great news a cousin i didnt know about read a post on another site and got in touch his granmother was annie o'toole my grandmothers sister, his mum knows loads about the o'tooles, my great grandmother was mary ellen redmond and this is what he has told me so far,
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There where actually 5 girls, Veronica being the youngest, Margaret (Maggie), Mary, Annie & Kate.
Our great grandma's maiden name was actually Mary Ellen Redmond, she had siblings Tom, Sarah and Marcella. she married James Lawrence O'Toole in Bootle.They owned a grocery shop in Boreland St, Bootle which Mary ran. He worked as a shipping clerk for Howland and Wolfe, he must of been very good at his job as he was R.C. and they only generally employed C.O.E. . They had a pretty good quality of life, some of the girls received private music tuition at home. Mary didnt actually die during child birth, but whilst she was carrying child she died of the 1918 Flu epidemic, and the child died with her, (apparently she may of conceived upto 15 kids, she lost atleast 2 boys and a girl within 10 months of each other.) This was when James placed 2 of their daughters into the convent, my nan Annie and Kate, the other girls remained with him, but he struggled to cope. He did remarry, and his main reason for this was to get the girls out of the convent and back home. We only know her as Mrs. Sutcliffe, who lived in the same street as them and helped out with the kids when james was working, it seems she was quite keen to claim him as hers though, apparently she had said to her neighbours that he would be her next husband and sure enough, she had her way, although it sounds like he only married her out of duty as she claimed she was pregnant, but didnt actually have kids until later in the relationship. Veronica went to live with her aunt Marcella in Elden Rd off Scotland Rd, she couldnt of lived with her aunt Sarah as she was blind and also had a family of her own. My mum remembers going to Aunt Sarahs.
James died 18 months after Mary.left no will and everything he had went to wicked step mother including sovereigns and savings, as she later paid an aunt £25 to take the girls, she had kids of her own who didnt get on with James. And I recently recieved my ggrandparents marriage cert and his fathers names was denis o'toole on the cert he is recorded as being deceased and ocupation as a time keeper, i cannot find anything on any census with denis o'toole, can anyone help.
thanks
chris
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