Sarah DOOLEY, daughter of Michael DOOLEY and Sarah (Unknown) was probably born in the 1820s in County Laois, or Queens County as it was then known. Sarah was the sister of my great, great grandmother, Catherine (Dooley) HYLAND.
Sarah married Patrick CONROY on 16 July 1966 in Maryborough (Portlaoise). The register notes they were from Ballydavis South.
They had the following known children:
Shaen townland borders Ballydavis to the south and Coolbanagher to the east.
The 1901 census record of the only William and Sarah CONROY siblings in Shaen shows the Head of the Family as Catherine CONROY. As Sarah (Dooley) CONROY had a sister Catherine (Dooley) HYLAND, my great great grandmother, we can assume this was not a child baptised Sarah but known by the name Catherine (it happens).
It becomes evident in the 1911 census that Catherine CONROY was a widow and had had none of her own children. When Catherine, known as ‘Kate,’ died on 20th April 1912 William notified her death and was recorded as her son. We can assume that, given these data and that there were only two children, Sarah (Dooley) CONROY died young and Catherine was William’s second wife and step mother of their children, William and Sarah.
I have found no record of Sarah (Dooley) CONROY’s death which suggests it likely to have occurred before state records began in 1864. William remarried to Catherine ‘Kate’ CURRAN on August 9th 1867 in Stradbally.
Neither of Sarah’s children married so there are no known descendants from Sarah (Dooley) CONROY.
Daughter Sarah died at the age of 57, in 1916 from what sounds like cancer. Note that a Johanna HENNESSY was present at her death in Shaen.
Brother William survived for 22 years after his sister, dying of myocardial degeneration aged 82 years.
William left a will for which the executor was the Reverend Monahan.
Among the beneficiaries were his first cousins William HYLAND (my great grandfather’s younger brother Bill) and Patrick DOOLEY (the first cousin who lived and worked on the HYLAND farm at Morette.) The will was contested by a first cousin once removed, Sarah HASLAM, described in the article below.
Carlow Nationalist July 1939
I am not yet certain what the exact Sarah HASLAM connection was.
In Search of Thomas Davis 