Real-life Mrs Brown lived next to O’Carrolls

Mrs Brown of the comedy TV series could have a basis in reality — as it turns out that creator Brendan O’Carroll’s grandfather lived next door to a woman of the same name a century ago.

The coincidence has emerged from research on an expanding website, www.findmypast.ie, aimed at helping people at home and abroad find their Irish family histories.

It turns out a grandfather of Brendan O’Carroll, who celebrated winning a situation comedy prize at Britain’s National Television Awards last night, lived on the same road as a Mrs Brown.

A street directory for 1910 shows they lived on Manor St, off Dublin’s Arran Quay. Peter O’Carroll lived in number 92 and is listed as a chandler, although he describes himself in 1901 and 1911 census forms as a butcher. Meanwhile, Thom’s Directory lists a Mrs B Brown, greengrocer, at 91, Manor St.

Another pair making it big overseas are Jedward, whose great-great-grandfather Henry Condron appears to have had a brush with the law in 1899.

Data on findmypast.ie for May 1899 show he was charged at a Dublin petty sessions court with allowing a cow, a calf, and a goat to wander in a public road and had to pay a shilling fine.

Findmypast.ie has named today Irish Family History Day and is giving limited free access to users of their site today. It marks the addition of 21m records to what claims to be the world’s most comprehensive Irish family history website.

The new birth, marriage, and death records will bring the number of records available to more than 63m.

“The best advice we could give anybody starting a family history is to talk to their oldest living family relatives,” said findmypast Ireland director Brian Donovan. “They will have information you won’t easily find anywhere else, and they will have stories you won’t find anywhere else.”

The site’s records also reveal that rockabilly singer Imelda May — who regularly lauds her roots in the inner-Dublin Liberties area — has ancestors from well beyond the Pale in Antrim and Longford.

Findmypast.ie site is a joint venture between a larger UK family history company and TCD campus company Eneclann that specialises in genealogical and historical research. Anyone using the website can build a family tree for free, with a range of pay-as-you-go or subscription fees for access to registry, census, military, educational, and newspaper records from Ireland, the US, the UK, and Australia.

General manager Cliona Weldon said it seems that everybody still wants to be Irish, and more searches are expected during this year of The Gathering.

“Over 600,000 people visited our site last year alone looking to prove their Irish heritage,” she said. “With visitors from all over the world and 22 American presidents having claimed Irish ancestry, it seems being Irish is still extremely desirable.”