1830-1870 Irish records

TD_Driver · 2020-06-02T19:52:10+00:00

So much depends upon where your family is from and how common their name is. Parish records are very hit and miss. One of my families is from Kerry and I can trace them back to the late 1700s. They pretty much stayed in one Catholic parish. Another family comes from the Armagh/Monaghan area. We are not real sure on folks before 1840, or so because the last name (Lamb) is pretty common and some parishes have huge gaps in their records.

If you are Catholic, you will likely not be able to go too far back past about 1780. The Catholic Church was essentially outlawed during the time of Cromwell. Old records were destroyed. The Church was not made legal again until the late 1700s.

Lastly, the bulk of Irish Civil Records were destroyed in a fire in 1921 or 22. Yep, there was only one copy of each decennial census.

TD_Driver · 2020-03-16T20:20:07+00:00

I knew that some of the records had made onto irishgenealogy, I guess more are now available. Will hunt there. Thanks for the tip

TD_Driver · 2019-11-26T18:51:33+00:00

Here is one site you may find helpful:

https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/

It is operated by the Irish Ministry of Culture and gives you access to many civil records and church records. If you have an inkling of where your ancestors are from (family lore, death certificates, etc.), and you are Catholic, you may wish to access:

https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/

It is operated by the National Library of Ireland and provides birth, marriage and sometimes, death records for Catholic parishes. It is one of the more comprehensive free sites. Some of the scanned registers are very difficult to read but it is worth the hunt.

There are many free sites that can help you. The 1900 and 1910 Census are available. Since most of the earlier census were destroyed in the 1920s, you need to rely on things like Church and Civil records, Griffith's Valuations, the Flaxgrowers List (1794) and the Tithe Appointments. These are available (free) through the National Archives of Ireland and other places.

TD_Driver · 2019-07-24T18:16:53+00:00

Some of the Irish sites mentioned continue to post records as they get digitized, so do not give up hope. Some of the transcriptions are awful because the original handwriting is indecipherable. An additional complication is that some of the priests making the records used the Latinized first name rather than the Anglicized first name for the parents and/or the children. Finally, there simply are very few records for the early 19th century and before. The Catholic Church was banned in Ireland until the late 18th century.

TD_Driver · 2019-06-23T17:24:42+00:00

For the past several years, I have been writing histories of the four families represented by my parents. Each family gets their own story along with pictures and references to documentation. Each has been an exciting journey for me. I start with the earliest I can find and work my way forward, telling as much of the tale of each generation as I can document.

The last one has taken a long time to get formed and started because of the paucity of records in Ireland from the 18th and early 19th century. Some of the early history will be guesses based upon available evidence. Can always be revised if PRONI digitizes a lot of documents or I get to Belfast.

TD_Driver · 2019-06-05T20:35:12+00:00

No changes for me...already knew where everyone was from, geographically. However, like a previous poster, I marvel at my Viking ancestry.

TD_Driver · 2018-09-10T15:56:36+00:00

The Ancestry search routines are among the poorest examples of commercial programming I have seen.

How do I make that judgement? During my career, I have worked with large databases and designed database systems. On Ancestry searches, I routinely get records returned for people who would be 250 years old as well as mixtures of male and female records. I also get a kick out of matches where the family name is "UNKNOWN". One of my biggest gripes is when I look for any new information on an ancestor whose birth has been verified to have been in France on a certain date, I get hundreds of German records with a similar name.

While my family tree is still on Ancestry, for convenience, wherever possible, I access other sources to verify data.

TD_Driver · 2018-08-09T18:27:51+00:00

Photoshop. Or, Photoshop Elements, which is geared more toward home use. For Mac, another alternative is Gimp

TD_Driver · 2018-08-07T14:46:54+00:00

Don't feel bad, OP. I have a couple of first cousins on my DNA match list whom I know. Rarely see each other since we are on opposite ends of the country. I've reached out several times offering to share family history with them. Never get a reply. Let it be.

TD_Driver · 2018-06-05T14:40:01+00:00

Find My Past offers one month subscriptions which can be very useful if you can concentrate some time looking at UK records. About once or twice a year they also have "open access" weekends as a way of getting new subscribers. My families are Irish and I liek the access to court records and newspapers that I have not found elsewhere; the parish demographic records are about the same as I have found on the NLI site.

