Mary Tulvan

My grandmother, Mary Tolvin / Tulvan, was a foundling - an infant that has been abandoned by it's parents and is discovered and cared for by others.

She was found in an area of Donegal near Redcastle and in a townland of Tullynavin. This is only a few kms from Glentogher where my grandfather, Dan Smyth was from.

Family stories tell that she was found by a local farmer and adopted by the local Garda and his wife (or vice versa) The family that reared her were Hamilton. Her date of birth is recorded as August 28th 1875. She married Dan Smyth in the Sacred Heart Church, Carndonagh, September 3rd 1903. She died in 1960 in Carndonagh where she was living with her son Cornelius (my uncle Corney).