Mary Jane Kelly's Alias(es)?

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Debs!

If I remember correctly, it was the 1889 census, mentioning the three most common names in Ireland being at the time:

3. O'Sullivan.
...
1. Murphy.

And the name in the middle was...

Kelly!

All the best
Jukka

[Debra A]

Hi Juks,
nah, it was definetely hard core pawn!
Debs

[Graham]

Fact is, people, if you were Irish and wished to remain untraceable, your name was Kelly. If you were Jewish, it was Cohen. If you were English, it was Farquaharson-Smythe-Blenkinsop (with a hyphen).

"On Mother Kelly's doorstep, down Paradise Row...."

True.

Graham

[Blackkat]

These types of posts on MJK always facinate me. Mainly for a personal reason. At risk of being made fun of, I'll share a story with you all. When I was about 10 years old and read my first book on JtR, my grandmother shared a story with me about our family. Her grandmother had told her about a daughter of one of her siblings. My maternal grandmother's family are all English and Irish - Right down to their hair : ) Well, anyway this daughter left home due to her promiscuity(sp?) and her mother and father didn't want anything to do with her. The girl was somewhere between 14-16 years old. My G. G. Grandmother had said she was immoral, and her family didn't care where she went. ( harsh ) Anyhoo, years later they found out that she had indeed died, and been murdered in London. They found that out when one of the family members finally tried to find her. My G. G. Grandmother said to grandma "I wouldn't doubt she got into trouble with that Devil, and he killed her." G. G. Grandmother was a bible thumpin woman. That devil my grandmother told me was GG referring to JtR.

Now - laugh as you may I more than ANY other person realize there are probably thousands of people that have stories. I've carried that with me for years, and I thought it was carziness that I was interested in JtR and got that kind of a family story. I never followed up on any of it, never did any research into family history, but I did ask a well known JtR geneaologist about it and he gave me some very good advice on where to start if I decide to pursue it. I don't think too much on it, and it's a bit embarassing to share but the reason I wanted to share it was - it does seem impossible that we will EVER find out what her real name might have been or who she was. I'd love to think that someday someone will have the answer - that would be very nice, but then again I think about putting on those shoes and even if there's a slight chance of having an answer it's scary - fiercly scary to me.

I just hope that someone more pieces of the puzzle will come together and that some person in England or Ireland will provide some evidence that they were related. It would be wonderful to know where she came from, and about her life before the East End. Real information. Here's hoping.