Every story seems to have at least some kernel of truth. The story passed down to us was that the Doran ancestors were from County Clare in the West of Ireland. The men in our family were hacklers in the linen trade and some time in the 19th century the family moved to Belfast, Ireland as this skill was in demand at the many linen mills. In recent years we discovered records that indicate our Doran family may have come from the Townland of Clare, near Tandagree, in County Armagh. We have not found any family connections at all from County Clare and in fact there didn’t seem to be anything at all to suggest our Dorans came from County Clare. The first records we can definitively point to as being our ancestors were located in County Armagh, where we find Bernard Doran and Ann “Nancy” Smyth are mentioned in the Roman Catholic Church records in 1823 as the parents of Maria Doran. So yes, Bernard & Nancy and their children did move from Clare, only it was in Armagh, to Belfast City where the Linen trade was concentrated.
As their last child was born in 1843 we can surmise that “Nancy” was probably near or less than 20 years old in 1823. Their first few children’s baptism records indicated the parents were not married. Later on this is not mentioned, but no record of their marriage has been located.
– Children of Bernard Doran and Ann “Nancy” Smyth
Their first child Maria Doran was christened in the R. C. Church in Dromore Parish, Shankill, County Armagh on February 23, 1823. The sponsors for Maria Doran’s baptism were Andrew McDonnell and Maria Magee. Several researchers have speculated that Bernard and Nancy Doran’s daughter Maria Doran married and moved to the United States with her husband. While this could possibly be true, we have not found any corroborating evidence through any actual records or DNA connections to verify their claim. She may have been the Mary Doran who died in 1890 in the Belfast Union Workhouse. A Mary Doran was listed in the Belfast city directories at the same addresses as John Doran and his wife Ellen Little. And a Mary Doran was godmother to a good number of their children, which makes sense if she was living with them.
After Maria’s birth in 1823, we don’t find another baptism record for a child of theirs until six years later when Ellen is born. Could Bernard have been in the military or in prison? Did he go to Belfast, or Scotland or England to find work and leave Nancy and the baby behind? Did Nancy live with him during those 5 or six years or remain with her parents? The priests finally stop noting “illegitimate” or “parents not married” after their third child’s baptism. So either they got married or the priest just gave up and considered them married.
The second daughter was Ellen Doran. She was baptized on March 27, 1829 in Lurgan, Shankill Parish, Co. Armagh. Her baptism record notes that she was illegitimate. The baptism sponsors were William O’Brien and Bridget Turney. No further information was found for her.
The third daughter was named Ann Doran, most likely after her mother. Ann was christened in Lurgan Parish, Shankill, Armagh, Ireland, RC Church on October 4, 1831. The sponsors were John O’Brien and Jane Burke. We think she may be the Ann Doran who married John Hughes, July 2, 1864, at St. Malachy’s.
A Patrick Doran was born to a Bernard Doran and baptized at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Belfast on 16 Feb 1834. I can’t prove or disprove that this was another one of their children.
Hannah Doran, their fourth daughter, was baptized July 12, 1835 in the same parish church. The address was Dixson’s Row, Shankill (near Lurgan). The sponsors were John McGown and Ellen Craney. No further information on Hannah.
John Doran, our direct ancestor, was born March 10, 1838 in the Union Workhouse, Belfast to Bernard Doran and Ann Smyth. He was baptized in St. Patrick’s R. C. Church, Belfast, County Antrim. The sponsor was Mary Ann Montgomery. He married Ellen Little, in 1857. See more below.
Catherine Doran was born about 1840. We think she was born in Armagh. She died December 31, 1879 in the Belfast workhouse at 51 Lisburn Rd. Her home address was 30 Nail St., Belfast. She had been sick with bronchitis for about a year. She had been a millworker. Her age was estimated as 40, and she is buried in Milltown Cemetery.
Bernard Doran was born to Bernard Doran and Anne Smyth in Belfast and baptized on December 11, 1843 at St. Patrick’s R. C. Church. The sponsors names are not recorded. He probably died young because no further records are found for him.
Bernard and Ann Doran and their son John were mentioned in a short news piece called “the Blanket Case” in the Belfast Newsletter in 1854. We are pretty sure this is our family. Despite how common the names are, we have not found another family in Belfast during that time with the same three names. The younger son Bernard is not mentioned here either. If he was alive he would have been 11 at the time.
Bernard Doran was listed as living at 49 Irvine St in the Belfast City Directory of 1870. His occupation was Rougher (in the linen trade). This is the same address that John and Ellen Little Doran lived at.
