Born: Francis HENRY Curran October 2, 1869, Newry. The Parish Register shows that the baptism was October 4, 1869, witnessed by Thomas Curran and Mary McCall.

Parents: Thomas Curran and Roseann Campbell. His father Thomas died in 1887, when Henry was around 18.

Military: there is a record of a Henry Curran from Newry serving in the 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles (familysearch.com) at age 18. This may not be our Henry, but if true it could help explain why his son, John, also joined the Rifles as a young man, just before WW1.

Married: 28 January 1893, in Newry, to Elizabeth Grogan (b.1873). Dromore Parish marriage record, witnessed by Thomas Curran (father?) & Mary McCardle, below:

Together Henry & Lizzie had two children before Lizzie died in 1898 at the age of 25, leaving Henry with John, who was around 4, and RoseAnne, who was a year older. At this time they had been living in Kimorey St., a stone’s throw from the Newry Canal & Clanrye river. Henry was a butcher, as noted on RoseAnne’s birth record, and in the Directories of the period -likely on North St. or Castle St.

Henry married again in 1902: Cathleen Poland who was born in Carnacally, just to the east of Newry, daughter of John Poland, a carpenter, and his wife Teresa Garvey a schoolteacher (per 1901 Census), who was born in Mayobridge and from a farming family in Aughnacloy. In the 1901 Census Cathleen is recorded as 17 year old ‘factory worker’. So, Henry was 32, and Cathleen 18 when they married.

From at least 1903 when daughter Teresa was born, until January 1907 at the time of their daughter Cathleen’s birth, the family were living at 49 Lower North St., Newry.

1911 Census

Age 40, Henry was living in Peter’s Place, Newry with Cathleen, his daughter Roseanne (by first wife), and three other daughters: Teresa (b.1903), Cathleen (b.1907) and Winefred (b.1908). 6 children, only four surviving(?) This Census entry does not include his eldest son John, who was living with his brother/sister-in-law -Mary and John Grogan- at this time. The Currans occupied two rooms of the house also occupied by Cathleen’s family, the Polands. The Census details show the Polands occupying 3 of the 5 rooms, and the Currans the other 2. That makes a total of 12 people – the only house on the street housing two families. All of the homes in Peter’s Place were owned by Lord Kilmorey, Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey (1883-1963), whose family seat was Mourne Park House, near Kilkeel – founded by Nicholas Bagnall in 1552. The family was landlord for hundreds of Newry families, and still owns a large amount of property in south Down. It all feels a little Angela’s Ashes.

Death: His mother RoseAnn died in 1916, when Henry was about 47, and not long before he himself died (I think) around June 1918 – possibly in Belfast, but not entirely sure. The three girls – Roseann, Cathleen & Winefred would have been around just 15, 12 and 10 when he passed away, with their mum just 35 or so.