Descendants of Morgan and Winifred CONDREN

Extract from the marriage register of the Old Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri, for 25 May 1853 (from the Drouin Collection, online at ancestry.com)

Morgan CONDREN / CONDRON is a fairly rare name, and all the instances in my database seem to trace back to the Arklow area on the borders of County Wicklow and County Wexford, Ireland. I think it's a fair bet that all male CONDR*Ns with first name Morgan and most who have Morgan as a middle name derive from families who lived in this area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Continuing the occasional series on CONDR*Ns from County Wicklow, this post focuses on the descendants of Morgan and Winifred CONDREN who had at least eight children baptised in Arklow in the 1820s and 1830s. Their children that I know of are Sarah (born about 1820), Michael (1822), Edward (1827), Alexander (1829), Mary (1831), Winifred (1833), Eliza (1834) and Morgan (1835).

Alexander CONDREN married a Frances Maria PARR at St. Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin on 5 February 1857. They had three children baptised in Avoca, Co. Wicklow: Catherine (1858), John Morgan (1859) and Frances Winifred (1860). Alexander died in 1866, and his widow Frances subsequently remarried a James REDMOND in 1868. John Morgan CONDREN and his wife Sarah Annie had a daughter, Mary (1886), in Dublin, but then migrated across the Irish Sea to north Liverpool where they had three more children: Frederick (born 1889 in Bootle), William (born 1891 in Litherland) and Joseph Morgan (born 1897 in Litherland). Frederick married a Mary Jane EDGE in 1911 and hereafter this branch of the family seem to have gone by the name CONDRON. The couple had four children: Edmund (1911), Frederick (1912), William J. (1915) and Sidney (1922). A number of present-day CONDRONs in north Liverpool and in Southport are descendants of Frederick and Mary Jane CONDRON.

Of Morgan and Winifred CONDREN's other children, I know of the marriages of only two of them. Morgan junior married a Margaret TUKE in St. Nicholas church in Dublin in 1859: I don't know whether they had any children. And Mary (1831) turns up in an unexpected place. The marriage register of the Old Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri, shows the marriage of a Mary CONDRAN and a Charles LAMBERT. The bride's parents are given as Morgan CONDRAN and Winefried LACY. Given the rarity of the name Morgan, and the coincidence of his wife's first name, I think that these parents must indeed be the Morgan and Winifred who were baptising children in Arklow in the 1820s and 1830s. In that case, we have learned also that before her marriage to Morgan CONDREN, Winifred's maiden name was LACY.

I'd be pleased to hear from any descendants of these CONDR*Ns, in Ireland, England, the US or anywhere else! And if you have a Morgan CONDR*N in your family, also please let me know. I can be contacted by leaving a comment below or by emailing me at condran[AT]one-name.org (replace the [AT] with an @). 

A large CONDREN tree

St. Andrew's Roman Catholic church in Westland Row, Dublin. Built in 1832-7, James Patrick CONDREN and Mary Jane SHIEL were married here in 1861, and three of their children were baptised here.

One of the largest CONDR*N family trees I have reconstructed stretches from origins in Dublin and Co. Wicklow to London and even to Australia and the USA.

James George CONDREN (born in Dublin about 1833) and his wife Mary Jane SHIEL (or SHEIL, born in Dublin about 1834) have nearly fifty descendants bearing the CONDREN name that I am aware of. In particular they had at least eight children, born between 1861 and 1877, the first four born in or near Dublin and the last four in London.

There is some confusion amongst trees of this family on the web, and an incorrect identification of James's father as "Richard CONDREN". This error apparently arises from the assumption that James George CONDREN is one and the same as an 8-year old James CONDREN who appears in the 1841 census for Hulme near Manchester.

But thanks to the people at churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie who have made numerous Dublin marriages and baptisms freely available on their website, we can now definitively identify James George CONDREN and Mary Jane SHIEL as the couple who got married at St. Andrew's, Dublin, on 7 January, 1861. Mary Jane's father is recorded as Patrick SHEIL, and James George's father is recorded as George CONDRAN. From the relatively rarity of the name George CONDR*N, we can tentatively identify James George CONDREN's parents as George CONRAN and Mary MORGAN, who got married in the Roman Catholic parish of Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow, in 1832. A George CONDRON and a Mary MORGAN had a son James baptised at St. Mary's, Dublin, in 1833. Given the usual variety of spellings in records of this period, I think these are the same people.

