Looking for my Woolsey ancestors in Portadown

Peter,

You don?t say what denomination your family were, though I?d hazard a guess they were Church of Ireland. The parish records for Drumcree start in 1788. Those for Seagoe start in 1672, so you may be able to piece quite a bit together from them, whichever parish the family lived in. They are not on-line. Copies are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast but you would need to pay a personal visit to go through them (or get someone else to do that fir you).

A search for other records at PRONI indicates there is a will for John Woolsey of Portadown, dated 21.6.1790 (that?s likely the date probate was granted). That?s under ref D1165/14, and looks to be worth viewing.

The Freeholders lists (ie those who had a vote) list William Woolsey in the townland of Mahon in 1816; John Woolsey in Seagoe townland and George in Toneyvalton in 1825; Benjamin Woolsey in Tullicalliday & John in Clounagh in 1832.

A general search on the surname Woolsey in PRONI?s e-catalogue reveals about 65 matches, not all of which relate to your family but some probably do. None of these documents is on-line. They will mostly be estate documents deposited there in paper form. The catalogue is on line: http://www.proni.gov.uk/

The family seem to have had a bit of land and so it might be worth checking the Registry of Deeds records for any leases, marriage settlements, wills etc. The master copies are in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin, a duplicate set is held on microfilm in PRONI, and LDS also have a copy so you can order them in to your local library. (It's over a 1000 films. They are quite complicated to search and some guidance may be needed to get the hang of them, to decide which you need to order).

It?s probably worth checking Blackwoods Pedigrees to see if anyone has charted this family in Ireland already. A copy is held in PRONI and another in the Linenhall library in Belfast.

If you do a name search on the PRONI site, you will find 21 matches on Woolsey. Most relate to wills, some of which are for people in the Portadown area. Most pre 1858 wills in Ireland were destroyed in the 1922 fire in the Four Courts in Dublin and all the remains are the index books that tell you when probate was granted, and occasionally a little additional information. You seem to be lucky with the 1790 will which does apparently exist. It?s probably a duplicate copy held elsewhere. There?s a mention of a Robert Woolsey, merchant, in Quebec, Canada in 1842. Don?t know if that fits with any of your information.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_ProniNames/SearchResults.as…

In general researching in Ireland in the 1700s is pretty difficult, but in your case since the parish records partially go back that far and the family appear to have been quite well off there may be enough records for you to get somewhere. Very little is on-line though and you or a researcher is going to have to plough through the paper and microfilm records in PRONI.

Elwyn

Hello Elwyn / Ahoghill Antrim,

Thank you very much for your response to my recent post searching for my Woolsey ancestors in Portadown.  This is enormously helpful!  Your discovery of the 1790 will of John Woolsey which contains a reference to "Robert Woolsey, merchant, in Quebec, Canada in 1842" is fantastic because he was indeed the brother of my great great great great grandfather John William Woolsey who emigrated to Quebec in Canada.  These two brothers both came to Canada together and they both setup businesses in Quebec City.  As you suggest, I will definitely request a copy of this 1790 will / probate document via PRONI.  This could be a major breakthrough in finding my past in Ireland!  Many thanks for your feedback!!!

Cheers,

Peter

Hello Elwyn,
My wife and I are now planning a trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland and I am very much looking forward to this journey into my ancestral past. In your last response to my post on the irelandxo.com web-site, you mentioned that a will for a "John Woolsey of Portadown dated 1790" may still exist and be available for viewing. As you pointed out, this might possibly really help me discover more about my Great (X5) Grandfather who lived in Portadown in the mid-1700's. You mentioned that I am quite lucky that this will apparently does still exist. Could you please help me with any suggestions about where I should best go in Ireland / Northern Ireland to see a copy of this will? Many thanks in advance for any feedback ... :- )) ... !!
Cheers,
Peter
=========
Peter Woolsey, Canada
=======================

The will is held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast under reference: D1165/14. They will send you a copy of it, if you e-mail them, for a fee. Or you can obtain a copy yourself when you visit. No fee. Just copying charges (30/40p a page).

Hello Peter

My name is David Dunne, and I am researching the Woodhouse/Wodehouse family in Portadown, Armagh. A year or so ago I came across a posting for Sarah Woolsey who married  a George Woodhouse circa 1780 in Armagh.

What I am about to say may at first seem a bit odd to you, but I think that it may merit at least a cursory assessment as to its feasibility.

I have been researching the origins of Portadown for a couple of years, mainly because part of my family comes from the area - but also because, in my searching, I found what I thought wasa really interesting story. My quest to complete the story is almost there, but with just a couple of details to fill in. It is possible that your Sarah Woolsey is part of the story, because of her marriage to George Woodhouse. George Woodhouse played an important part in the development of Portadown, and in particular in his dealings with a Michael Obins of Obins Castle, Armagh. This Michael Obins was a direct descendant of the Michael Obbyne/Obbynes who was THE founder of the town of Portadown.

