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Hi I am from New Zealand and all my Irish ancestors arrived in NZ between 1850 and 1880 so I am looking for very early records. I have read with interest all the comments on records for this county and having had a great repsonse to my ealrier post for another county you never know what may pop up.

The only reference I can find on online records I believe is for my great-great-great-grandparents John and Ellen Mulhern of Magirr, Urney on the Griffiths Valuation. Two of their children, John aged about 19 and Mary aged about 17 years of age left Ireland for Australia and arrived in Sydney on the ship "James Moran" in Oct 1841. I am not sure of what happened.to John  but after living in Australia for approx 10-11 year Mary arrived in Aucklnad New Zealand and within a year had amrried my gr-gr-grgrandfather george Gordon. She was joined in NZ by her younger sister, Ellen, born about 1833, she also married and rasied a family in NZ. Despite the many years apart they remained in contact and were very close for the remainder of their lives here.

In 1903 Mary's death cetificate said she was from "Urney, Tyrone" and her father had been a "store" man Ellen's similarly said she was also from Urney and he father was a "store" keeper so can only assume that from around the 1820s to 1850s approx that their father John Mulhern had or ran some sort of store.

Will church records be the only option to gather further records for this family, there may have been other children that remained in Ireland. ANy advise would be appreciated.

Regards HeatherM

HeatherM

Tuesday 2nd Jul 2013, 09:32AM

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  • I would certainly focus on church records. The RC records for Urney & Annageliffe parish start in 1812 so you should have a decent chance of finding your family. There?s a copy of the parish records in PRONI, Belfast. Ref: MIC1D/75 & 76.

    The family in Griffiths is a clue but not every family was listed in Griffiths, and so it?s not a comprehensive survey of everyone. (For example there are 4 deaths of people named John Mulhern in Strabane in the period 1864 - 1883). You could order the adult deaths to see if any was a store-keeper, or similar.

    Looking at the John Mulhern in Griffiths (who was on plot 10 on the Clady Rd, Strabane), I can see that he left that property around 1861. See VAL/12/B/42/31/A.

    http://applications.proni.gov.uk/dcal_proni_val12b/ImageResult.aspx

    Ahoghill Antrim

    Tuesday 2nd Jul 2013, 10:24AM

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