Genealogy Chat

I am pulling my hair out with my irish tree and need some help. My ggrandmother had 2 girls and 1 boy. I am told she died between 1925 and 1955 although no-one can tell me why she died, when or where apart from it was in Ireland. I enlisted the help of Genfindit who have always come up trumps for me but on this occassion can't help me. I am told the son entered a Christian Brothers school. Can anyone tell me if this was a male version of say, a Magdalene home as my nana spoke of working in the launderies and having to go to confession every day. The children's father was still alive when the children were seperated and this I can't undrestand. Was it common practice that if the mother died the children were put into homes or was it the father's choice. Thank you for your time

Children were generally considered the property of the parents (especially in Victorian times the father). I don't think children would be taken away from parents except in extreme circumstances. I expect these children were placed in institutions by the father because he had to go out to work and couldn't look after them/support them, or felt the institution would provide a better life for them. Maybe he had no near female relations who wanted to or could take on two extra children. I imagine they were separated because these places were single sex. nell

I notice you have a range of 30 years in which the mother might have died - but presuming her death was the reason the children were placed in these institutions, it would have to have been when they were below adult age? Unless she deserted the family, in which case the husband would have been stuck. If you google 'Christian brothers school' there are several sites, a few of them Irish. nell