Seeing the surname Kelly appear on any Irish ancestral branches would make any researcher sigh as it is the equivalent of looking for someone with the surname Jones who lives in Wales. You can imagine the frustration over the years researching a maternal maiden name of Miller combined with the discovery that my great-great grandfather William James Miller married a Kelly. I confess I wasn’t sure what would happen with this particular branch; would the research take me back far enough or even reveal anything interesting?
Having established that my 2x great-grandmother Annie Kelly was the daughter of a Samuel Kelly and Lizzie Wade, the next step was to find their marriage certificate. Upon finding a marriage record dated 1stJanuary 1880 in the parish of Lower Cumber, Co. Londonderry it was noted that Samuel Kelly was a widower at the time of marriage.
Using Samuel’s address of Goshaden and his father’s name George; a second marriage certificate revealed itself. Samuel’s second wife was called Elizabeth Riddle and the couple had married 18th May 1870 in the parish of Lower Cumber. Now initially I was thinking Samuel would be listed as being a “bachelor” but once again he was listed as being a widower. At this stage I was beginning to wonder how many women has this man married!? A third marriage certificate appeared for Samuel dated 30th May 1856 to Ann Carten. It was established at this point that Ann was Samuel’s first wife as he lists himself as being a bachelor.
Death records revealed that Ann died 18th July 1868 in Goshaden aged just 33, the cause of death was listed as being “disease of the brain” and that she had been ill for 5 months. The records also showed that Elizabeth Riddle died 27th December 1877 in Goshaden aged46, cause of death was “malignant tumour of the breast”.
Samuel died 20th July 1893 aged 63, the cause of death was listed as “fracture of the spinal column” and the information had been received from Thomas Lindsay who was the coroner for County Derry following an inquest. The circumstances surrounding Samuel’s death was enough to attract the attention ofThe Derry Journal:
The Derry Journal, Monday Morning, 24th July1893
THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT GOSHADEN
An inquest was held on Friday by Mr Lindsay, city coroner, at Goshaden, on the body of Samuel Kelly, who was killed on the previous day by falling out of a cart while in a drunken condition.
Mr Maxwell, solicitor, watched the case.
James Carton, a fellow servant of deceased, deposed thathe, deceased and a man named James Carlin were in Londonderry on Thursday withthree carts. They left about noon after having had considerable drink. On theway home they stopped at Stevenson’s public house and M’Court’s public house ineach of which they had a drink. When they reached Goshaden Carlin went on with his cart. Witness went up to Irwin’s shop to get goods and deceased pulled up his cart. When witness looked round after stopping his horse he saw deceased lying on the ground beside the cart. He went over and tried to lift him but indoing so fell over him. He appeared dead then. R.J Irwin, shopkeeper, deposed to going out immediately and finding deceased lying on the road. Witness bathed his head with cold water and applied warm water to his breast but beyond a gaspor two there was no animation.
Dr Elliot deposed that in his opinion deceased broke hisneck by falling out of the cart. A verdict of accidental death was returned.
It’s hard to imagine the impact that this had on Lizzie and the six children whose ages at the time ranged from 12 years – 21 months. There was a certain degree of frustration aimed at Samuel and the same question was going around my head - why? Why did you have to visit three pubs and get yourself into that state? The records can only reveal so much and the answer to said question has been taken by Samuel to his grave.
So when you see a common surname such as Kelly, don’t always assume that the research might not lead you anywhere!
