Catherine Faloon, the early years (1884 – 1901)

When we talk about Catherine and her family, it should be noted that the spelling of their surname varies, including Faloon, Falloon and Fallon, which makes for interesting searching.

Catherine‘s parents were James Faloon and Sarah Faloon (née Rooney), who had married in Ireland in 1874.

By 1884 when Catherine was born, the family had moved to Scotland and were based in the district of Dalziel, where they stayed for many years to come.

James and Sarah had 6 children, who in 1891 at the Census were listed as Bridget (16), James (14 and a pit labourer), John (11 and a scholar), Sarah (9 and a scholar), Catherine herself at 7 years old and a scholar, and Michael (4).

James had passed away 2 years earlier in 1889, 5 years after Catherine’s birth and when Michael was only 2, and so did not make it to be registered in the 1891 Census.

On 22 January 1892, just 3 years later, Sarah died following 6 months of bronchitis and one month of Dropsy. Catherine was just 8. Bridget, their eldest daughter, informed of her death.

6 days after her death, an application for poor relief was made in respect of John, 11, Sarah, almost 9, Catherine, almost 7, and Michael, almost 5, and the decision by the Parochial Board on 9 February was to admit all 4 children to the Smyllum Orphanage.

On 3 June that year, at the age of 19, Bridget was married to Patrick McManus, 7 years her senior and an Engine Driver. Patrick’s father James had died before his marriage.

It becomes increasing difficult to find any of those mentioned up until now in the 1901 Census. With both parents having passed away during this period and Bridget having married, we are left with 2 minors in the Falloon family to find.

Michael, at the tender age of 13, is still a boarder at the Smyllum orphanage, run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. This institution has, in recent years, been subject to a number of investigations in respect of unmarked graves for children and mistreatment of children.

Luckily, we know that Michael survived his time in the orphanage, and lived to the age of 67, still in Motherwell, and still in touch with his “in-laws” to be, as his death was notified by his nephew, James Patton, Catherine’s son.

But where is Catherine?

We saw above that Catherine was also admitted to the orphanage in 1894, but she doesn’t seem to be there on the night of the Census in 1901. Instead, at the age of 17, Catherine appears to be at her sister Bridget’s house. To get to this conclusion, there’s a bit of re-interpretation of handwriting and of name spelling, but the whole picture is fairly convincing. Whether Catherine was living there is not so clear – the transcriptions of this entry state that Catherine (at 17) is a widow – I personally think it might say “visitor” rather than widow, which seems rather unlikely (and I’ve found no evidence of a previous marriage). So it may be that Catherine was not staying with her sister, but was either still a resident of the orphanage, allowed out to visit, or had left the orphanage and was living by her own means.

The following year, 1902, would lead to marriage for Catherine and Joseph.