Overend Family of Armagh

Dear Greg

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Rootsireland.ie has a baptism for a William Overend born 12th July 1841. His father is listed as Thomas and his mother as Mary. He was baptised in the Methodist Church at Tandragee. Other children of Thomas and Mary (siblings of William) include John born 10th Oct 1838 who must have died as a 2nd child named John was born on 11th Sept 1843, Thomas born 6th June 1846, Samuel born 1st Nov 1848 and Letticia Anne born 16th Feb 1852. 

Thomas was recorded as a Carpenter. 

Hope this clears things up for you!

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

Thank you so much Clare,

I am now convinced that the William born to Thomas and Mary Overend in Tandgaree is indeed my Great Grandfather.

If there is any further information on this family, such as Thomas & Mary's marriage or in regard to Thomas & Mary themselves it would be wonderfull. I know that the Methodist Church in Tandragee is still there and active. Do you believe that they would have any Parish Records that would assist me.  Would it be possible to communicate directly with the Church ?.

Sorry to be a nuisance but this is a real breakthrough for me. All previous family research reached the conclusion that our William was the son of a John Overend and Catherine Burns (sometimes with a K) and that two brothers William and John who emigrated to Australia were both of these parents.  John was definately the son of John & Catherine, and they also had a son William....but I now know that it is not our William.  The Death Certificates of the so called brothers differ in that John's shows parents as John & Catherine, but William's shows father as Thomas with mother's name unknown.

Thank you again for your help to resolve this family mystery.

Kind regards,

Greg Keir

Hi Greg

A pleasure to help you out. I checked rootsirland.ie and there doesn't seem to be a marriage record for Thomas and Mary. It could be that the couple were married in a parish and at a time before records began. You could contact the church if you wanted a copy of the original baptisms of the children though:

http://www.irishmethodist.org/church/tandragee

I checked Slater's Directory for 1846 to see if Thomas is listed as he was a Carpenter but no sign of him. You can have a look here:

http://www.failteromhat.com/slater/0130.pdf

I also checked out Griffith's Valuation for Overend listings and there are a few recorded. I include the link below, you may see options there that I don't:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNam…

One additional thing to think about is the progression of the family name/others on any plot that might include above, potentially related ancestors on the Griffith's link I provide. If you look at these Griffith's entries in conjunction with the Valuation Books (a follow-on of Griffith's) then you may be able to chart which family stayed on the land or took it over up to the 1920s. For Northern Ireland these Valuation Records are available online here:

http://apps.proni.gov.uk/Val12B/Search.aspx

It takes a bit of time to get used to using the PRONI search and read the entries as they are digitised copies of the original but worth it as they are very interesting. You can find out more about them here:

http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Griffiths-Valuation.html

Let me know how you get on - the above may or may not yield results

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support