Thomas N McNeill

Hi Sherryl,

Thank you very much for your message.

I have forwarded it on to one of our volunteers. Hopefully they may be able to assist or advise you.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support

Sherryl,

Statutory recording of births only started in Ireland in 1864. Prior to that you are reliant on church records, where they survive. You don?t say what denomination Thomas and Jane were, and this is essential to help identify the correct records.

Looking at the 1901 census for Co Antrim, which lists peoples denominations, there were about 1200 people named McNeill. About 450 were RC, 450 Presbyterian and 120 Church of Ireland. So that?s pretty open.  Farrell is less common but the majority were RC, so Jane seems most likely to have been of that faith.

I?ll assume for the moment that both Thomas and Jane were both RC and that their daughter Elizabeth was also RC. That being so, you say Thomas was born in Antrim town c 1798. At that time Antrim town was in the RC parish of Drummaul. Unfortunately the RC baptism and marriage records there only start in 1825, so it doesn?t appear that you will be able to locate either Thomas?s baptism or any marriage c 1818, assuming that Jane also came from that parish. (Tradition was to marry in the bride?s church, if they came from different parishes, though obviously that did not always happen).

I note that Elizabeth was born in Ballymena c 1819. Ballymena (about 10 miles north of Antrim town) is in the parish of Kirkinriola. Their marriage records only start in 1840 and baptisms in 1848, so again you won?t be able to trace this baptism if Elizabeth was RC, or any marriage if Jane came from there.

Outside of big cities like Dublin and Belfast, few RC parishes have any baptism or marriage records before the 1820s, so this lack of records is a common problem. It is often a bar to progressing Irish research back beyond the early 1800s.

If the family were not RC, let me know their correct denomination(s) and I?ll let you know whether any relevant records exist in Drummaul or Kirkinriola.

If you know what Thomas?s occupation was, that may help identify any other potential records.

As far as dates of migration are concerned, no records were routinely kept in Ireland of people leaving. There are some isolated records based on records of shiops agents records of tickets sold, but most agents threw their old records out. The records that do exist tend to be on the US side based on passenger manifest information required by US immigration. Though many people did sail directly to the US, many others sailed via Canada and then crossed the lad border into the US (because it was much cheaper), and there were no passenger lists kept on Canadian routes until the 1850s.

Castle Gardens arrival records start in 1820. No trace of the family there 1820 ? 1840. Familysearch also has some NY arrivals 1820 ? 1846 (possibly the same Castle Gardens set, I am not sure) but they are not listed there.

Elwyn