So, we have George and Mary (MORGAN) CONDREN, and in the next generation James George and Mary Jane (SHIEL) CONDREN. James and Mary had four children in Ireland (Mary Ellen in 1861, Rosanne in 1863 and George Stratford in 1864, all baptised at St. Andrew's, Dublin; and James Patrick in 1866, baptised in Rathmines near Dublin). They then moved to London, where they had a further four children (Richard Martin in 1868 and Catherine Frances in 1871 in Stockwell; William Joseph in 1875 and Margaret Josephine in 1877 in Wimbledon).

Eldest son, George Stratford CONDREN, married Emily Elizabeth NORTH in 1885, and they had seven children: George Stratford junior (1885), Emily Frances (1887), Ellen Louisa (1892), John (also called Jack, 1893), William James (1898), Alice Ruth (1901) and Ebenezer James (1904). All these births were registered in the Lambeth district of south London. All seven children got married in and around London: George Stratford junior to Edith Florence GEORGE, Emily Frances to Alfred SEGROTT, Ellen Louisa to Frederick NORRIS, Jack to Rose FOSTER, William James to Christina Frances LOWER, Alice Ruth to George SMITH, and Ebenezer James to Gladys Ivy LAWN. As discussed in this blog back in 2008, George Stratford senior fell foul of the law, was found guilty of stealing while employed in the Post-office, and was sentenced at the Old Bailey in April 1887 to five years' penal servitude.

A second son, James Patrick CONDREN married firstly Louisa MARTIN (who died in 1889) in 1886, and secondly Rose Mary DUNN in 1892, each time in St. Mary's, Lambeth, London. The latter marriage produced one son, Leslie Arthur CONDREN (1892).

Another son, William Joseph CONDREN, who also went under the name of William Stratford CONDREN,  married Caroline Matilda MISKIN in 1900 at St. John's, Newington, London. They had nine children: William Joseph ("Con", 1900), Caroline May (1902), George Stratford (1905), James Richard (1905), Lilian Alice (1907), Maud (1908), Kathleen (1911), Richard John (1913), and Margaret (1915).

Where the name "Stratford" which recurs in several family members comes from, I do not know. Do you? If so, please let me know! And, as usual, I would welcome any corrections to the above or further information, particularly from family members. E-mail condran[AT]one-name.org (replace "[AT]" with "@") or leave a comment below.

And finally, do you know of any CONDR*N family spread over more than three continents? If so, I'd like to hear from you!

An old Wicklow family

Bond Street bridge, Wicklow

County Wicklow, which lies to the south of Dublin on the east coast of Ireland, held 26 households containing at least one CONDR*N in the 1901 Irish census, and 28 such households in the census of 1911. Throughout the nineteenth century, few CONDR*Ns are to be found in the interior of the county, but there are quite a number of CONDR*N baptisms and marriages along the west side of county - particularly in the Roman Catholic parishes of Clonmore and Dunlavin - and along the eastern seaboard - particularly in the Roman Catholic parishes of Kilquade, Wicklow and Arklow (though in the last case, many of these CONDR*Ns were actually living across the county border in Co. Wexford).

In the coming months I shall attempt to establish the family lineages of a number of the Co. Wicklow CONDR*Ns, but for now I focus on just one such family, who are found in the county town of Wicklow Town in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses. In 1901, the widow Maria CONDRON is living in Bond Street, Wicklow Town, with four daughters. In 1911, the same widow is still living in Bond Street but with just two of her daughters.

In Irish genealogy, it is generally hard to trace most families back before the 1820s or so, because of the paucity of parish records and the destruction of the all-Ireland censuses that took place before 1901. In the case of this family, however, I have made a reasonable reconstruction back to the eighteen century ... just. The family are variously recorded as CONDREN and CONDRON. Here I shall refer to them consistently as CONDRON, while noting that e.g. in the 1901 census they appear as CONDREN.

Pat CONDRON was father to four children who were baptised in the Roman Catholic parish of Wicklow in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: Owen (baptised in 1798), Edward (1802), Hanna (1806) and Pat (1810). So Pat the father was probably born in the 1770s or earlier. His son Owen himself fathered four children also baptised in the parish of Wicklow: Pat (baptised in 1827), Edmund (1830), Owen (1833) and James (1837). I infer from the rarity of the name "Owen" that this is the same James who marries Maria CONWAY in Wicklow parish in 1872, because his father's name is recorded as "Owen". James and Maria had nine children, all baptised in Wicklow parish: Robert (1873), Eugene (1875), George (1876), Maria L. (1878), Edward (1880, died 1884), Rose (1883, died 1884), Jane Frances (1884), Elizabeth (1891) and Christina (1893).

