Looking for information regarding Michael Halpin, son of Michael Halpin and Mary Britt. Michael Jr. was a shoemaker. Born approximately 1830 in Ireland, he married Margaret Mann in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 1868. They had two children: John in 1869 and Mary Ellen in 1872.
It's possible they were from Tipperary or Limerick, but I've only heard vague stories and have no documentation.
Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Thursday 27th Dec 2012, 11:30PM
Message Board Replies
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Hi,
Thanks for your message.
Have you tried looking into Michael Jr.'s emigration?Sometimes you can find out more inforamtion on people who emigrated at the port of their arrival, and perhaps even an exact place of origin. For immigration information in Canada check the National Archives and Library at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html
Without narrowing down the place of origin it can be quite difficult to get information. Civil registration didn't begin in Ireland until 1864, so prior to this all records were kept by the church. In order to know which registers to check you need to know which parish they lived in.
You could try doing a search for the names in the two land surveys taken in Ireland during the 19th century. However, if there are multiple results for the names there is no way to verify if it is your Halpins as no genealogical information is given in these. The land records are:
The Tithe Applotment Books dating from 1823-1838, found at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp
Griffith's Valuation dating from 1848 to 1864, found at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/
You could also do a search at the following:
Family Search: https://familysearch.org/
Irish Genealogy: www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html (Catholic and Church of IReland records are currently being uploaded here free of charge. However, as this is an ongoing project not all records are available yet)
Some other websites which may help in your research are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
I hope this helps. I know it can be difficult to start looking for information when you are starting out with so little. However, hopefully some of these searches will yield some results which can give you a starting point. Remember to post any new inforamtion that you find.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support