John Doran and Ellen Little (or Lyttle)
John Doran sometimes spelled his name Dorran.
His birth and baptism are previously noted.
John Doran probably married Ellen Little (aka Lyttle) in Ireland on June 7, 1857. This date was provided on the baptism record of their daughter Anna Dorran’s birth record (dated November 24, 1863). The parents marriage date and place was thankfully a requirement in Scotland because we have not found any other record of their marriage in the Irish church or civil records. They may have been married in a non-conforming church or the records for the church they were married in have disappeared. At the time of their daughter’s birth John and Ellen Doran and their young children were living at McDowell Street, Renfrewshire, district of Johnstone, county of Renfrew, Scotland. It doesn’t appear that they stayed there long. For what ever reasons, Paisley and Johnstone seem to have drawn members of our extended family to that area more than once. Some stayed, some left soon after.
John’s wife Ellen Lyttle or Little’s birth/baptism date and parentage are uncertain. According to census and death records she was probably born between 1836 and 1841 in or near Belfast. We have a fairly close DNA match with a Lyttle family from Belfast, which may indicate that her father was William Lyttle, but that still needs more clarification.
John Doran was a hackler, also known as a flax dresser, in the Linen trade. In 1877 he was listed in the Belfast City Directory as a flax dresser, residence 99 Whitehall Court, Belfast and ten years later (1887) at 70 Ardelia St., Belfast still a flax dresser. On his wife’s death record in 1907 she is described as the widow of a Hackler.
At his death on 2 Jan 1889, John was living on Second St., Belfast. Listed as living next door at #10 Second Street was Arthur Lewis, occupation fitter, who was John’s sister Ellen’s husband. John Doran is buried at Milltown Cemetery in the public burial area #MD017-A. His wife Ellen Little survived him, dying in 1907. She is also buried at Milltown Cemetery.
John and Ellen Doran’s children were Bernard, John, Anna, Maryann, possibly a 2nd John, Joseph, two Catherine’s, Hannah, and yet another John.
– Children of John Doran and Ellen Little
Bernard Doran (1858-1920)
Bernard Doran was the first child of John and Ellen (Little) Doran. He was born or or about his baptism date of October 2, 1858. His father was just 20 years old. Bernard was baptized at St. Matthews R. C. Church in Ballymacarret, Belfast, County Down. The sponsors at his baptism were Samuel Crawford and Anne Doran.
–Children of Bernard Doran and Elizabeth Jane Lee
Hannah Jane Doran was born November 13, 1882 but not baptized in the Catholic Church until February 9, 1883 at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church. Belfast. Sponsor was Mary McCardle. The church baptism record indicates the father was Bernard Doran and the mother was Elizabeth Jane Lee. She is also referred to as Eliza Jane Lee. The church record does not indicate any illegitimacy, but they were not married, and seem to have separated soon after as he married Mary Hall in 1884. The address on her baptism record was Unity Street. Later on Hannah went by either her mother’s or step-father’s surname Lee. We had seen this baptism record in the past and wondered if her father was our Bernard Doran. We thought there was no way to tell. However, we later had a DNA match with a descendant of Hannah Jane and were able to determine that her father was either our great-grandfather Bernard Doran or possibly his brother.
Hannah Jane Doran aka Hannah Lee married Archibald McCracken Jackson (1876-1937) on April 15, 1906 at Trinity Belfast Church of Ireland. Hannah died April 10, 1947. Oddly, Bernard’s brother John Doran (1864-1922) said in his pension papers that Hannah Jackson was his daughter and his effects went to her. This John Doran also said that his sister was Hannah Doran Murray of 12 Gibson St., Belfast.
–Children of Bernard Doran and Mary Hall
Bernard was 26 when he married Mary Hall, daughter of William John Hall and Sarah Tierney, on November 15, 1884 at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Belfast. Their witnesses were Michael Barry and Elizabeth McFadden. Bernard Doran lived at 19 Getty Street, Belfast. Mary Hall lived at 5 Springfield Road with her parents and siblings.
Mary Hall was 20 and pregnant with their first daughter, to be named Ellen after his mother. Mary’s father, William John Hall, was a staunch protestant but her mother, Sarah Tierney, was a devout Roman Catholic so she and her siblings were raised as devout Roman Catholics.
Mary Hall and Bernard Doran had seven children in all, two of whom (Mary and Catherine) died as infants. They were Ellen (1884-1932), Elizabeth (1886-1933), Bernard (1890-1947), Mary (1891-1892), William John (1893-1961), Joseph (1895-1941), and Catherine (1899-1899).
