Quinn Family of Kilkeel, Down, Northern Ireland

Quin(n) is a fairly common name in the civil parish of Kilkeel. Here’s a list of households who were farming there in 1830, including 3 called Thomas.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/down/tithe-applotment-books/kilkeel-parish.php

Catherine’s birth is long before the start of birth and death registration in Ireland (1864) and so you won’t find a birth certificate for her or her siblings, nor a record of her marriage. You’ll only find death certificates for her parents if they lived beyond 1864. For research before 1864 we normally rely on church records but in this case there are none. There are 2 RC parishes in the area. Kilkeel’s records start in 1839 and Lower Mourne’s in 1842. There are no surviving censuses for the period you are interested in. It’s possible that there are no records of Catherine or her family, as it was in the early 1800s, to find. If her father was a farmer, and alive in 1830, then he’s probably one of the Thomases listed in the tithes. (Tithes were drawn up for tax purposes, and listed all those with land. So farmers are listed but labourers/weavers and others without any significant quantity of land are not). But there’s no obvious way of saying which might be hers.

Elwyn

Thank you for your message and the link for the Tithe Applotment Books for Kilkeel, Down.

How would one find out how many Quinn Families there are in Kilkeel, Down today and if/how I might be related to them ?

Thank you.

Scott La Bounty

Scott,

The postcode for the Kilkeel area is BT34. I searched the telephone directory - https://www.ukphonebook.com - for Quinn + BT34. I found 437. So there’s quite a few Quinns in that area today, especially when you take into account that most younger people don’t have a public land line any more and aren’t in the phone book, so there’s probably several thousand of them in the area.

You ask how to find out if you are related to any of those families. Obviously the records you need don’t exist. The odd family in the area with an interest in their ancestry might be able to trace back to the early 1800s, but most here wouldn’t know more than 3 generations (so back to 1900 say).  There are plenty of people in Ireland interested in genealogy and the numbers are growing but taking the population as a whole there wouldn’t be the same level of interest as you find in countries like the USA or Australia. (We mostly know where our ancestors came from and there isn’t the same curiosity).  So the average family will have no idea who their ancestors were in 1800. The only way you might find out if you were related to any of them would be through DNA, I would think.  Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

Elwyn

Thank you for your message and the information about the Ulster DNA Project in conjunction with FTDNA. 

Scott La Bounty

Hi Scott, best thing to do will be to have a DNA test, have you done one yet? I'd recommend Ancestry and then upload your raw DNA to GedMatch. Do let me know, we've done it (Quinns from Kilkeel) so that will let you focus your search doe a bit, perhaps.

Best,

Liam

Liam

I have uploaded my AncestryDNA raw data to FamilyTreeDNA, GedMatch, LivingDNA and MyHeritageDNA.

Best regards,

Scott La Bounty

Scott, I have a collection of some Kilkeel related GEDmatch kits. If you give me your GEDmatch number, I will compare it with them.

Dermot

Dermot

Please contact me at slabounty@hotmail.com and I will provide my GEDmatch number.

Thanks !

Scott La Bounty

My brother in new Zealand recently bought a property with an old church on it. It was built by William Quinn,and his brother Nicholas Quinn, of Kilkeel Ireland. They named their property Annalong. My husband is Leslie Campbell, son of Sam Campbell, from Annalong so I started to look into it. If you google The Quinn's of Makikihi, South Canterbury, N.Z. you can follow the thread. William left many sons. You can also google St. Mary's Star of the Sea 1686 Waimate Highway. Makikihi. My brother and wife will be renovating the church to live in, and are growing haskap blueberries on the site for future commercial purposes. I hope this helps your search.