Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Northern Ireland and Eire

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trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by trish58 » Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:33 am

Have I come to the end of the line with my 2xGr Grand Father Richard Rae Raw/O'Raw ?

I have Richard's 1st & 2nd marriage from SP, plus all the cencus records from 1841-1881, he died Sept 1881. On all these records it states born in Ireland and nothing more.
On his 2nd marriage to Margaret Johnson/Johnston his parents are listed as John Rae, farmer deceased & Mary Quin, deceased. On his death certificate, Father John Rae Farmer deceased, Mother with lines through the entry which is understandable.

I have exhausted all searches for Richards parents, also Richards birth can't be found either on the Family search site.
According to census records his birth varies from 1815-1822. His death certificate in 1881 has his age at 59 (1822)

I feel sure that I must have a lot more of this family lurking in corners waiting to be found.
Can anyone help please.

Many thanks
Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by WilmaM » Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:53 am

Have you tried the variation of Wray?

'My' Raes from Fermanagh/Tyrone used this spelling in 1911.
Wilma

Elwyn 1
Posts: 198
Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:34 pm
Location: Co. Antrim, Ireland

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by Elwyn 1 » Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:52 am

Trish,

Statutory birth registration only started in Ireland in 1864 and so you won’t find a birth certificate for Richard. You might find his baptism, but to do that you really need to know his religious denomination and parish. Also, if he was RC, then be aware that many parishes don’t have records back as far as 1815. The births that you see on Family search prior to 1864 are mostly submitted entries, plus some from various collections that people have compiled, and only represent a small percentage of the actual births in the country at that time. Most Irish parish records are not on-line, on the Familysearch site. Where they do exist they are often held in various libraries/Public Record Offices in the country, depending on location and denomination.

Ideally you need to scour records in Scotland and elsewhere for a clue as to his parish in Ireland. Otherwise it’s a needle in a haystack. Usual sources, apart from the censuses which you have evidently exhausted, are Poor Law Records, military records, obituaries, gravestones, wills, emigration records.

I wouldn’t rely too heavily on the age on the death certificate, as that would only be as accurate as the informant’s knowledge. Age mistakes on death certificates are very common. I’d rely more on census and marriage cert data because they should be first hand information, though even there discrepancies routinely occur.

You don’t give the date of Richard’s second marriage. But if the father were still alive in the period 1847 – 1864, when Griffiths Valuation was compiled, then as a farmer he ought to be listed. Griffiths only has 5 or 6 John Rae entries. If you have no other leads you might feel it worth looking at the parish records for those entries. (The civil parish is shown on Griffiths. Sometimes the RC parish has a different name).

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith- ... nameSearch


Elwyn
Elwyn

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by trish58 » Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:35 am

Thanks Wilma, I have tried all variations of the name and still no luck.

Thanks Elwyn for your help.
Richard & Margaret married in 1862 Father John deceased, Mother appears to be still alive, there are no military, poor records, & no headstones for this family. Yes they were Catholics, & there are no clues at all on any of the census records as to where in Ireland all very frusterating.

It is with grateful thanks to the TS team that I have got this far. Way back in 2005 I wrote asking for help to find my Gr Grand Father Louis (Son of Richard & his fist wife) he was found as Lewis/Luke Raw, since then I have found all the information not only of my Gr Grand Father Louis but his 2 marriages, his childrens births/marriages/deaths & made contact with Cousins in Scotland who have sent me many lovey photos.

Then I moved on to Richard who had 17 children in his 2 marriages sadly only 5 reached their teen years, but again I have been able to trace their family's to the present day. It has been a wonderful journey but I wish I could just find where in Ireland they came from.I guess we can't have everything.

Thanks again to a great team of people.
Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

LesleyB
Posts: 8184
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Scotland

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by LesleyB » Thu Jun 28, 2012 10:56 am

Hi Trish

A search here can give you an idea where the surname was mostly found mid 19th century:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/
- seems like Raw occurred mostly in NI with O'Raw 100% in Antrim. Surname Rae returns rather different results.

At least it may give you a rough idea to work form. It certainly worked for my lot some years ago - I had then narrowed down to most likely Fermanagh based on surname (and varients of surname), and indeed, that was where they turned out to have come from.

Best wishes
Lesley

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by trish58 » Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:21 pm

Thanks for that info Lesley. The name was originally O'Raw, family hearsay goes that Richard changed it to Raw so that it didn't sound to "Irish" then it changed again in the 1870's to Rae & I have been able to pinpoint when the name came in.

Thanks-Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

LesleyB
Posts: 8184
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Scotland

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by LesleyB » Fri Jun 29, 2012 8:43 am

Hi Trish
I have Richard's 1st & 2nd marriage from SP, plus all the cencus records from 1841-1881, he died Sept 1881
Where did he die in Scotland?
The records that helped immensely with my Irish lot were the Poor Law applications. Looking a the indexes for these at the Mitchell Library, huge numbers of folk from Ireland applied for Poor Relief, no doubt becuase they had come to Scotland with very little hoping to make a better life, and were less likely to have extended family nearby to help out, so that may be worth a check if he was Glasgow based.

I note he marreid in Ardrossan, Ayrshire - there are also some Poor Law Records for Ayrshire.
THere is some info about the Ardrossan applications here.
http://www.threetowners.com/Ard%20folde ... tion's.htm
and a link to indexes here
http://www.ers.north-ayrshire.gov.uk/lo ... relief.cfm

Best wishes
Lesley

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by trish58 » Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:23 am

Richard died 1881 Bonhill Dunbarton.
Thanks for the poor relief sites will check them out, though I did get someone to do a check for me at one stage and they found nothing, but of course there are always new records being added to all the family history sites as I have found over the years, even the 1911 census are still adding records that I couldn't find when it was first released & now they are appearing. :D

Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by trish58 » Thu Jul 05, 2012 12:48 am

I have found a poor relief record on the Ayrshire Poor Relief records for a John O'Rawe, have emailed them for a copy of this hoping that it could be a relation. My question is how long does it take for a reply, days/weeks ??

Trish :D
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

trish58
Posts: 265
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:41 am
Location: Australia

Re: Have I Come To The End Of The Line ??

Post by trish58 » Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:54 pm

Hi again.
This original post is more than three years old, and it is through the help of this fantastic site that I have never given up searching for my Rae/Raw/O'raw Irish family.

So very happy to say that I have found 3 x Gr Grandad's Irish birth place in Cluntyganny. Clare. Along with 2 Brothers & 1 Sister.
I have booked a ticket for a visit to the UK in June and taking my Sister who lives in the UK to Ireland to go and hopefully find the village they lived and Church records.

I joined TS 10 years ago in the hope they could help with this very family above and they were a blessing thank you. I don't visit the site as much because my research has taken other paths for the moment, but TS will always be very special.

WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR AND HOPING THAT 2016 IS KIND TO YOU ALL. [cheers] [cheers] [cheers]

Trish
searching. Rae, Kennedy, Agnew, McConnell, Singleton, Appleton, Feeney, Fury, & many more

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