Catherine Elizabeth Coulter

Michele:

The surname Coulter was/is primarily found in Northern Ireland counties but with the limited info that you have, we won't be able to determine the county. Have you considered DNA testing to see if you would have some failry close matches that may have more information on the origins of your family in Ireland?

Roger McDonnell

Michele,

There are quite a number of baptisms for children named Alexander Coulter in the rootsireland database, but without a sense of Alexander's birthdate, he can't be identified.

Would you be able to post the birth/baptismal record for his daughter Catherine, as well as her death certificate?

It's not clear how much research you have done, but if you haven't traced Catherine and Alexander in the Canadian records, that would give you more information to go on.

There's a family tree on ancestry.com for an Alexander Coulter married to Eliz. Johnstone.  He was supposedly born in Leitrim in 1809.  The couple had numerous children on the 1851 census, including a Catherine, but she was 12, not an infant as your ancestor would have been (assuming you had the correct birth date).

Hi Michele,

I am Robert Watt born in Co. Tyrone, Ireland, We have several Coulter names on our family tree.

I would prefer to communicate via email  I am at   rwdwatt@gmail.com

From Robert.

I have her death cert. informent is her son, my great grandfather. Her birth is June 30 1850 Canada, death March 5 1926 L.A. California. Fathers name, which looks like it is spelled Alexandra Coulter born in Ireland. I have looked up birth records on ancestry, nothing comes up. There are some Coulters in and around the same area she lived but can't find a connection. There are a few Alexander's in that area but still no way to know if they are connected to Catherine. I know it's not a lot to go on but since I have no info on where in Ireland sort of leaves me at a dead end, at least for now. The only connection I have is with the Roninson family, being Mary Ann Coulter born 1822 Ireland. And that's it. Nothing on her either.

It's Robinson

Michele,

You mention looking up birth records on ancestry and finding nothing. That’s not surprising. Birth registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864. Prior to that you have to rely on church baptism records but not all churches have records for the period you need (1820s – 1830s) and of those that do, many are not on-line.  

You haven’t said what the Coulter family’s denomination was.  That is important to find out too. The 1901 Irish census has 1728 Coulters. 679 – well over a third – were Presbyterian and many Irish Presbyterian records are not on-line at all.  Most Presbyterian records can be found in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast, but you need to have some idea of where the family lived to be able to use them. 

If you can find where in Ireland your particular family originated, then it’s possible to search paper records for that area, but without some knowledge of their origins, it’s a needle in a haystack.

As has been suggested previously DNA might give you a lead.

I was looking for Catherine's birth cert in Canada where she was born.  She was married to James W Eckley in NY in the Protestant Episcopal Church. As for the DNA I am still searching. I know her parents were born in Ireland from the census on ancestry and her death cert. which only has her father. I appriciate everyones input.

I don't know if Canada is the same, but in Ireland tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, so if Catherine married in a Protestant Episcopal church in Canada, then that may point to the family’s denomination in Ireland. That in Ireland would be the Church of Ireland. Some of their records are on the rootsireland site, but many are not. Plus a lot of early Church of Ireland records were lost in the 1922 fire in the Public Record Office in Dublin, so there are many parishes with no records prior to about 1870. But where they exist they’d perhaps be the ones to focus on.

Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).