Post
by Elwyn 1 » Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:54 pm
Alisa,
Yes I think your luck is in. I mentioned yesterday that I thought Mary Cahill came from Freshford. Now you have found evidence that John Purcell came from there too. That can hardly be a coincidence. So I think you have probably found where they both came from and I doubt you’ll get any better proof, given the timescale you are dealing with. (Finding where their Irish ancestors came from beats a lot of people so I think you can congratulate yourself).
I assume the information from the Poor Relief file matches what you already know (ie address,etc. Occupation and age seem right anyway).
You ask what information you would get if you looked up the birth in Rootsireland. I am not sure which birth you are referring to. Is it for both Philip & Mary? Either way they were both born before the start of statutory registration of births in Ireland (1864) so you won’t find a birth certificate. If there is a record, then what you’ll get is baptism records, which can vary. For John who is RC, that is usually his name, the 2 parents names and the 2 sponsors names. In later years their townland (address) was often recorded, but it may not be in the 1830s. For Ann who is presumably Church of Ireland or Presbyterian, you would get her name, her parents names, and possibly her townland. (Not many Protestant baptism records are on Rootsireland, so not sure you’ll get a match for her at all). Sometimes with COI you also get the father’s occupation, but not always. In later years they used a pre-printed book which had a column for occupation but in earlier years they did not.
For her, if you eventually identify where she was baptised somehow, but it isn’t on Rootsireland, you may need to check out the parish records which will normally have been copied to PRONI, Belfast and which are on microfilm. There’s also Emerald Ancestry and Ancestry Ireland both of which have some Co Antrim & Co Down parish records on their databases. (Ann comes from “near Belfast” according to the Poor Law application. Most of Belfast is in Co Antrim but a small part, east of the River Lagan, is in Co Down. You need to bear both counties in mind when searching.
If Ann was Church of Ireland, she’ll likely appear as Episcopalian in Scotland, and if she was Presbyterian, she’ll be Church of Scotland.
Elwyn
Elwyn
