Patrick and Catherine both came from Collins families outside Drimoleague, one of the *many* Collins families I am investigating in the area.
I think Catherine was the daughter of Michael Collins and Mary Donovan of Lower Lissane. The 1911 census says she was 78, which would fit with an 1833 birth year. (Her age seems way off in the 1901 census.)
In a prior post I "assigned" a Catherine Collins, born 1820 in Lissane, to a Donovan family in Lissalohorig. Now I am assigning another Catherine Collins, born 1833, to this Bawnnahow family. Their fertility windows are being taken into account, with an assumption that women stopped having babies somewhere between 45 and 50. Beyond 50 is starting to push the limit.
There was a 13 year span for the births of the Lissalohirig children: 1852 - 1865.
There was a 15 year span for the Bawnnahow family: 1860 - 1875. It is considerably more difficult fitting 1820 Catherine in this scenario, having nine children between the ages of 40 and 55. 1833 Catherine is a much better candidate.
Anyway...
Patrick's original family is a bit harder to pin down, but since this family lived in Bawnnahow South that's where I have started to look. The godparents of Pat's and Catherine's second child Mary (1861), were Simon Collins and Johanna Driscoll. Simon and Johanna had a son Patrick baptized in 1834. Patrick's and Catherine's first child, Johanna (1860), could have been named after Johanna Driscoll. But they didn't have a known son named Simon. So maybe Simon Collins and Johanna Driscoll were a related family.
There was another family, Patrick Collins and Mary Cadogan, who also had a son Patrick in 1834. Since Patrick's and Catherine's first son was Patrick, this appears to be a better fit. But if Patrick and Catherine both had mothers named Mary, it doesn't explain how their first child was named Johanna. If these are the correct families for Patrick and Catherine, there must have been another reason for how Johanna came to be named.
The Bawnnahow children were: Johanna (1860), Mary (1861), Catherine (1862), Patrick (1867), James (1868), Honora (1871), John (1873), Patrick again (1874), and Humphrey (1875). I will have to verify the two Patricks when I have a chance to look at the civil registration records.
The witnesses to the church events of the Bawnnahow family were: Michael Collins (her father?) and Catherine Collins; William Harnedy and Ellen Neill; Simon Collins and Johanna Driscoll; James Collins and Mary Collins; Pat Donovan and Honora Collins; James Collins and Ellen Hurley; Patrick Donovan and Johanna Mahony; John Sullivan and Hannah Collins; William Harnedy and Eliza Hourihan; and Daniel Harnedy and Honora Sullivan. (Notice there are no Cadogan witnesses.)
A sticking point is the presence of son Humphrey in 1875 (who, incidentally, is grossly mistranscribed as "Helen" in the online church records). If I have found the correct Catherine as the mother, she had an older brother (a rather mysterious character) and probably an uncle named Humphrey (deceased by the the time his grand-nephew was born), and so her son could have been their namesake. Why didn't Patrick and Catherine use the name Michael, after her father, prior to using the name Humphrey ? Maybe they thought there were too many Michaels running around - but Humphrey would stand out.
Humphrey became a priest and taught at Niagara University in the United States. He died during the flu epidemic in 1919.
Son James married one Mary McCarthy before 1901. The family is in both Ireland censuses. Son Humphrey (1910) became a local Drimoleague creamery manager, married Ellen McCarthy, and died in 1975.
The Family Search ID of Catherine Collins is KCDY-BC8. She and her original Lissane family are in Family Search Family Tree. No family data for Patrick Collins has been entered yet as his family is still being researched.
