Dear Shamrockers, I just found, quite by accident, the maiden name of my maternal gr gr grandmother. I think that HOW I found it is interesting enough to merit a detailed description. The accidental discovery came in the mail. I had ordered from the Massachusetts State Archives the birth cert. of the brother of my grandmother. The archives found two births for Charles CROWLEY in Holliston MA in 1873, so they sent me a certificate for the most likely one, (which turned out to be the correct one) but they also included a photo copy of the Town Birth Register for the year, with both Charles CROWLEY entries highlighted. The correct Charles CROWLEY was born to Mary J. DONNELLY CROWLEY, daughter of Peter and Mary J. DONNELLY. In scanning the page of entries I was just amazed at what I found there. Three entries and five days later appeared the name "Eddie Francis DONNELLY, Female, born in Holliston to Peter and Mary (DORHAN)." I already knew that a son, Edward F. DONNELLY was born to them in 1873, from census information. So the gender is a mistake. I suppose that the real name is legally what appears on the birth register, however, it appears that the parents named him Edward, because of references in later sources. This incidental inclusion of a copy of the register for a different person showed that Mary DORHAN DONNELLY became a mother, five days after becoming a grandmother! She was 22 when her first child, Mary J. was born, and age 47 when the last of her five children, Edward, was born. The big bonus of this page was that it also gave me her maiden name, after much searching. This, combined with her great grave stone inscription, gives me lots of information. How many of us have only wished for our ancestor gravestones to give such info? MARY DONNELLY Native of Tuam, Galway Ireland Died Dec 17, 1881 Age 54 years, 11 months, 23 days Taking that information to the really nifty on-line Birth Date Calculator: http://web2.airmail.net/bhende19/b-date.htm It figured out that (*IF* the inscription was correct) she was born on Christmas Day 1826. Armed with her name and (possibly) her date of birth, I suppose that the next step might be to write to the RC Parish of Tuam, which has baptismal records from 1811, and some even earlier. If anybody has any DORHAN information I would be happy to hear it. I have never heard of it until today. There are only three listed on Rootsweb WorldConnect, one of them being German, another Honora DORHAN, married an Irishman, Thomas Hudner, b. 1829 in Ireland. The only other is a living Judy Dorhan, with no other info given. On FamilySearch a search for Mary DORHAN brought up only one entries (Ancestral File) entry, from the US. Entering John DORHAN, there was one IGI response, this one from England. I cannot even establish that this name existes in Ireland. Could someone with the Griffith's CD please check to see if this name existed in Ireland during the 1850's? If so, please send any info, especially on any one in County Galway. If anyone has info on this unusual name, please let me know. Perhaps I should eventually start looking also at DORHAN, or possibly DORAN? I don't have much confidence in the Holliston Town Clerk, if he thought that Edward or "Eddie" Francis was a female name! This DORHAN name, as it is clearly recorded, could be wrong also. Thank you, Tony Riordan triordan@msn.com ______________________________________________________________ THE RIORDAN FAMILY GENEALOGY PAGE: http://www.geocities.com/triordan.geo/index.html