Cousens

Chris,

I had a look at the 1901 census of Co. Down and there are about 215 Cousin/Cousins listed. (No Cousens). They were spread across the county. 4 were named Thomas. So a fairly common name. 36 were RC, 74 Presbyterian and the remainder Church of Ireland or Methodist.

Your Thomas was born before the start of birth registration in Ireland (1864) and so you need to rely on church records to identify him. To do that you need to have some idea of his denomination and of where in the county he came from. Otherwise it’s a needle in a haystack. Ideally you also need his parents’ names from a marriage or death certificate to be sure you have found the right Thomas. (If there were 4 alive in 1901, there were probably 4 alive in the 1820s too).

If you get a lead as to where he might have lived, then your next step would be to look up that parish in the PRONI guide to church records, to see what records exists. (Not every church has records that cover 1823). The records in PRONI are not on-line, and so if you can’t get there in person, you might need to hire a researcher. PRONI is the public record office in Belfast.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/guide_to_church_records.pdf

There’s some Cousins on this Co. Down website, including 4 named Thomas, but none appears to be of the right age to be your man:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Erosdavies/SURNAMES/C/CosCoy.htm

If you can’t find where in the county your Thomas originated, DNA testing might find a link, perhaps to living descendants or to a family that knows more about their origins and can help that way.

Hi Elwyn,

Thanks for your prompt response. I have a copy of his marriage certificate from Connecticut USA (married 1854). Unfortunately it only lists his birthplace as Down, Down, so I assumed the first Down referred to the parish, unless it was a common abbreviation of Downpatrick(?). It does not give his parent's names (apparently optional for non-US citizens). He was Protestant or C of I.

His Australian death certificate (informant was his son), list's Thomas's father as Thomas, and the father's occupation as linen draper? There is a Thomas Cousins from Aghaderg in Ros Davies listings, who was granted a spinning wheel premium and the right to grow flax in 1796. Do you think that might be a link????

Think I've exhausted most resources and my DNA results haven't yielded any clues.

Cheers, Chris

Chris,

Having a father’s name is certainly a help. As to the meaning of Down, if the certificate says “Down, Down” then that does suggest the parish of Down. Downpatrick is not normally shortened to Down. People just call it Downpatrick.   You could check to see if there’s a baptism that matches in the parish of Down. Downpatrick Cathedral (Church of Ireland) has baptisms from 1818 onwards, so that’s easy enough to check.

Methodists didn’t start their own Meeting House in Downpatrick till 1829 so you can discount them. There are 2 Presbyterian churches but the earliest records only start in 1827, so you’ll have to hope they weren’t of that denomination.

Aghaderg Church of Ireland has baptisms from 1814 onwards so again they are easy to check. One Presbyterian church for Aghaderg is Glascar. Their records start in 1780. Scarva Presbyterian nearby start in 1807. No Methodist church in the immediate area.

It’s worth looking on rootsireland to see if they have those churches records on-line. If not, you’ll need to get someone to go to PRONI. Copies of all of the above records are held there, on microfilm.

Linen draper was a reasonably common occupation in Co. Down at that time. Most towns would have had several. Most farmers and labourers made a bit of linen, by growing some flax and then weaving it into linen on hand loom weaving machines (such as are still used in the Outer Hebrides today, to make Harris Tweed). It was top up income, and provided a bit of cash in a society that otherwise mostly lived by barter.  It was usually sold to agents at the local market, who in turn sold it to manufacturers who made clothes and other products from it. So there were plenty of drapers in Co.Down. (A draper would have sold linen and woollen clothing in a shop. He wouldn’t necessarily have made it himself. So wouldn’t necessarily be on the flax growers list). You could go through Pigots Directory (1824) searching for any linen drapers in Co Down:

http://www.failteromhat.com/pigotu.htm

There wasn’t a Cousins, draper, in Downpatrick but I didn’t check anywhere else.

Thanks very much Elwyn - something to go on with, and certainly more than I've had to date. The Scarva reference rings a bell, as one of his older sisters (according to others' research on this branch) was born there. Will do some checking and add to this post if and when necessary. Thanks again for your guidance!

