PATRICK DOWD
Extensive research cannot find any brothers or sisters to Patrick, if it had have done so then perhaps life would have been made easier for me.
From records traced, it is established that Patrick was born in Ireland around 1860, believed to be somewhere in County Sligo - some 10 years after the potato famine in Ireland. (Perhaps his father John was affected by the famine and moved to England with his family - thousands did...?)
The only record of a Patrick Dowd (Doud) fitting the bill in the 1881 UK Census shows him lodging with the Garraty family in Lancashire. The Garraty's being of Irish descendant too.
It is assumed that by the time of marriage, Patrick had left Lancashire and headed over to the north east, obtaining employment in the then thriving coal mining industry around the Bishop Auckland area.
On the 24th March 1883 Patrick married Ellen Lamb of West Auckland, at the local Register Office.
Patrick is 22 years old. Ellen is 19 years old
Two years after Patrick and Ellen married they started producing their offspring:
There is a possibility that earlier children may have been born and perished - yet to confirm
| FIRST NAME | BORN | MARRIED | DIED |
| Thomas | 1885 West Auckland | 1916 Maria Mordue | 1952 |
| Mary | 1888 West Auckland | No | ? |
| John | 1890 West Auckland | No | ? |
| William | 1892 West Auckland | 1918 Jane Ann Whitworth | 1967 |
| Annie | 1895 West Auckland | 1919 William Abbey | ? |
| Ellen | 1898 St Helen Auckland | Died at 21 months | 1899 |
| Harry | 1900 St Helen Auckland | 1921 Ida Sanderson | 1945 |
| Ellen | 1903 St Helen Auckland | Not Known | ? |
| Florence | 1907 St Helen Auckland | 1931 Lanchester Smithson | 1984 |
You will notice from the above that Patrick and Ellen were determined to have a daughter named after the mother. Sadly, the first Ellen died from Bronchial Pneumonia just short of her 2nd birthday. But on 18th August 1903, five years on, the second Ellen was born.
To-date I have only been able to acquire copies of birth certificates for those highlighted in green.
