – first son named after paternal grandfather, first daughter after maternal grandmother and so on.  While there may have been some variations the grandparents names always appear somewhere in the family yet, despite having 8 daughters, there is no Rose.  It is possible that I haven’t found her but the 10 children I have found are as follows –

• Mary (Born 1857)
• Hugh (Born 1859)
• Hannah (Born 1860)
• Anne (Born 1862)
• James (Born 1863)
• Elizabeth (Born 1866)
• Margaret (Born 1868)
• Helen (Born 1869) – My great grandmother
• Catherine (Born 1871)
• Agnes (Born 1873)

No Patrick or Peter in there either.  Maybe Agnes didn’t grow up with her parents.  Possibly she was orphaned and brought up by someone else (James and Mary maybe?)  Could it be that she didn’t have a good relationship with her parents and chose not to use their names.  My grandmother did this to my great grandmother and even in the 1920s this was a bit of a big deal.

Agnes wouldn’t have had an easy life.  I know that from Glasgow she moved out to Lanarkshire and by 1862 she was living in Newmains.  Patrick was a coal miner and money would have been scarce.  For a period of over 16 years Agnes was either pregnant or looking after newborns.  She outlived both her sons.  James died when he was just 2 years old and Hugh at 29.  Daughter Mary also died at just 28.

To add to the confustion about names when husband Patrick died in 1898 the certificate states that he was married to Agnes McGhee.  The death was registered by Agnes herself so I can’t explain the use of her mother’s maiden name.  Perhaps she was confused by the question when asked about her maiden name.  The register is signed with an X.

Agnes died on 28 April 1901.  The cause of death is given as a fractured rib and pneumonia.  She is buried in Cambusnethan Cemetery.