Cheers, Chris

Hi Elwyn,

Have managed to identify a location in County Down - Glen Lagan. Have 'googled' this without much luck. Looks like it could be a region, rather than an actual tow n. Tried to reuse the PRONI link you sent me for church records, but can only locate the leaflet, not the PDF of towns and churches?

Cheers, Chris

Chris,

The townland name makes all the difference. There isn’t anywhere named Glen Lagan in Co. Down but I think it’s Glenloughan (which would sound much like Glen Lagan to an unfamiliar ear). There’s 3 of them. One in Aghaderg parish (outside Scarva) and 2 in Kilkeel (Glenloughan and Glenloughan Upper).

http://www.thecore.com/seanruad/

Your family seem likely to have come from the Aghaderg townland. It borders the northern edge of Scarva village, and you said you believed there was some connection with Scarva. So I searched the tithe applotment records for Aghaderg parish in 1828 and found 2 Cousins farms, one in Glenloughan and the other in Scarva. Both occupied by a Thomas Cousins. (Can’t say whether there were 2 separate people or the same man had 2 plots of land). See:

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/down/tithe-applotment-books/aghaderg-parish.php#.Wi7mvxR2ug0

So that might be your family. (It won’t be your Thomas who was only aged 5 in 1828, but it might be his father). Don’t expect too much when you google these townlands. There’s not too much to them. Glenloughan is about 260 acres of agricultural land. In 1901 there were 19 houses there and a total population of 96.

You noted Thomas Cousins of Aghaderg on the 1796 flax growers list in the Ros Davies site. So that tells you he was an adult and head of his own farm. So probably born before the 1775 or thereabouts.

I looked in Griffiths Valuation for the 1860s but there were no Cousins farms there then. There was one Cousins farm in Scarva in 1901 though:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Down/Scarva/Scarva/1208430/

Perhaps they may be related to your family. I looked up a few of Moses childrens births on the irishgenealogy site, and can tell you that Thomas Henry was born 1864, Robert in 1866 & Sarah 1869, all in Scarva, and that the mother’s name was recorded as Roseallis Hadden. Some of the children are registered as Cozens, an alternative spelling of the surname.

https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/

The parents marriage was registered in Armagh 14.7.1853 (Rose Alice Hadden & Moses Cousins). You might want to look at that marriage certificate to see who Moses father was. Moses was born around 1826.

Some probate abstracts from the PRONI wills site:

Probate of the Will of Moses Cousins late of Scarva County Down Farmer who died 24 February 1906 granted at Belfast to John Teggart and Thomas Henry Cousins Farmers.

Cousins Thomas Henry of Scarva county Down farmer died 21 March 1923 Administration Belfast 19 October to Amelia Cousins widow. Effects £139. D.B.N. P.R. 11.11.37

(With the above will it seems the executrix failed to administer the estate and 14 years passed before that happened. Probably as a result of her own death).

Cousins William Robert of Scarva county Down farmer died 25 December 1923 Probate Belfast 20 May to Amelia Cousins widow. Effects £368 3s. 9d.

This Cousins family were Church of Ireland. Perhaps yours were too. There are 2 churches in Aghaderg parish. Aghaderg itself has baptism, marriage and burial records from 1812 onwards. There’s a copy in PRONI. Scarva Church of Ireland unfortunately has no records before 1877, as their earlier records were lost in the 1922 fire in Dublin, during the civil war. But you might find a gravestone in the graveyard. Farmers could often afford a gravestone.

Scarva Presbyterian has records from 1807. It might be worth checking them too just ion the offchance the family were of that denomination. Copy in PRONI.

If you can’t get to PRONI yourself you might need to hire a researcher.

Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

I have attached the PRONI church guide to this post, so you should be able to access it that way. (Their site is not very well set out and it is hard to find the guide on it).

Wow! Thank you so much Elwyn! There are a number of descendants here in Australia who have been searching for Thomas's background for years. As you note, it's extremely difficult to do this sort of research when you are the other side of the world. I just 'lucked out' when I checked a different child's birth certificate and found the Glen Lagan/Glenloughan reference. And there are some other spelling mistakes on the same document, so your supposition of misunderstanding is quite likely. 

I truly can't thank you enough for all of your efforts, and I will follow up on all of the links you have sent. (And yes, the PRONI website is very badly designed, speaking as an ex-librarian!).

Cheers, Chris