Looking for THOMAS HUMPHREYS 1790

Rex,

Regarding county boundary changes, the borders of Co Tyrone were redrawn in the early 1600s but there were no further boundary changes there after that, so far as I am aware. So the Tyrone/Fermanagh/Donegal borders have remained the same since the early 1600s, before your family arrived in Ireland.

From the background you have given, I suspect your family were probably Church of Ireland (ie Anglican), and so those are probably the church records to focus on (where they still exist). The problem you face is that hardly any parishes in that part of Ireland have any records for the 1600s or most of the 1700s. And what records do exist are often not on-line. The most complete sets of Church of Ireland records for Fermanagh & Donegal are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast, but a personal visit is required to view them. And as I say, few of the parishes have many early records. Donegal and Fermanagh together are probably about 60 parishes, so a lot of parishes to check.

If the family were Landed Gentry, they may well feature in the Registry of Deeds records (where details of leases, marriage settlements etc are sometimes recorded, especially for wealthier people). They start in 1708. You could try searching them for Humphreys in those 2 counties to see if that throws anything up. (Can be a time consuming search if you don’t know exactly where or when they held the land). The originals are in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin and there’s a copy on microfilm in PRONI. Family search also has the records on-line.

Try searching the National Library records in Dublin and PRONI’s e-catalogue in Belfast to see if they have any relevant records on the family. Old wills, leases etc.

I see some Humphreys families around Kinawley. Fermanagh in the 1766 religious census (on the PRONI website) but I notice they were RC. So possibly not your family.

Thank you Elwyn, you are correct on all counts. The family were Protestant, and the Kinawley religious census group would not have been the faamily we are researching.

We have met the difficulties you mention with Church of Ireland records - but we have had some success with Voters lists, Flax Growers lists, and Land Tax Records. Not enough however, to pinpoint the family as the lists only give heads of households.

We have had research done by Ulster Ancestors, and had two queries considered by PRONI. We are awaiting the results of the second PRONI search now, so always hope for a breakthrough.

Thank you again for your respone - much appreciated. Rex Johnson.