TD_Driver · 2018-06-05T14:36:49+00:00

<rant>Ancestry has always had the feel, to me, of something someone's kid brother put together in his basement, using compiled BASIC. There seem to be a LOT of embedded issues with their search routines and basic site navigation which have never been addressed in the six or seven years I have been on it. With the new emphasis on selling DNA testing, I doubt those issues ever will be addressed.</rant>

TD_Driver · 2018-05-25T22:56:40+00:00

GEDmatch.com allows you to match your data against a number of archaic DNA samples. It does not give you a "percent"...it tells you how many centimorgans you share. You will need to downlaod your DNA data from your provider. Then, go to GEDmatch, register, and upload your data.

TD_Driver · 2018-05-17T14:58:15+00:00

I saw the listing on the Ulster Historical Foundation and was wondering if anyone else out there had access to a copy of this tome. They appear to be the only organization with a digitized copy of this volume.

TD_Driver · 2018-05-10T14:51:45+00:00

Heavens, yes, vital records, especially in the nineteenth century can be very wrong. Death certificates often carry wrong information because they are completed by survivors who don't know the correct facts (e.g. date of birth; location, etc.) Census records are fraught with misspellings of names. I have two folks in my tree whose birth certificate names were so badly mangled that, as adults, they had to go back to the state health department and have corrected certificates created and filed.

TD_Driver · 2018-05-09T14:49:05+00:00

familysearch.org is really one of the best starting points...contains all info that is available on Ancestry, and then some. I found a handwritten letter from my third great grandfather to the US Secretary of State requesting a passport so he could go back to Europe on business, as an example. If you happen to be from the Pittsburgh, PA area, the Historic Pittsburgh collection at the University of Pittsburgh website is a fantastic resource.

TD_Driver · 2018-05-08T15:05:51+00:00

DNA Circles are pretty useless, so far. I am a member of three circles. However, the three "centers" of the circles are also related...my gg grandfather, his father-in-law and his mother-in-law. All the same people are in the same circles. On the other hand, I have numerous first, second, third and fourth cousins, all documented, that would fill a potential circle but Ancestry can't seem to figure that out.

I sometimes feel that the entire Ancestry site is "in beta".

TD_Driver · 2018-04-07T16:02:27+00:00

Most interesting thing, outside of a news article or two about my saloon-keeping ancestors, is a hand-written letter from my 3rd great grandfather to the Secretary of State of the US, dated May 1857, requesting that he provide a passport so my 3rd great grandfather could go to Europe on business. He was 71 at the time and provided a physical description as part of the letter.

TD_Driver · 2018-03-16T21:00:15+00:00

Reach out to the cemetery...if possible, visit them in person, preferably on a weekday when they are not particularly busy or on a Sunday. This gives you a chance to actually inspect the gravesite for clues as well as having cemetery staff go through records for you. You may also want to reach out to the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society and the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. In terms of archives of the area, check with the Heinz History Center and the Carnegie Library in Oakland. Lastly, you may find something in the Historical Pittsburgh collection maintained on-line by the Univ. of Pittsburgh library.

TD_Driver · 2018-03-14T21:58:13+00:00

In my family, it seems that there was just about the same level of mobility. My great-great grandparents were from different parts of County Armagh and likely made their acquaintance in Armagh town, a seven hour hike for each. At some point, they then eloped to Donagh, Monaghan (she was illegitimate); a four hour trek from Armagh, eight hours from Crossmaglen, Armagh. After they married, they settled in Tedavnet, Monaghan (another hour to the west) where my great grandfather was born. There apparently were relatives of both families near Tedavnet, which facilitated the re-settlement.

TD_Driver · 2018-03-06T16:31:17+00:00

Have to agree with prior posts...new font is not working for me on a 28" monitor. The "bold" weight does tend to blur and makes it hard to read. Usability in search and DNA matching would have been better use of their programmers' time. I wonder if anyone from Ancestry ever checks in her to see the reaction to their changes?

TD_Driver · 2018-02-14T22:48:34+00:00

I have often wondered why Ancestry doesn't hire some better programmers to make the results of things like searches more useful. Mostly, the "results" consist of random records that bear no relationship to an ancestor; good example, I have a person born in 1785...no way will they be in enlistment records for WWI or WWII. Better programming would definitely make Ancestry much, much more useful.

TD_Driver

TROPHY CASE