Ancestors

Cornelius O'Brien

Cornelius O'Brien was a labourer in the parish of Castletownroche, County Cork, the son of another Cornelius O'Brien, also a labourer, who was dead by 1905. In 1901 he was living in house 14 in Castletownroche with his widowed mother, Mary, his brothers Batt and Mathew, his sister Mary and a nephew Cornelius. He gave his age as 27 and worked as an agricultural labourer. He could read but not write.

On 7 January 1905, at the Roman Catholic chapel of Castletownroche, he married Ellen Flynn of Ballydoyle. The curate, Michael Higgins, performed the ceremony. Cornelius was of full age and a bachelor, and the marriage entry gives his residence as Myrath, a townland just outside the village. He signed with his mark; the witnesses were Bartholomew O'Brien and Lizzie Flynn, a brother and a sister of the couple.

Their daughter Mary was born on 8 December 1905 at Kilquane, and the registrar entered Cornelius as a labourer. Margaret followed on 25 October 1906 at Castletownroche itself, the birth reported by a neighbour, Mary Kelleher, who made her mark. By census night, 2 April 1911, the family was in house 13 in Castletownroche, next door to the house his mother had kept. Cornelius, now giving his age as 40, was head of the family and an agricultural labourer. Ellen was 34, and there were five children: Mary 5, Margaret 4, Ellen 3, Cornelius 1, and William, five months old. Ellen had borne five children in six years of marriage and all five were living. Cornelius signed the return with his mark.

A sixth child, Hannah, was born on 15 August 1912 and registered in the Fermoy district with a Flynn mother. In March 1930 she sailed from Cobh for Hartford, Connecticut, at seventeen. Her passenger list names as her nearest relative not a parent but her brother, Cornelius O'Brien of Rahard, Castletownroche. Her sister, Miss M. O'Brien, was already in Hartford and paid her fare, and she went to her uncle Eugene Flynn. She became Anna Waters of Hartford. Where and when Cornelius died has not been found. A Cornelius P. O'Brien who died in Fermoy town in June 1912, aged 38, was a merchant of Barrack Hill and not this man.

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Cite: Heirology, "Cornelius O'Brien (b. 1872)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/cornelius-o-brien-1872-8641c0.