On May 13, 1899, Mary Hall died at the Belfast Workhouse after having given birth to her daughter Catherine, who died with her. Her address was 35 Marchioness Street, Belfast Ireland.
His daughter Elizabeth told her daughter Sarah that Bernard Doran decided he couldn’t or wouldn’t care for the children so he dropped them all off at the door of his sister-in-law Elizabeth Hall (1870-1933), a spinster and devoutly Catholic woman who was devoted to her nieces and nephews for her entire life. It is unclear if they lived with her during all of their childhood, at least we think the girls did since they were older. Ellen would have been about 15 and Elizabeth 13 at the time of their mother’s death. Certainly old enough to take care of the boys while Elizabeth Hall was at work at a cotton thread mill. But they also went to work after half days at school. The boys went to live at a farm outside of Belfast. They thought it was a farm belonging to their father, but it was most likely a relative’s farm as Bernard was never known for owning a farm. Bernard Jr and William John Doran remembered a horse and a small linen mill.
On the 1901 Census of Ireland, the Doran girls are living with their Aunt Elizabeth Hall at 45 Fort Street, Falls Ward, Belfast. Ellen Dorran (sic) is 16 years old, her occupation is Flax Reeler, She is Roman Catholic and can read and write. Elizabeth Dorran (sic) is 14, a Roman Catholic also a Flax Reeler, can read, Their relationship to Elizabeth Hall, the head of the household, is niece. Elizabeth Hall is 36 years old, a Cotton Dresser (in the cotton mill), unmarried, Roman Catholic, can read and write. Despite endless searches of the 1901 Census, we are unable to locate Bernard Doran nor his sons, Bernard, William John, and Joseph. In 1901 the boys would have been quite young; Bernard 11, William John 8, and Joseph 6.
Elizabeth Doran told her daughter that her father was a rough, but affectionate man. He loved music and he had a good singing voice. He liked to drink and carouse and was quite popular with woman. She also said they thought there were more illegitimate than legitimate Dorans in Belfast. It was not far from the truth.
–Bernard Doran and Mary Kane (or O’Kane) no children
Bernard Doran, widower, married a second time on December 14, 1907 at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Belfast. His new wife was Mary Kane (aka O’Kane). The witnesses were John Maguire and Alice Maguire. Both fathers were deceased. According to the marriage record Bernard was living at 26 Weaver Street and she was at 30 Weaver Street. Belfast City Directory entries also list them on Weaver St.
Bernard’s wife Mary Kane was born 16 June 1861. In the 1901 Census of Ireland she is described as age 32, unmarried, living at 33 Weaver Street, Duncairn Ward, Belfast, with her mother, Susanna O’Kane (widow, age 60), her sister Augusta O’Kane (unmarried, age 36) and two male boarders, Her occupation is Flax Spinner, she can read & write, cannot speak Irish, She and her mother and sister were born in Belfast.
As far as we know, Mary Kane and Bernard Doran did not have children together. She does appear to have had a decent relationship with her step-children, even going to visit with them in New Jersey in 1914.
Mary Kane Doran (age 45) traveled with her “son” Joseph Doran out of Londonderry on the S. S. Columbia. The passenger record says she is going to her “daughter” Nellie McVeigh (aka Ellen/Helen/Nellie Doran). Mary Kane and Jospeh Doran (age 18) arrived in New York on March 16, 1914. They were detained at Ellis Island. The cause of detention is “LPC Cert 200”. They were admitted the following day. Her last place of residence in Ireland was with her “cousin” J. Patterson (whose mother was a Hall cousin).Note she was not living with her husband Bernard Doran, who was already in the Belfast Workhouse. We don’t know if Mary Kane Doran remained in New Jersey or went back to Ireland. Joseph Doran remained in the US, later traveling to Detroit, Michigan and then back to Newark, NJ where he died in 1942.
Bernard Doran was unable to work and had become destitute. He was living at 12 California Street, Belfast when he entered the Belfast Workhouse on December 21, 1913. He left 8 days later but went back on 31st. The records indicate he was thought to be a 60 year old widower in 1913. Two years later his age dropped to 55. His occupation on the three records was Flax Drawer. He remained at the workhouse until his departure on June 23, 1915. Source: Belfast indoor relief register 1913-1915. #BG/7/G/105. record # 1583, 1689, and 1723. But what happened to him after that?
According to his son William John Doran, Bernard was deceased by the time William married Rosina Evans in Poplar, London on May 8, 1920.
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