Tuesday 19 January 2010

Children's Nurse

My next unsolved problem from the 1911 Irish Census concerns a 22 year old young lady called Eleanor McIlhagga. She was being employed by a Medical General Practitioner called Dr. Ivie Aird (35), a Scot, and his wife Ella Margaret Aird (29) who was born in Belfast. They had two children, Elizabeth Margaret (4) and Kenneth Ivie (2), both of whom had been born in County Down. They called themselves a Presbyterian Protestant family, though were eclectic in their employees and friends. Three people were staying with them on Census night, Margaret Finnigan (25), a General Servant (Domestic) and a Roman Catholic from County Monaghan, Eleanor McIlhagga (22), a Children's Nurse (Servant) who was a Presbyterian from County Down and May Gilmore (32) a Visitor and an Episcopalian who was a Professional Nurse from County Down. Their residence was at number 37 Hamilton Road, Bangor, County Down. All the residents (except of course the two children) could read and write.

At present I am unable to place Eleanor in a Clan Family Tree. I do have the Civil Birth registration of one Eleanor, the daughter of James McIlhagga and Rebecca Johnston, who was born on 23rd December 1885, which would make her 25 on Census night in 1911. It is of course possible that in applying for the job of Children's Nurse for some reason Eleanor falsified her age and said she was three or four years younger than she was, but I have no evidence of this. In any case I am unable to place her and her parents in a Family Tree at this time. I have no records of a marriage or a death of an Eleanor McIlhagga. If anyone can throw any light on the origins of Eleanor in Bangor or on her subsequent history I would be most grateful.

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