William Cleary and Julia Lawlor
William Cleary was born around 1830, married Julia Lawlor in 1851 and died in 1875 aged about 44 years of rheumatic gout.
Julia Lawler was born about 1830 and married William in 1851. She died 23 March 1903 of liver disease.
William and Julia were Kathleen’s paternal great-grandparents.
A short note about records
The release of the Irish Census records for 1901 and 1911 online was a major step in tracing families. Previous censuses, every ten years from 1821 to 1891, were collected but are lost through various misadventures with only fragmentary records remaining. Civil records of Catholic birth deaths and marriage in Ireland commenced in 1864. Protestant births, marriages and death commenced in 1845. Before the advent of civil records, parish records are the major resource. While many of these have been digitised and are online, there are many gaps due to complete records which are missing, or individual pages or individual entries being lost or undecipherable. For this reason, records relating to William and Julia’s generation can be incomplete or impossible to locate.
William and Julia
I have not located birth records for William or Julia. William’s death and burial records indicate that he was 44 years old when he died. This suggests that he was born in 1831. However, the accuracy of his age at death is dependent on the informant who may not reliably know his age. Julia’s age in the 1901 census is given as 60 and her daughter as 58! Her death cert gives the age in 1903 as 66, and the burial record says 75 years. The informant in both cases was her son Harry. It is difficult to resolve the difference. It suggests she was born in late 1820s or early 1830s.
A marriage took place in St Andrew’s Westland Row on 12 Oct 1851 of William Cleary and Julia Lawlor. However, the records contain no address details or details of parents. The date is consistent with the birth of their first child in 1852. However, it lacks confirming details. It is difficult to be certain that this is the relevant record.
William and Julia had at least seven children, Patrick, Mary Jane, Eliza, Ellen, Julia, John Joseph, Henry F (Harry) and Sarah. The dates of some births might suggest that there were other births between them which were not recorded, or details not found.
William’s occupation varies across records with him being described as butcher, labourer, mineral water bottler, and ginger-beer bottler. The records of their children’s births and marriages show them living mainly in Royal Row, Ormond Market at numbers 5,6, or 14. But, on one occasion, in Coles Lane, which is also a market located where the ILAC centre is now. Julia had a sister, Ellen, who lived with her for much of her life, including her last home at 111 Capel Street.
A report from the Coroner’s Inquests on the death of Samuel Lawlor, a butcher, of Ormond Market indicates that he was found by his sister Julia Cleary. Samuel was aged 30. The report was carried in the newspaper on 24 April 1852. Others records of Samuel or other family members have not been found
Julia is notably the informant for the deaths of her children and grandchildren. With Julia’s sister, Ellen, the informant for some of the births. Toward the end of her life, Julia was living in Capel Street in an all-female household of her sister, daughter and granddaughters, their husbands and father being dead.
William died on 16 Jan 1875 and is buried in Goldenbridge Cemetery in Section Goldenbridge main: K 4.5 beside his son Patrick.
Julia died 29 Mar 1903 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in section Garden ZF202. She is buried alongside her daughter, Eliza Kidd (19 years), and granddaughters Christina Kidd (10 months) and Julia Grant (3 months).