One of the children in the (George) Woodhouse family that Sarah Woolsey was mother to was Charles Obin Woodhouse. There is no such first name as Obin, but family or surnames were often used by married women as a way of keeping their family name going. It cannot be simply coincidence that George Woodhouse had a brother named Curran Obin Woodhouse, who was also a very prominent and important person of both Portadown and Armagh - as was his first son John Obin Woodhouse.

I have looked as far as I can at the moment at the connections to 'Obin' from the Woodhouse side, which is the logicle way to go, but no joy so far  -  which is why I am getting in touch with you. I have seen your postings regarding the Woolsey Caudle Cup, which I understand has inscriptions on it including the family 'O'Brian'.  In my searches for the Obins family, I have found many different ways of spelling their surname over four centuries. In Ireland various records have them as Obin/Obins/Obbins/Obbyne/Obyne/O'Byrne/O'Brian. The family came to Ulster at the time of the Plantation in the reign of James 1st of England, but 'originated' from Rutland/Lincolnshire/Leicestershire/Derbyshire, England.

As I said at the start of this message, my suggestion that your family may just be connected to the Obin famliy may seem rather 'far fetched'  - but I hope that you don't mind too much me putting this thought to you?

I don't use this particular web site very much, so the easiest way to get back to me would be via email   ennuds@btinternet.com

Regards

David Dunne        

Hi my name is Colin Campbell and have been carrying out family research for a number of years on my wife Sarah's family tree.

For a number of years I have been stuck on her Great, Great Grandfather William John Wolsey born about 1824.

What we have known from a number of primary documents in Scotlands People.

From his marriage OPR in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1854 where William John Wolsey married Rebecca Gillies, it states that he is a private in the 74th Highland Regiment currently stationed in Aberdeen. It also states that William is from Portadown, Armagh, Ireland.

On the Statutory birth certificate for William and Rebecca's first child Richard Wolsey born in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland it repeats the same information as above.

Iy also states that William John Wolsey is 30 years old at the time of his marriage to Rebecca so I put his birth year down to around 1824

I can also say that prior to William John Wolsey being stationed in Aberdeen he was involved with his regiment in the Kaffir wars in South Africa between 1852 and 1854.

For years this has been all the information that we had until recently one of William John Wolsey paternal grandsons took the Y Chromosome test at Y111 level with FTDNA.

We received the results yesterday and the Haplogroup assigned to the tester is R-M269, probably the same as 75% of Ireland.

The real interest came from the matches the testers at Y111 has, yes two Woolsey and one Woodhouse in the 6 closest matches. I was surprised with the name Woodhouse in the Sarah Woolsey reference above as we know the Y chromosome is not carried in the female line.These matches have a probably of a common ancestor between 260 and 400 years so well with in the timeframe of this thread.

The only disappointment is that the two Wolsey matches state that their earliest Woolsey ancestor comes from Norfolk in England.

Be very interested in your thoughts and guidance related to any reference to William John Wolsey or his Family.

Regards

.

The name Wolsey/Woolsey/Woolsely is fairly common around Portadown.   There’s about 40 in Co. Armagh in the 1901 census. Mostly Church of Ireland.

There are 2 parishes in Portadown: Drumcree & Seagoe. Both have good records. Drumcree COI has records from 1788, St Mark’s COI from 1826 and Seagoe COI 1672. Copies of all 3 sets of records are held in PRONI in Belfast.

So if you are searching for William John Wolsey’s baptism and parents, the records are probably in PRONI. Personal visit required to view them.

MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland” says of Wolsey/Woolseley “These English surnames though often confused are of two distinct derivations, Woolsely being a Staffordshire toponomyic and Wolsey from O.E. wulfsige (wolfvictory) and also a nickname. It was established in Ulster in the early seventeenth century and later in some other parts of Ireland. Wolsey is now fairly numerous in Ulster but rare elsewhere.”

So your family almost certainly originated in England in the early 1600s and would have come to Ireland as part of the Plantation.

If William John was in the 74^th Highland Regiment, his military record may still exist. If it does it will be in the National Archives in Kew.  The full record will not be on-line and again a personal visit is required to search and access those records. (Or you could get a London based researcher to do it for you).

I have another Woolsey/Woodhouse connection with Seagoe Parish. My g-g-g-grandfather was Thomas Woolsey and he married Anne Woodhouse about 1801. Thomas was said to be a captain in the Royal Artillery, promoted to major around 1810 but I can find no military record for him. They had 7 children that I know of, Acheson b. c1803, Samuel b. c1805, Maria Anne b. c1806, George b. c1809, Benjamin b. c1811, Elizabeth b. c 1813, and Elizabeth b. c 1815. I have found baptism records for Acheson, George, Benjamin, and both Elizabeths (the first one must have died before 1815), all in Seagoe Parish.

