Will future census stats be more specific?

[Angusfifer]

One of the the things that does my napper in is the information provided in relation to my Irish family in Dundee. Place of birth is simply given as Ireland. I need to know which county to enable me to go further back...

[Anne H]

Hi Angusfifer,

Welcome to TalkingScot.

I'm afraid you'll have to join the rest of us in our frustrations as to which area our Irish ancestors actually came from.

Have you looked for them on all of the census records? I've been lucky and actually found some of them mentioned the county.

Also, if your ancestors married in Ireland and had children in Scotland, you just might get lucky again since very often the date and place of the parents marriage is entered on the child's birth certificate.

Then of course, there's still the problem of which townland, etc, etc...

Regards,
Anne H

[LesleyB]

Hi Angusfifer
Welcome to Talking Scot

Once you have checked all census material and births of all children for clues, as Anne has suggested, the other thing to check out is any Poor Relief applications made by the family. Many Irish familes, having fled from famine, brought next to nothing with them and as a result often had to apply for poor relief in the area in which they settled at some point. These records often give the county of birth which is a big leap forward from just "Ireland". As far as I remember Dundee City Archives hold the Poor Law data for Dundee.
Try here first: http://www.fdca.org.uk/poor_index.htm

..but be aware that Irish sunames, as heard by Scottish "officials" can produce the most imaginative, interesting and unexpected spelling variations, which can sometimes make searching databases most inconclusive!
e.g. McAnany, McAnanny, McAneene, McEneny, McEneeny, McIneeney, McIniny, McInninie, McKaveny, McNiney, McQueeney(!) and plain old Kaveny are all spelling variations on the one family!! And of course, most of those could just as easily start with Mac....

Another thing to do is to go to the free search here:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/
and find out from the surname, (as many variations as you can muster!)which counties are the most likely areas of origin. I did this with my lot: worked out the likely counties from that web link, then when I checked the poor law applications was amazed to see that the county which was top of the list for the surname, was in fact their county of origin. I'm sure it does not work in 100% of cases, but worth a try. (...and anything is worth a try with Irish Elusives! )

We also have a list of Irish links here:
http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10339

Best wishes
Lesley

[LesleyB]

Back again
Posted this link on your other query, but relevant to here too:
http://www.fdca.org.uk/irishguide.htm

The Howff Burial Registers

These are available in 6 volumes covering the period 1772-1855. The information given in the registers varies with the later volumes containing more details. From 11th February 1821 (vol 2), the registers contain the place of birth (where known), which will begin to detail the Irish-born residents of Dundee who were buried at the Howff. Information contained in these registers includes: Name; Occupation; Age; Cause of death; Last place of residence; Date of death.

In respect of those listed as Irish-born, generally the county of birth rather than the town is given i.e. Roscommon. The general trend shows an increase in burials of Irish-born people. Results gained using random sampling show that for men and women the largest majority of immigrants were originally from King’s County (now known as County Offaly), followed by Cavan and Tyrone. *
*These random dates include the year 1849 when there was a cholera epidemic in Dundee.

Best wishes
Lesley