Researching and documenting mystery individuals in Ireland
I am curious how others go about researching and documenting mystery individuals that they come across when researching their family tree. Do you simply create separate folders and deal with them as part of collateral family tree research, or part of the FAN club?
I came across a mystery individual when exploring the 1926 census of Ireland when it was released in April. I found who appears to be my granduncle living away from his household in a neighbouring townland in Co. Limerick. His name is Edmond Leahy and at this time he was 18 years old and is listed as Ed Leahy and is working on the farm of a single woman, aged 63, named Hannah Tierney. The relationship of Edmond to Hannah is noted as cousin. The record appears here.
I wasnt' certain it was my granduncle when I first came across the record but the age fits and he does not appear in the household of his father Michael Leahy in Martinstown which is next to the townland of Darranstown where he does appear. I then went to search for the death of this Hannah Tierney and I see that she died the following year in 1937 and the informant was my great-grandfather Michael Leahy of Martinstown. I looked into the history of Hannah Tierney further and I can see her in the 1901 census where she is aged 30 and an older woman named Kate Leahy, aged 50, is living in the same household and is noted as being an aunt. There is however no Kate or Catherine Leahy that fits this time frame in my family, and she also appears as single, however, I have found a death record from 1917 where a 73-year-old widow has died in a small place called Clareen, which appears to be an old subdivision of the townland of Martinstown. While age and marital status provide a conflict of information, the informant is a Michael McAuliffe which is the same name as a farm servant who appears in the household of Hannah and Kate in 1901. This is utterly confusing as I can't find any record of a Leahy-Tierney marriage in Co. Limerick that fits and I can't really figure out who Hannah or Kate's parents are. I later found an article in Limerick Leader newspaper that notes the death of a Rev. John Tierney of Bulgaden, Co. Limerick, who died in 1934 and listed among the chief mourners are my great-grandfather Michael and his brothers of Martinstown, yet I still have no clue how they are related. To add to this there also appears in the obituary a Rev. Fr. Leahy (Rev. Michael J. Leahy who became Canon Leahy of Bulgaden Parish in Co. Limerick) who has cropped up as a 'cousin' in a few obituaries but I also can't pinpoint how he is related as he comes from a townland near Charleville and I don't see how his father was related to my Leahys.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I want to record this research but as I cannot confirm how any of it links to my own family I would like to know how others deal with this type of conundrum. Thanks in advance for any advice.
