Irish ancesters

Richard:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

If Mary, Robert and Margaret were 13, 12, 11 in 1850, they likely would not have been 14, 12 and 11 in 1860 unless I'm misreading your message.

In any event, likely your Robinsons were Church of Ireland or Presbyterian and were from one of the counties in Northern Ireland.

I did check the subscription site Roots Ireland and searched for a Robert Robinson born around 1838 with a father John and mother Jane but did not find a record. Many of the Church of Ireland/Presbyterian records are not on Roots Ireland and are either not available back to the 1830s or held locally or for Church of Ireland at the Representative Church Library in Dublin. The RCB records are currently not available online.

It would be good to have Jane Robinson's maiden name for searching records.

Let me know what questions you have.

Roger McDonnell

Richard,

The name John Robinson is very common in Ireland. In the 1901 census there were 657. Ideally you need to find John’s parents names to be sure of finding the correct family in Ireland. You might get that from his death certificate. Plus naturalisation files and obituaries sometimes also have that. Likewise for Jane.

Statutory recording of marriages in Ireland began in April 1845 (for non RC marriages). I searched the records for 1845/46 but did not see any that fit this couple. So presumably they married around 1844 or the first 3 months of 1845. There might be a church record of their marriage but it may well not be on-line. So to find it, you would need to know where they lived. I agree the family could well have been protestant but that includes a lot of denominations eg Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregational and many others. If you can determine the precise denomination that can help. I agree with Roger that your family seem likely to have originated in Northern Ireland. 

It is worth bearing in mind that the surnames Robinson and Robertson are interchangeable in Ireland and people often switched between the two. So use both in any searches for the family in Irish records.

You say you found the family in the 1860 Federal census for PA. Would that be the family in dwelling 2154 in Ward 19 in Philadelphia?  It’s the only one I can see with a Jane, Mary, Robert & Margaret. If that is the right family, I note that Jane’s place of birth was given as Ireland, rather than Scotland. (Census information being 1st or 2nd hand is more likely to be accurate than death certificate information which, by it’s nature must be given by a 3rd party). Also I note that in the census Mary, Robert & Margaret were all born in PA. So the family must have been in PA by around 1845. I think the family who arrived in 1850 must be a different family. The childrens US birth certificates should give you Jane’s maiden name which may help a bit.

I may have mixed up some of my information regarding the Robinsons. In the 1860 Census, John and Jane Robinson are listed in Philadelphia along with several children: Mary (13), Robert (12), Margaret (11), Eliza (9), Esther (6), Norris (2), and Etaway (1).  I found "Etaway" spelled different ways in subsequent documents. Esther was my Great Grandmother. John died in 1866 and Jane in 1868. The death record for "Ettaway listed her father as born in Ireland and her mother born in Scotland.  The informant for this information was Esther, my great grandmother.  The death records of John and Jane also show he was born in Ireland and she was born in Scotland.  The death records foe other children are the same. There was oral history in the family that when John nad Jane died, the younger children were raised by "Grannie Burns." I found an Ann Burns living in the same neighborhood in the 1880 census with an Etaway Robinson as a "boarder.

In searching the ship manifests I found a John Robinson arriving in Philadelphia in 1850 on a ship from Liverpool, traveling with three children: Mary age 4, Robert age 2 and Margaret age 1.  No Jane or any other adult is listed with them. At present they are the only possibilities I've found as of now.

I note how the family that sailed from Liverpool in 1850 fit your family quite well in terms of ages and names but that information doesn’t fit with the 1860 US census which has the children all born in PA. (Assuming I identified the right family). What do later censuses give for the first 3 childrens places of birth? Do any give Ireland?

The age of the oldest child would suggest that John and Jane married around 1845/46.  I have searched the Irish records from April 1845 onwards (which are on-line) but cannot find a marriage that fits. If they married before that then many of the records are not on-line. It is possible to search church records but to do that you need to know roughly where they married. Without that it’s a needle in a haystack. And not all pre 1845 records have survived.

 If Jane was born in Scotland, then there’s the possibility they married there. I searched the church records from 1835 onwards but without success.

Perhaps they met and married in the US? Have you found any of the childrens birth certificates to confirm Jane’s maiden name?