Dear Stuart
I have distant cousins named Austin in west Clare, where Austin is a very unusual name, so your message caught my eye.
A search for John Austins of County Clare at
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsea ... searchable
suggests that these are your grandfather's birth and death:
Name: John Austin
Registration district: Kilrush
Record type: BIRTHS
Registration date - quarter and year: Jul - Sep 1903
Estimated birth year:
Age:
Mother surnames:
Film number: 101069
Volume: 4
Page: 259
Digital GS number: 4193983
Image number: 00458
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
Name: John Austin
Registration district: Kilrush
Record type: DEATHS
Registration date - quarter and year: Jul - Sep 1945
Estimated birth year: 1903
Age: 42
Mother surnames:
Film number: 101743
Volume: 4
Page: 170
Digital GS number: 4202050
Image number: 00121
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
The next two are your grandparents' marriage:
Name: John Austin
Registration district: Kilrush
Record type: MARRIAGES
Registration date - quarter and year: Oct - Dec 1923
Estimated birth year:
Age:
Mother surnames:
Film number: 101575
Volume: 4
Page: 125
Digital GS number: 4199367
Image number: 00187
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
Name: Kathleen Higgins
Registration district: Kilrush
Record type: MARRIAGES
Registration date - quarter and year: Oct - Dec 1923
Estimated birth year:
Age:
Mother surnames:
Film number: 101575
Volume: 4
Page: 125
Digital GS number: 4199367
Image number: 00195
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
You will also find the births of their children Anthony, Catherine, John, Joseph and Stanislaus.
There was another John Austin married earlier in 1923, which might provide some potential for confusion:
Name: John Austin
Registration district: Kilrush
Record type: MARRIAGES
Registration date - quarter and year: Apr - Jun 1923
Estimated birth year:
Age:
Mother surnames:
Film number: 101575
Volume: 4
Page: 174
Digital GS number: 4199367
Image number: 00136
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
But I know who this other John's wife was:
Name: Mary Browne
Registration district: Kilrush
Record type: MARRIAGES
Registration date - quarter and year: Apr - Jun 1923
Estimated birth year:
Age:
Mother surnames:
Film number: 101575
Volume: 4
Page: 174
Digital GS number: 4199367
Image number: 00137
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958
This couple were known as Jonjo and Minnie and lived at Drumellihy, a few miles outside Kilrush.
There were only 5 Austin marriages registered in Co. Clare between 1870 and 1903, two brides and three grooms.
The grooms were:
1. John m. 1871 Bridget Lynch (lived at Oughterard, close to Loop Head)
2. Thomas m. 1876
3. Thomas m. 1886 Bridget McMahon (lived at Doonaghboy, just outside Kilkee)
The 1901 census index at
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... oAyres.htm
is the next obvious place to look.
Grooms No. 1 and No. 3 appear in the census, but there is no sign of No. 2.
In west Clare in 1901, there were only a handful of Austins other than the Oughterard and Doonaghboy families with which I am familiar. There is only one male in west Clare who would have been of an age to father a son in 1903, and that is Thomas jr. of Oughterard. He married Marcella McMahon, but I have no John among their children. Bridget and Marcella McMahon were sisters; their husbands were namesakes who were uncle and nephew.
At Cooraclare Road, Kilrush in 1901 are Margaret (67, widow), with a daughter Mary aged 28. Margaret was one of the few people left in Clare in 1901 who spoke Irish but not English.
In Kilkee are Mary (also 28), a single mother with a son Patrick (4), working as a servant in the household of David Hickie, victualler in Kilkee. The Hickie family are still in the same business in Kilkee today.
This might be the same Mary inadvertently counted twice.
In Kilfearagh is Norah (28), a servant. I suspect she is the Norah baptised in Carrigaholt parish in 1874, daughter of John and Bridget Lynch of Oughterard.
A search of the IGI at
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... ch_igi.asp might help to complete the family pictures.
It appears from this that the widowed Margaret Austin living on the Cooraclare road in Kilrush in 1901 was née Haugh, widow of George Austin.
George and Margaret had three children listed in the IGI:
1. Patrick b. 21 Dec 1867
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... 0318137482
2. Bridget b. 26 Mar 1870
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... 0296599423
3. Mary b. 7 Sep 1871 (so a year older than she admitted to in Mar 1901).
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... 0289881666
They married in 1867 and George died in the first quarter of 1886. Margaret's death does not appear to be registered in Clare, but there is a Mary who d. 1906 Q2 aged 73 but did not appear in the 1901 census. Perhaps this is her.
However, none of this reveals who your greatgrandparents were. Unless the Hickie family's servant had another child out of wedlock who took his mother's surname, your greatgrandfather would appear to have arrived in West Clare some time between the 1901 census and the birth of your grandfather. You will have to order your grandfather's birth certificate to find out more. See
http://www.groireland.ie/ for details of how to do this.
Good luck with your search
Paddy