red paper boat

Anne Baskwill born 19 November 1876, Lackaun, District of Westport No.1, Union of Westport, County of Mayo, Ireland
Father John Baskvill
Mother Mary Kerrigan
from: Irish Civil Registers (births)

Anne of John Basquille {and} Mary Kerrigan
[sponsors] John Kerrigan [and] Ellen Shanly
from: Catholic Parish Baptismal Register, Aughagower Parish 1876

She was baptized on the 18th of what I originally thought was October, but now that I have access to the civil register image for her birth, I think must have been November. The months notated in the left column of the baptismal register do not match up very tidily with the dates. It’s a hot mess. And taken in the context of the civil birth register, it is even more nonsensical.

The birth register states she was born on 19 November 1876. So in order for both documents to be true, she was baptized before she was born. Yeah, no. But if you look closely at the birth record, her birth was not registered until 6 December 1876.

We can never know what exactly happened, but I think the likeliest explanation is that her parents got the birth date wrong. I find it more likely that the delayed registration is incorrect than that the church got the baptismal date incorrect.

So I believe the latest she could have been born is 18 November 1876.

In addition to my own family genealogy, I’ve been working on a One Name Study of the Basquill family. In sort, I’m collecting all the Basquills and trying to fit them together. Sometimes it’s easy going, but other times there just isn’t enough information to hold two threads together.

This is the situation I found myself in with the family of John Basquille and Mary Kerrigan. They aren’t “my” Basquills (as far as I know, at this point), so when I hit a brick wall with them, I wrote up some brief notes and let it go.

Today, as I was looking through some of the entries in the Irish death registry, I came across this record for a John Basquill of Lackaun who died in 1898 of influenza. He had been married, with his wife preceding him in death. Do you have any idea how many John Basquills there are in my one name study database? Even just looking at the ones in the Lackaun area with daughters named Bridget, it was impossible for me to figure out where he belonged.

But then I found that note I’d made.

I’d wondered why the four youngest children had emigrated to the US when they did. I didn’t know for sure that their parents had died, but I couldn’t find anyone that fit their description in the 1901 or 1911 censuses. Emigrating seemed like an ill-advised venture, though, given that the kids did not fair especially well once they got here. One son ended up spending time in Willard State Hospital. (Yes, that Willard State Hospital.)

I would need more confirmation before I’d want to unequivocally state that this John Basquill is that John Basquille, but as a working theory, I’m going to go with it.

I don’t think I mentioned that the Irish birth, marriage, and death index images are now online and available for free. You can search them at IrishGenealogy.ie. These are just the registry entries, but they have most of the information you’d find in the official certificates. They’re a goldmine, if you have Irish ancestors.

The page above is from the death register and contains the entry for my great-great grandfather, Walter Basquill. If I’m deciphering the handwriting properly, he died of infirmity and cardiac weakness.