VALLELY, Dennis ¹

   Cause of his death was chronic bronchitis and emphysema lasting a year.

  General Notes:

A 'Daniel Vallely' was a witness at the marriage of Patrick Mooney and Helen Duffy in St Margaret's RC Chapel Airdrie on 29 June 1846. Father Alex Smith married the couple and Margaret McMorlan (or McFarlan? McParlan?) was the second witness. It may be this man, Daniel and Dennis being often used interchangeably.

The 1851 census for Bothwell parish recorded Sarah Vallily, a widow, aged 60 years, living at Whitegree, Holytown, with nine others:
Dennis Vallily, son, 33; Charles Vallily, son, 26; Thomas Vallily, son, 22; Thomas Vallily, grandson, 8; George Obrian, son in law, 23; Bridget Obrian, daughter, 26; John Mckee, nephew, 33; Daniel Mckee, nephew, 26; Hugh Lennon, lodger, 26. All were born in Ireland except George who was recorded as born in Glasgow. The men were coal miners.

The 1861 census recorded a man called Dennis Vallely living in Stirling Street, (Milton of) Dunipace, in Stirlingshire with a number of unmarried, Irish born, ironstone miners who were visitors and lodgers in the household of a tailor, Michael Flanagan, and his wife and daughter. Dennis was in the visitor category, aged in the 45-49 years age group, and, like the others, he had been born in Ireland and worked as an ironstone miner. Among the lodgers' group was Thomas Vallely aged 20 years. The other men were Michael McCann and John Keeps (visitors), and Thomas Rooney and Thomas Kelly (lodgers).
Note:Dennis Vallely of this file had a brother Thomas, baptised in 1826 in County Tyrone, but the Thomas in this census entry may be rather young to be this Thomas. There were others by the same name and from the same part of Ireland.In any case there is no certainty that the man in the census noted here is the Dennis Vallely of this file. He may be. Since Dennis was a known form of the given name Daniel, and there were others of that name too, we cannot be certain.

Dennis was a single man of a recorded age of 60 years when he died in 1870. He had been a coal miner. His parents, Charles Vallely coal miner and Sarah Corrigan, were both deceased. It appears he died at the home of his brother in law George O'Brien, the husband of his sister Bridget. It was George who gave notice of his death. ^{1 2 3}

  Research Notes:

THE AGES OF DENNIS AND HIS MOTHER SARAH

There is some confusion about how old Sarah was at death and how old her son Dennis was. Some more work is required on their respective years of birth. the 'about' ages provided here are guesses based on judgment of the overall circumstances. The important thing to remember is that Dennis was a son of Charles Vallely and Sarah Corrigan.

The sources available at present do not provide enough evidence to know for certain what their birth years were. When each one died, the informant in each case was George O'Brien, Sarah's son in law and the brother in law of Dennis.

In 1860 George informed the registrar that Sarah was aged 64 years when she died. Then in 1870 he gave an age of 60 years for Dennis at death. Using these alone as accurate we could conclude that Sarah was 14 when Dennis was born. Though not impossible it is not very likely. George was unable to inform the registrar of Sarah's mother's name.

The 1851 census recorded Sarah's age as 45 years. This fits neatly with ages of her other children we know of, but not with Dennis.

It may be that Denis was the child of an earlier marriage between Charles Vallely and a first wife, and that Sarah was his second wife who had brought Dennis up. Charles seems to have died much earlier that Sarah, and may have been older than her. Certainly their children, apart from Dennis, were born in a fairly narrow five year period. On the other hand, men of the time in that area often married at an older age than women did, when financially they were in a stronger position to do so. In addition, in a pre-literate society ages are less exact and the standards of modern bureaucratic societies cannot be applied rigidly. Even in a numerate modern society people's ages are not always easily guessed very accurately. Lastly the records for the early 1820s and earlier decades are not all available to family historians, so Dennis may have not be much older than Charles, his brother, born 1822, and there may have been other children we know nothing of. We cannot argue a sensible case from an absence of evidence. Nevertheless we also have to bear in mind that ages were often exaggerated and the first record we have, the 1851 census where his age gives a birth year of 1816, can in no sense be accepted as gospel, and four or five years' error is not uncommon.

  Medical Notes:

Robert Anderson MD certified the cause of death.

George O' Brien, the brother in law of Dennis, and the occupier of the house where Dennis died, notified the registrar at Airdrie, William Whyte, on 21 December 1870 of the death.