John J Egan of Killester Dublin

[Jervis]

I am trying to establish if a man called John J Egan of Killester, Dublin served in the war.  

John J Egan ran a grocery store and public house in Killester, Dublin. As many of you will know Killester was a planned garden village for returned Great War veterans. The shop & pub were not part of the soldiers & sailors Land Trust. (A book recently published on Killester, presented research on soldiers who were allocated a house by the Trust and apart from photo of the pub make no reference to him). I have no strong reason to believe he served in the war, other than he was part of a wider community of ex. Servicemen. 

I have been hindered researching soldiers records as I am unable to find/confirm any pre-war record for him. (Birth cert, census, address, mother’s name etc. ) All I have is his 1924 marriage record https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1924/09164/5314549.pdf And a newspaper obituary (see attached). The obituary is quite detailed and should help, but I am completely stumped by this one and can’t make any headway.

I’d appreciate if anyone with better skills than I could take a look please. 

Thanks in advance. 
Jervis

 

 

 

Edited 6 February by Jervis

[PRC]

58 minutes ago, Jervis said:

And a newspaper obituary (see attached).

Can I assume the newspaper report is one of these three from December 1942?

Image courtesy FindMyPast.

Note the one from the Dublin Evening Mail dated 24 December 1942 records him as "died to-day".

That in turn leads to the death of a 53 year old John Joseph Egan of 179 Howth Street, Clontarf, a Grocer, who died on the 24th December 1942 and whose death was registed in the Dublin North District in the opening days of 1943 by his son Denis.

Image courtesy https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1943/04670/4243942.pdf

If that age is correct then looking for a birth c1889 fathers name Patrick according to that marriage record.

Not sure if that gets you much further forward - a number of potential matches for a John Egan to go through, (and that's assuming he was born in Ireland) and several John Egan's of the rightish age on the 1911 Census of Ireland whose father was called Patrick and who was either a farmer of an agricultural labourer.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Jervis]

1 hour ago, PRC said:

Can I assume the newspaper report is one of these three from December 1942?

Image courtesy FindMyPast.

Note the one from the Dublin Evening Mail dated 24 December 1942 records him as "died to-day".

That in turn leads to the death of a 53 year old John Joseph Egan of 179 Howth Street, Clontarf, a Grocer, who died on the 24th December 1942 and whose death was registed in the Dublin North District in the opening days of 1943 by his son Denis.

Image courtesy https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1943/04670/4243942.pdf

If that age is correct then looking for a birth c1889 fathers name Patrick according to that marriage record.

Not sure if that gets you much further forward - a number of potential matches for a John Egan to go through, (and that's assuming he was born in Ireland) and several John Egan's of the rightish age on the 1911 Census of Ireland whose father was called Patrick and who was either a farmer of an agricultural labourer.

Cheers,
Peter

 

Hi Peter.
Thanks for the response. Yes. You have identified correct newspaper articles & death certificate. Father = Patrick. But that is as far as I could go unfortunately. 
 

[corisande]

Your news clipping says he came from Strokestown. There is a Strokestown birth in Irish GRO . AS Joseph tends to be a "bolt" in later life, I would not be concerned by the lack at birth

and one for a brother Patrick

though I cannot get one for Mollie (could be a number of names) or Frances

[corisande]

That man's parents married in Roscommon in 1877

And that is that family in census 1901

[Jervis]

That is brilliant Corisande. Thank you very much,

That all seems to add up very well. I'll continue searching. 

[doyle3]

The R A Anderson entry on the newspaper item caught my attention. Presume this is Robert Anderson, the IAVTC admininstrator wounded during the Easter Rising. Died December 1942.

[Jervis]

Hi John. 
I have no idea.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the rest of the article.  I took the screenshot a long time ago and no longer have a subscription for the newspaper archives. 
 

 

[doyle3]

22 hours ago, Jervis said:

Hi John. 
I have no idea.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the rest of the article.  I took the screenshot a long time ago and no longer have a subscription for the newspaper archives. 
 

 

No problem @Jervis - I've access and have now confirmed it is Robert Anderson from the IAVTC/Easter Rising etc

 

This might be your man in the 1911 census

https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/South_Dock/Verschoyle_Court/85059/

and  possibly 1901

https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Roscommon/Annaghmore/Clooncunny/1672227/

Cannot find any military service info.

 

[Jervis]

sorry for delay. Thank you. Yes I agree those look likely census records.

However I cant find any military records for him at all and conclude it is unlikely he served. 

That said, having read the recent book on Killester, I was really surprised at the number of veteran home occupiers the researchers could not match military records for. So possibly the records just elude me.