Katie Dunne

Katie Dunne was the daughter of Catherine Kavanagh and Peter Dunne, born in Rock Big on 1 November 1890. Her life's path would take her from the maritime townland of Rock Big to domestic service in Ireland, and eventually across the Irish Sea to establish a family in Surrey and Greater London.

1901 Census

At eleven years old, Katie was recorded at home in House 9, Rock Big, living with her parents and brothers.

1911 Census

By 1911, twenty-year-old Katie had left the family home in Rock Big to enter domestic service. She was enumerated working as a "General Servant Domestic" in the household of Harry Forman, an English commercial drapery traveler, and his family at Belview Terrace, Clontarf East, Dublin, Ireland. The return shows she had become fully literate ("read and write"), a key tool for her independence.

Migration to England & The 1921 Census

Katie moved across the Irish Sea to seek employment in England during the late 1910s.

On the night of 19 June 1921, twenty-eight-year-old Katie (recorded as Kate Dunne) was enumerated in the 1921 Census of England and Wales living at Mayfield in Carshalton, Surrey.

She was employed as a live-in general domestic servant for Mrs. Mary Louisa Wood and her husband Cuthbert Edward Wood, a paper merchant.  The return records her birthplace as County Wicklow, Ireland.

Working in the Carshalton and Sutton area of Surrey placed Katie directly within the district where she would build her future. Just a year later, in 1922, Katie married Frederick Boyce in the nearby Epsom registration district, transitioning from domestic service to starting her own home and family in England.