Mctear (mateer) in down or Antrim

Hello, I don't know anything about the McTear family but when I read your email something my relative who lives in England told me came to mind.

Many families came to England to work and save money before immigrating to America. Some of those families found the living in England suitable and just stayed in England. A lot of the information coming back to the Irish was that things in America wasn't that great after the flood of Irish immigrants. Some families in America even claimed to be Scot to avoid the prejudice in America.

There?s a birth registered for Eliza Jane Mateer in 1864 in Newtownards (Vol 16, page 793). Do you have that? Assuming it?s the right family, it?ll give you the couples townland (address) at that time and confirm the mother?s maiden name etc.

Can?t see the parents marriage in the civil indexes (which start in 1845). Possibly the Minister overlooked sending it to the registrar (that did sometimes happen), or possibly they married outside Ireland. If the parents were not married, that would normally be noted in the baptism register, which you have evidently already explored, so I?d be inclined to think there was a marriage somewhere.

Tradition was to marry in the bride?s church, and so that is not necessarily the same church where their children were baptised.

Though most Irish censuses pre 1901 were destroyed, a few fragments still exist, including part of the 1861 for Bangor and surrounding townlands eg Conlig. Have you looked for the family in that? It?s on Emerald Ancestors (pay to view).

http://www.emeraldancestors.com/news/viewdetails.asp?ID=39

Thank you for this. Very interesting.  He's Eliza was my g grandmother. Her daughter Sarah was my grandmother. They lived in dear ham Cumberland and latterly Gateshead co Durham.

i would love to know what else it says please. I know they were in ballywalter. But it seems the records are from Bangor Presbyterian.  It's a great shame if the marriage record is missing. I have no way of going further back without that do I?

i am grateful and look forward to the details that are available thank you 

as their sons were called Samuel James and Robert. I wondered if they adhered to a naming pattern and this may give a clue to the father if William or even Sarah. 

I have been told the Lindsay family in conlig had some connections with courtaulds. But that's not much help. 

I shall check  site, site, thank you very much

x

You?ll need to buy the 1864 birth cert to see what it says. You can order a photocopy from GRO Roscommon for ?4 per certificate. Put the place, year, volume & page number on the application form (anywhere). Don?t worry about leaving some boxes blank. You don?t need to fill them all in if you have the reference details. http://www.groireland.ie/ You have to post or fax the form to them but they will e-mail the copy certificate to you if you wish. Tick the relevant box on the form.

The birth cert will have the place of birth. That should be a townland. When you know which it was, and assuming it?s the right family, you can look in Griffiths Revaluation to see if the family were listed. If they are you should be able to pinpoint where there house was (and perhaps still is), and also when they vacated it.

Depending on the type of property, it might also be worth looking in the tithe applotment records for the 1820s and 1830s to see if the family were there then. Those records are not on-line (for Northern Ireland) and you need to look them up in PRONI, Belfast.