Sarah Boyle was born 16th June 1879 in Loughanure, County Donegal to Owen Boyle and Sarah Doogan/Duggan, she was one of11 children. Her parents actually stated on the 1911 census that they had 12children. She married Hugh Bonner 10th December 1903 in the Annagry Roman Catholic Chapel, County Donegal.
The story was that the family has moved to Scotland to look for work and the census records do confirm Hugh’s occupation as a coalminer. It’s not clear as to exactly when the couple moved to Scotland but they are listed on the 1911 Scottish census with their two daughters Annie (1906)and Sarah (1910). A son Owen had been born 2nd January 1909 in Linlithgow but he succumbed to bronchitis on 14th January 1909 aged12 days old.
Tragedy was to visit the family again on 21stMarch 1912 when Sarah Jnr passed away from bronchial pneumonia three months before her 2nd birthday. Infant mortality would have been very common but it must have been devasting to lose a child. However fate dealt another cruel event as Hugh died of pneumonia three months later on 21stJune 1912 aged 36.
Losing one family member must have been unbearable but two within three months… there really can’t be any words to describe it. Adding to everything was the fact Sarah Snr was also 5 months pregnant and far away in a different country from her own family. Sarah did return to Donegal and had another daughter Mary on 30th October 1912.
As mentioned at the beginning, Sarah was one of 11children which consisted of six brothers. Now these brothers must have felt that Sarah should get married again as they went out to pick her second husband Patrick “Paddy” McGarvey on the basis that he had some land and money. Patrick was also a widower with two children aged 3 and 2. They were married on 23rdDecember 1917. They had two sons and a daughter of their own.
As for Sarah’s eldest daughters from her marriage to Hugh, Annie and Mary, they both crossed the border to Derry/Londonderry in order to find work. Family lore advises that Annie was killed in a car accident but no evidence to the contrary has been found to prove of disprove this. Mary did lose contact with her mother and family for a number of years simply because the man she had fallen in love with just happened to be a Protestant. It wouldn’t be until Mary lost two children with in three months of each other in 1940 did contact resume.
Sarah passed away on 17th April 1955 aged 75. A family tale advises that a picture frame fell off the wall a few days before hand and Mary, who was known to be very superstitious, was convinced that this meant someone was going to die. The rest of the family didn’t believe this so readily but then the telegram arrived saying that Sarah had passed away.
