COMPLETE: John Whalen and Bridget Doyle

John Whalen was born in 1790 in Clonmore, Carlow, Ireland, the son of Patrick.

He married Bridget Doyle in 1810.

Bridget Doyle was born in 1790 in Clonmore, Carlow, Ireland, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Doyle.

They had eight children in 21 years.

• Patrick Whalen (1812-1896) married Catherine Madden (1818-1893)
• Thomas Whalen (1815-1900) married Margaret Coughlin (1818-1888)
• Daniel Whalen (1817-?) married Elizabeth Corcoran (1825-?)
• Anne Whalen (1819?-?)
• Bridgette Whalen (1821-?)
• John Whalen (1827-1892) married Teresa Corcoran (1829-1911)
• Peter Whalen (1829-1897) married Mary Quinn (1833-?)
• James Whalen (1833-1911) married Bridget Corcoran (1835-1904)

*Three Whalen brothers (Daniel, John and James) married three sisters (Elizabeth, Teresa and Bridget). This would have made their children double first cousins as they would have had the same genetic makeup on both sides and their children would share both sets of grandparents (whereas the usual cousin relationship only sees cousins sharing one set of grandparents). 

No records of the family together exist on any known census, nor have I been able to identify birth or baptismal information or emigration paperwork online.

Family lore and the tombstone for John Whalen suggest that he died around 1840 at the age of 50, likely in Ireland, and that Bridget would have emigrated after that to Canada with one or more of her children.

(Gravestone, John and Bridget Whalen, Erinsville, Assumption Catholic Cemetery, Erinsville)

There is a mention of a man named John Whalen from Carlow, Ireland (where it is believed our John is from) on the British Regimental Register of Service for Canada in the war of 1812, but it seems unlikely to be the same individual given the timing of the births of the first several of his children in Ireland.

Bridget died on February 22, 1860, in Stoco, Ontario, at the age of 70.

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