Callan, Looking for family that I believe came from Louth

Tatiehead,

In the 1841 Scottish census there is a question about where someone was born. Two columns on the right hand side ask about place of birth. If someone was born in Ireland, the enumerator entered “I”.  “E” for England and so on. If born in Scotland there will be a “Y” if the person was born in the same county as they were living in in 1841, and “N” if not. So you should be able to determine from that whether Peter was born in Ireland or not. Or if born in Scotland, whether that was in Ayrshire or not. (Later censuses may give you a more exact place of birth.

If Peter died in Scotland 1855 onwards, his death certificate should give you his parents names and occupations. That, plus his religious denomination, could help identify him in Ireland.

This is all that I can find on Peter Callan, I can find no birth record nor death record.

As to religion, my mother told me so many years ago that some of the family came from Ireland and were catholic but changed because the falling out with the church.

My parents were second cousins, my fathers father and my mothers grandfather were brothers, so my ancestral line combines.

1841 census

Household

Role

Sex

Age

Birthplace

Edward Callan

Male

40

Ireland

Ann Callan

Female

35

Ayrshire

Peter Callan

Male

9

Ayrshire

So Peter was born in Ayrshire c1832 to Edward & Ann Callan. I don’t see his baptism in any of the records on Scotlandspeople so it’s possible that the church that he was baptise din doesn’t have any records for that period, or that those records aren’t on Scotlandspeople. Looking at the index of RC records, I don’t see any for Ardrossan:

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/church-registers#Parishes

No easy way round that. You could contact the RC church in Ardrossan and see if they have any records for the 1830s and earlier.

https://www.catholicclocks.com/mass-times/scotland/ayrshire/ardrossan/st-peterinchains

If Edward was born in Ireland and Ann in Scotland, I’d guess they married in Scotland. But that’s not certain of course.

When searching the records bear in mind that in the 1841 census (only) the ages of anyone 16 and over were rounded down to the nearest 0 or 5. For example, a person aged 19 would be listed as 15, a person aged 22 would be listed as age 20, and a person age 59 would be listed as 55. So Edward could be anything between 40 & 44, Ann could be 35-39.  Peter’s age 9, should be accurate enough.  Callan is not a very common name in the Ardossan area. I see 4 Callan deaths there between 1855 and 1860, including 2 named Edward. I’d guess they might be related to your family. You might want to have a look at them if you are struggling to increase your knowledge of the family then. One of the Edwards wa sin 1855. 1855 is a special year for statutory registration. It was the first year of it in Scotland  a lot of extra information was recorded that was dropped in later years as being too time consuming. In 1855 only you get:

the names and ages of all children of the deceased (whether living or dead)

the place of burial and the undertaker involved

the date and place of birth of the deceased

and how long they had been in the district.