Thomas died in 1819 and is buried in the Clifton Street Cemetery in Belfast. I suspect his wife, Anne, died in in 1817 as I found the following in the Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 23 April 1817:

DIED. Near Belfast, on the 15th inst. Mrs. Woolsey, aged 32 years, after a tedious and painful illness. Buried Seagoe 19 April.

Their son, Samuel, was my g-g-grandfather. He married Letitia Birch in Dublin in 1838 then changed his name to Thomas Woodhouse and migrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1858, with their 4 children. The name change is clear from documents in the Registry of Deeds, Dublin.

Their daughter, Elizabeth, married John Whitty in Dublin in 1833 and they also migrated to Melbourne, in 1852.

Their other daughter, Maria Anne, married John Watson Atkinson in Mullavilly, Co. Armagh, in 1827, and died in Dublin in 1880. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married William Atkinson in Dublin, 1874.

Nothing is known about the other children but Acheson and George seem to have died before 1838.

The Woolsey, Woodhouse, and Atkinson families all have strong connections to the Portadown area. I suspect Samuel Woolsey, who died in 1817 and is buried in the same grave as Thomas, was his father. The inscription on the headstone reads:

Erected by
John M Atkinson
to the memory of his Uncle
John Mathers Esq'r departed this life
the 18th April 1803 Aged 78 years
Samuel Woolsey Esq'r the 9th December 1817
Aged 67 years
Thomas Woolsey Esq'r 6th March 1819
Aged 45 years
Grave purchased by John Mathers in May 1803

Any help regarding the parentage of Thomas and Anne would be much appreciated.

Russell Cooper

Melbourne

I have progressed a little with my research of William John Wolsey born about 1824 in Portadown , Armagh, Northern Ireland.

My research has been through the FTDNA Y chromosome with the testing of William John Wolsey great grandson on the Wolsey paternal line.

At this stage the descendant has only tested at the Y111 marker level that is very much based STR mutations from Adam.

Based on the Y test the tester has been assigned a Haplogroup of R-M269. This particular Haplogroup had its origins just north of the Black Sea approximately 4500 BCE. 

The Y tester also has many, many more modern day matches based on recent STR mutations.

These recent (within the last 500 years) mutations include 5 other testers with the names Woolsey / Woolesley and includes even a recent tester with the name Woodhouse.

Reading the post above there appears to be a number of references to the name Woodhouse however as the Y chromosome is handed down from father to son then the name Woodhouse sits outside of the rules so I suspect a Woodhouse girl had a son fathered by Wools* father and kept the Woodhouse name. There could also be other scenarios like adoption of a sibling child.

It is the intention in the very near future to upgrade the tester Y111 marker test to BigY 700 that shall provide a modern day haplogroup and far better time estimates to the close STR matches including all the fellow Wools* and Woodhouse testers.

So what have I been able to research using the Tullow Historical Society regards the Woolesley, well it is a very old English name going back to 1066 and the battle of Hastings. A number of the Y chromosome matches are citing Staffordshire, England as where their family is from.

When we read the Tullow History we find that Richard Woolseley from Staffordshire was part the plantation regime in the 16/17 century that took up residence in Ireland.

It is my belief that part of of this Woolesley family migrated north to the Portadown area where our tester Richard Wolsey great grandfather was born.

Regards Colin D Campbell (clancampbell1@mac,com)

Colin,

A couple of years back I attended a lecture given by an archaeologist in Co Antrim discussing the first settlers in Ireland. The oldest known human settlement anywhere in Ireland is in Mountandel, on the river Bann just outside Coleraine, in modern Co Derry.  Artifacts found there date to Stone Age hunters who lived there periodically from around 7600 – 7900 years ago. The Bann was full of salmon then and they probably came to fish. They probably came over from Scotland, which is only a few miles away.

The archaeologist said that DNA evidence from the site and from elsewhere in Ireland points to 3 broad waves of migration.  First settlers from somewhere in middle Europe arrived in Britain around 13,000 years ago, and were followed by a wave from what is now Ukraine and another from modern Turkey (so that fits with your Black Sea markers). Ireland apparently remained uninhabited for the following 5000 years till the Stone Age folk paddled up the River Bann to Mountsandel.

So in the earliest period, pretty well everyone in Ireland is descended from someone who came from England or Scotland but whose own ancestors came from somewhere in Europe.

However when it comes to the likes of the Wolsey family, the English surname, the geographic location ie Ulster and the family’s apparent religious denomination all point heavily to their having arrived in Ireland in the 1600s, probably as part of the Plantation. Though there was always a trickle of migrants to Ireland from Britain the really huge arrivals took place from 1610 onwards when perhaps 400,000 arrived from Scotland, England & Wales. So your analysis that your immediate ancestors came from Staffordshire around that time seems pretty reasonable.