Across the Irish Sea?
In searching for my great grandfather’s family in England, I’ve been stymied. When he was a year old in England, his entire family shows up in the UK Census of 1861. After this they seem to vanish. We next find Thomas, according to his cable company contract, in Limerick, Ireland as an operator in 1874. He was only 14-15 years old. Three years later, in 1877, his older brother John, also a telegraph clerk was married while living in Limerick.
I must now consider a couple of possibilities. I doubt that Thomas and John were isolated from each other. They must have been living either together or at least in proximity. If I consider young Thomas at 14 or 15, then I’m sure he must have been living with his older brother. In 1874, when Thomas began working in Limerick as a cable operator, his older brother was 21.
We now have two scenarios to consider. Did a 15 year old Thomas go to live in Limerick Ireland along with his 21 year old brother? Or, did the entire Downs family move to Ireland after the 1861 census? The fact that the family disappears from census records after the 1861 census suggests that the latter is a possibility.
But one other thing strikes my about the names passed down in this family. Both John and Thomas were the sons of Thomas Downs. I believe, in turn, that he was the son of a John Downs, though I have yet to find more than circumstantial evidence for this. So Thomas Sr. named his oldest son (that we know of) after his own father and his name in the record is John William Downs. Thomas Sr. waited until his third son before he named one after himself, Thomas Jr. When Thomas Jr. came to America and started a family, he had six sons. He didn’t name one after himself and his father, Thomas. He didn’t name one after his brother Henry. With all this opportunity to name sons, there is only one named after a member of his family back home and that is my grandfather, John William Downs. He is obviously named after that older brother he fondly remembered who worked for the telegraph with him in Limerick Ireland. That tradition continued with my father, John William Downs and my older brother, John William Downs.
I must now consider a couple of possibilities. I doubt that Thomas and John were isolated from each other. They must have been living either together or at least in proximity. If I consider young Thomas at 14 or 15, then I’m sure he must have been living with his older brother. In 1874, when Thomas began working in Limerick as a cable operator, his older brother was 21.
We now have two scenarios to consider. Did a 15 year old Thomas go to live in Limerick Ireland along with his 21 year old brother? Or, did the entire Downs family move to Ireland after the 1861 census? The fact that the family disappears from census records after the 1861 census suggests that the latter is a possibility.
But one other thing strikes my about the names passed down in this family. Both John and Thomas were the sons of Thomas Downs. I believe, in turn, that he was the son of a John Downs, though I have yet to find more than circumstantial evidence for this. So Thomas Sr. named his oldest son (that we know of) after his own father and his name in the record is John William Downs. Thomas Sr. waited until his third son before he named one after himself, Thomas Jr. When Thomas Jr. came to America and started a family, he had six sons. He didn’t name one after himself and his father, Thomas. He didn’t name one after his brother Henry. With all this opportunity to name sons, there is only one named after a member of his family back home and that is my grandfather, John William Downs. He is obviously named after that older brother he fondly remembered who worked for the telegraph with him in Limerick Ireland. That tradition continued with my father, John William Downs and my older brother, John William Downs.
posted by Bill | 8:30 AM
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