Wilhelmina Miller (b. September 19 1864 d. Sept. 27, 1902)
Born 19 Sept. 1864
Died 27 Sept 1902
Father; James (21 August 1823 – March 1883)
Grandparents: Hugh Millar and Henrietta Wright.
Sister: Edith; b 1867.
Married Patrick McCann 1889 in St. Mary’s church, Belfast.
From Chris Ray 11/20/09
Mina died on September 27th, 1902 (40 years to the day before I was born) and her middle name is given as Mary. She died of ‘Phthisis” or wasting away, i.e. TB. Her age at death is given as 36 (we thought she was born in 1870. This puts her at 1866)
(Derek’s note – the copy from the baptism certificate below shows her born in 1864, which would make her 38 when she died.)
| Church Baptism Record | |||
| Name: | Wilhelmina Maria Miller | Date of Baptism / Birth: | 14/09/1864 |
| Address: | Belfast | Parish / District: | Carrickfergus |
| Gender: | Female | County | Co. Antrim |
| Denomination: | Roman Catholic | ||
| Father: | James Miller | Mother: | Anna Joanna McKee |
I communicated this to Paul’s sister, Kate, and she is already spending hours researching further. The grandparents’ marriage certificate shows Wilhelmina’s address as 122 Durham Road in Belfast. There was an Anne Jane and James Miller living there. We were thrown off by thinking perhaps that Wilhelmina’s parents were German, and there was some thought that Wilhelmina came to Ireland around age 18. Kate actually had someone go round to St. Mary’s Church and look up the actual record and verify that the parents were Ann(e) and James Miller. She then found the Belfast Street Directory online at PRONI (or someone else found it for her) and I copied this information:
Re. Belfast Street Directories: Results from a search of the street directories online via PRONI.
1884: 122 Durham Street, Ann J Miller, 1887: 122 Durham Street, Ann J Miller,
1890 122 Durham Street, Ann Jane Miller, 1892: 122 Durham Street, John Graham, Postman
From memory we recall that there is a ‘Graham” appears on the flyleaf of the birthday book. Also appears by this time, James was deceased, as Ann is head of household by 1884. But if he’s deceased, why did they not indicate that on the marriage certificate in 1889 where parents are named? She was still alive after 1892 as she took care of the family after Wilhelmina died ten years later. Perhaps she was still living in Durham Street after 1892 but John Graham was assumed HOH.
Pressing on, Kate found a church baptism record for Wilhelmina Maria (also my middle name) Miller in the RC church, Carrickfergus, Antrim. Parents are James Miller and Anna Joanna McKee. Priest was Rev. J. McLaughlin. There is only one church I could find in Carrickfergus, Church of St. Nicholas. There’s also a St. Nicholas Church but that is COI. Catholic population very small. I found a history of the church online from the current parish bulletin, and it lists the priests of old, but no Fr. McLaughlin. The history refers to the parish splitting in 1851 so maybe that’s the place to look, Ballygowan and Larne became separate parishes. Heavily protestant area, but it shows a nice relationship between the two religions.
