It took a long time to find the death of Margaret (Taylor) CALLAGHAN, my great, great grandmother, not helped by her age having been recorded as 27 years at her death. That would have made her a bride of 9 years of age! If transcribed correctly this suggests Timothy was pretty vague about details relating to age, something we see again in the census records.
Margaret died of convulsions, about eight hours, uncertified. This means she did not have a medical attendant. It is possible Margaret had epilepsy, however women sometimes died of convulsions relating to post-partum infection. Convulsions were common in women we now recognise as having eclampsia and pre-eclampsia.[1] There is no evidence of Margaret having had a child just before her death in 1879. It is possible she was pregnant again. Having survived the Great Famine and delivered a known nine babies in the space of sixteen years, losing what seems to be a total of six, I imagine Margaret was physically and mentally exhausted.
Margaret left behind 12-year-old Mary B., the almost 10-year-old Margaret “Babe”, and one-year-old Denis.[2] It seems a reasonable assumption that responsibility for Denis fell to Mary B. until Timothy remarried.
Timothy’s second marriage
Timothy remarried almost a year after Margaret’s death, to Margaret O’BRIEN, on 27 July 1880 at St Mary’s Cathedral, Cork.[3] The marriage was witnessed by Maurice MURPHY and Nano O’REGAN.
Margaret was a stitcher and may have been working for Timothy. She was the daughter of the deceased Denis O’BRIEN. No occupation was given for Denis. In 1885 we see that Margaret’s mother’s name was Mary, as she registered the death of Margaret and Timothy’s daughter Catherine. According to the census records Margaret had been born in Co. Cork around 1851/2. However, given the vagueness around ages/dates of births these years cannot be taken as definitive.
The only record I have found of a Margaret Brien born in Co. Cork to a Denis and Mary is for a Margaret, daughter of Denis BRIEN and Mary WHELTEN or WHELLEN of Muckross/ Muckrops, baptised in Ardfield and Rathberry (between Clonakilty and Rosscarbery), Cork 27 April 1856. If this is Timothy’s second wife, she would have been twenty-four years old at the time of her marriage. Timothy, if the census records were accurate, would have been about 39.
[1] Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2006 Nov; 99(11): 559–563
[2] We know all of Timothy’s sons died before Denis in 1909, so it seems likely that, given the time, William and Timothy died in infancy, even though I have not been able to locate death records. Many families did not register deaths because it cost to do so.
[3] It was common for widowers to remarry quickly after a 12 month mourning period.
In Search of Thomas Davis 