Skillen Family History

Kimberley,

I had a look at Griffiths Valuation for the 1860s and the 1901 Irish census of Co. Fermanagh. I didn’t find a single person named Skillen in the county. Indeed there’s only 4 in Ireland in the 1901 census, one household in Co Down and 1 in Clare. I searched the statutory records for Skillen/Skillane. The name is found in Ireland but I can’t find a single birth, death or marriage in Fermanagh.

You didn’t say what denomination the family were but if RC or Church of Ireland the parish records for 1821 don’t exist. Only the Presbyterian church has any records for that year. (There’s a copy in PRONI in Belfast. I don’t think they are on-line anywhere so a personal visit is required to view them). I think this might be a hard family to locate. Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. 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 are running an Ulster DNA project and can offer FTDNA testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

This jorney has been so much fun despite the frustration of dead ends. Thank you for your efforts. Quite the mystery. Is there any way to check records from around the time of his birth in 1821? Is it possible the entire family emigrated in 1841? How can I check emigration records without knowing a departure date or location? I’m still tracing my paternal side of Boyd and Sharpe of Belfast and am working on the extended  Borland side thanks to a distant cousin I found on this site. I have traced one side of my mother’s paternal side to early 1600’s (Langton’s of Folkton, England ) which may have earlier Irish connections but the Murray side has hit a wall. 

Maxwell John Murray, born June 26, 1846. Left Scotland as an unaccompanied minor with no other family and came to Canada as a child.He married Margaret Ann Hobson (she was born January 31,1868;died May 8,1941.she remarried to a Thomas Pratt at some point after 1919. They had no children together.)Maxwell dies June 19,1919.It is listed that he was from Nesbit). Once again thank you and this site. I’m so glad I found you.

Kimberly,

Research in Ireland in the early 1800s is notoriously difficult. There are very few records to use. The main ones are church records but as I mentioned previously the Church of Ireland and RC records for Enniskillen parish don’t exist. Only the Presbyterian church has any. Were the Skillen family Presbyterian? If so, you could search those but you would need to get a researcher to look them up in PRONI in Belfast. (Or go yourself).

There was a census in Ireland in 1821 and a part of the census for Fermanagh does still exist. (It’s on the main Irish census site). But it doesn’t cover Enniskillen. That part wasn’t saved. There are no Skillens in the fragment that has survived.

You ask how you can check for emigration records without knowing the port of departure. Nobody in Ireland compiled any passenger lists in 1841 so not knowing the port really doesn’t matter. Even if you did know, there are no records held there. There weren’t any passenger lists for Canada until the 1850s or later. Nobody needed them. Ireland to Canada was in effect a domestic journey and officials in both Ireland and Canada saw no need for them. Some passenger information does exist because shipping agents sometimes kept records for their own commercial purposes. A good example are JJ Cooke of Londonderry who had several sailings each month to Philadelphia, Quebec and St John (NB). Many emigrants from Fermanagh travelled to Derry and joined ships there. However their records only start in 1847. Too late for you.

If it is of any interest to you, I have attached a letter from the Government Emigration Agent in Quebec to his opposite number in Ireland, with some general comments about the numbers of emigrants from Fermanagh and adjacent counties in 1847. The original is in PRONI in Belfast.

Though there were direct sailings from Ireland to Canada, many Irish emigrants actually left from Liverpool. It had many more sailings, being in effect a clearing house for migrants from all over Europe. There was a lot of competition for passengers and Liverpool agents often threw in passage from Ireland to Liverpool as part of the ticket price.

Regarding Maxwell John Murray, I don’t know anywhere in Scotland called Nesbit. There is a Nisbet in Roxburghshire, in the borders. It’s only a hamlet though.

Statutory birth registration began in Scotland in 1855. Prior to that, as with Ireland, you need to rely on church records. Not all parish records have survived so there are gaps. The main records are on the Scotlandspeople site. I searched for a Maxwell John Murray born around 1846 (bear in mind that dates of birth are not always correct, and also that the church focused on the baptism date, so that could be some time after the birth) but I did not find one. There were 16 John Murray baptisms in 1846 but without knowing the parents names, I can’t tell you if any might be your ancestor.

The closest match I could find was an Agnes Maxwell Murray baptised 29.10.1848 at Dunscore Free Church of Scotland in Dumfries. Her parents were James Murray & Jean Thompson. She had siblings James, Joseph & William but I did not see a John.

If you can find Maxwell’s parents names from his Canadian marriage certificate that may help your search. I could have a look for them in the marriage records and the 1841 census. I had a look in the 1851 Scottish census but did not see Maxwell listed. Was he still in Scotland then?

I looked at the baptism records for Roxburgh around 1846. There were quite a lot of Murray families in the area. Some were Church of Scotland, some RC but the majority were Free Church of Scotland. (“Wee Frees” as they are sometimes called in Scotland). About 40 or so baptisms altogether in and around Hawick & Jedburgh between the 3 denominations in the period 1835 - 1850.

Hello.  My grandmother was Ethel Skillen and my father William Skillen.  Those dates are not the same, So I ma not sure if we are related.  Yes my family is Presbeterian from way back.  we have records from 1752 of my family being in Washington Pennsylvania.  (USA)  We were always told that we were of Irish desent and that Ennieskillen was the original name.