McAneney

Rose,

As far as deaths are concerned, death registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864 so there are no death certificates prior to that year.  The RC church generally didn’t keep burial records then – and none were recorded in Loughgall & Tartaraghan - so, unless your family were sufficiently well known to be in the newspapers or wealthy enough to afford a gravestone, then generally no record exists of deaths or burials prior to 1864.

I searched for children to Daniel & Catherine on Ancestry but did not find any born in Ireland.

Loughgall’s baptisms start in 1835 and marriages in 1833, so getting back earlier than that can be challenging.

There are trees on Ancestry as you may know. They give Daniel’s parents as Daniel 1811 – 1895 and Ann McGeery 1810 – 1895. Both died in Auckland, NZ. A son Patrick was reportedly born in Breagh, Armagh. Breagh is a townland of 355 acres, in the parish of Tartaraghan. No McAnaney households listed there by the time of Griffiths Valuation c 1860.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about the family. 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).