James died sometime before the 1901 census, for it is his wife Maria who is the widow living in Wicklow Town in 1901, together with daughters Maria L., Jane F., Elizabeth and Christina. Two of her sons, Eugene and George, are recorded in the 1901 census of England on board a vessel in Bristol, Eugene being the captain and George a mate. In 1911, Maria is still living in Wicklow Town with daughters Maria L. and Christina, while son George is now a ship's captain himself, on board a vessel in New Ross, Co. Wexford. Maria declares that she had nine children, of whom six are still alive at the time of the 1911 census. I believe that Maria herself died in Co. Wicklow in 1935, and that George died in 1944.

It would be interesting to know whether James and perhaps others in this family were also seafarers. If you are related to this CONDRON/CONDREN family, or know anything about them, I would love to hear from you: condran[at]one-name.org .


[The picture above of Bond Street bridge is copyright of panoramio.com user "speurder". The map below is copyright of Google.]

Map showing Bond Street and Wicklow harbour today

One hundred and eleven descendants of the Widnes CONDRONs

One of the largest CONDRON family trees that I have reconstructed in the UK contains many CONDRONs in Widnes and the northwest of England who are descendants of Patrick CONDRON (born about 1840 in County Wicklow, Ireland). Patrick and his wife, Bridget HAYES, have at least 111 descendants who bear the CONDRON name by birth (rather than by marriage), including their six children, 23 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, 30 great-great-grandchildren and 28 3xgreat-grandchildren (that I know of).

John Hutchinson founded an alkali factory in Widnes in 1847

Patrick and Bridget probably got married in Ireland, since their first daughter Mary Ann was born in Dublin, but I have not yet located their marriage (can you help me?). In the 1871 census the family is living in Windle, near St Helens in the historic county of Lancashire. By the time of the 1881 census, the family had moved some ten miles south to Widnes. Patrick and at least four of his five sons worked as alkali factory (or chemical factory) workers in Widnes. They may well have worked at the alkali factory founded by John Hutchinson (pictured) which was situated near where the Sankey canal joins the River Mersey in Widnes. The alkali factory is likely to have produced caustic soda and caustic potash, used in many commercial applications including soap-making.

 Patrick and Bridget's children were Mary Ann (born about 1863, who married Thomas WELSH in 1884), Richard (1867), John (1870), Thomas (1873), Patrick (1875) and James (1879).

Richard (1867) married Jane SLATER in 1900. Jane died in 1906 and he then married Ellen SLATER - Jane's sister, perhaps? - in 1915. Richard had children Mary Ann (1900), Ellen, Jane, Alice, Thomas, John, Anthony and Philip.

John (1870) married Mary O'CONNOR in 1896. They had children Michael (1897), Sarah (1899), John (1900), Mary (1903) and Frances (1905).

Patrick (1875) married Margaret GLEAVE in 1898. They had children Thomas (1899), Margaret (1902), Martha (1904), Eileen (1906), James (1910), Sarah (1912), Lilian, Alan, Francis and Cyril. Patrick and Margaret gave rise to quite a number of Widnes CONDRONs today, in particular through their son Thomas (1899) who married Jessie GLOVER.

I have omitted birth dates which occurred less than 100 years ago. I can though share further details with any descendants of Patrick and Bridget who contact me.  As usual, I’d be grateful for any further information or corrections. Email condran[AT]one-name.org  .

Most dates above should be read as “about …”: they could be off by a year – for example, if a birth was registered in the first quarter of 1897, it could have occurred in late 1896 or early 1897.

I’m grateful to Gemma Condron for sharing Patrick (1875)’s birth certificate via ancestry.com: this is the source for Bridget’s surname as HAYES.

CONDR*N update

Its been a while since I posted, though the CONDR*N one-name study has not been inactive! New records of births for County Wicklow have been put online by the Irish Family History Federation (IFHF - see the blog entry for 5 April 2008), which is an important county for CONDR*Ns with over 250 entries, particularly in Arklow. Also I'm happy to have had contact with a couple of people decended from the Condron brushmakers featured in the posting of 12 October 2008. And I discovered recently two more Facebook Groups devoted to Condrons: "Condron Family Tree" and "Condrons" - it's great to see some younger(!) Condr*ns also interested in tracing family roots.

In the UK the 1911 census for much - not yet all - of England has been released online. To date I have traced 231 CONDR*Ns, and no doubt this number will increase particularly when County Durham goes online, as well as the Welsh counties.

Another important development has been the pilot-version release of Irish civil births, marriages and deaths indices for 1845-1958 at the Family Search Record Search. Previously these were only available as far as I know by visiting the records office in Ireland. Of course I am extracting all the CONDR*Ns and so should be able to help if anyone is looking for a CONDR*N in Ireland in that time frame.

That's a quick update. Do keep those emails coming!