The Elusive Catherine/Kate/Kathleen Degnan/Dagnall/Degnann/Degnall
Catherine Degnan was my great grandmother and I bear the name under which she died, Kathleen Hastings I had come to Chesterfield in May 2008 in search of memories of her in the land of her birth. I had her address from the 1861 English census, Church Alley, Chesterfield. Her father, according to the census, was a coal miner, originally from Roscommon, Ireland. I had had great trouble tracing Catherine to even being a “Degnan” by surname. She had given her name on her marriage certificate as Degnall. She maintained the “Degnall” on several birth certificates. Once she became Degnann and only once reverted to Degnan; never Dagnall as she had been called in Lancashire I was later to discover. She resumed Degnan once and that possibly after she had reconnected with her Chesterfield family. I only noticed that after I had down as a Degnan. Her maiden name is still given as Degnall on her death certificate. I had never thought that there could be such confusion over one’s own name. Confusion...