James & Margaret Gould Family

The 1901 census seems to show your family in Crockindullagh townland, parish of Errigal. I assume this is the right family? They were Presbyterian, and agricultural labourers. The difficulty with ag labs is that they often moved about a bit which can make them difficult to trace. However in this case they may not necessarily have done so. I see that the family were at the same townland in 1901 & 1911. The Griffiths revaluation records tell me that the family lived in a cottage (plot 2b) on James Glass?s farm in Crockindullagh. That farm would be easy enough to locate today, should you ever wish to do so. The cottage appears to have been first rented by a Gould in 1885. That was John Gould. In the same year the tenant changed to James (who then stayed there till at least 1911, as we know).

Griffiths also has a William Gowd on plot 1b (a possible alternative of Gould) on the adjacent farm plot 1. He was there in 1859 but left in 1872 when his cottage was described as ?down? ie it had collpased or been demolished.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/val12b.htm

James Gould was born c 1856 which is before the start of statutory birth registration. You won?t find a birth certificate for him, but you might find his baptism. To do that you would need to search the local Presbyterian church records (which are not on-line). You would need to know where he was baptised. Given that he was in the Crockindullagh area in 1885 he may well originate from around there. What townland was on his marriage certificate? That may be another clue.

If you are a Presbyterian in Ireland the choice of which church you attend is a matter of personal preference rather than dictated by parish boundaries etc. Assuming he was born around Crockindullagh, there are 3 Presbyterian churches in the general vicinity and they have records as follows:

P. 1st Garvagh Baptisms, 1795-1816, 1822-49 and 1859-1945; marriages, 1795-1802, 1807-14 and 1822-89; census of congregation, 1796 and 1840.

P. 2nd or Main Street Garvagh Baptisms, 1830-1921; marriages, 1830-1934; burials, 1853-96; session and committee minutes, 1827-76; communicants? roll, 1832-6, 1854-5 and 1887-1918

P. 3rd Garvagh Baptisms, 1872-1907; marriages, 1864-96.

I?d guess that the 3^rd Presbyterian church was probably only opened around the 1860s, following the big religious revival in 1858, but the other two have clearly been there much longer. There is an unfortunate gap in the 1sts baptism records, just around the time of James? birth. However if it was the family church you might still spot his parents and siblings.

Copies of these records are held in PRONI (the public record office), Belfast. As I say they are not on-line and a personal visit is normally required to search them. (PRONI may do a simple look up for you, but their fees are quite steep. Check with them first).

Regarding the family?s origins in Scotland. The fact that they were Presbyterian, had a Scottish name and lived in Co Londonderry, tells you it?s 95% certain they are descendants of people who came from Scotland at the time of the Plantation of Ulster. According to one account, during the course of the 17^th century, some 100,000 Scots settled in Ireland (representing 10% of the entire population of Scotland at that time). They brought Presbyterianism with them to Ireland, which is why it is such a significant indicator as to a persons family origins. Unfortunately, save for a few major landowners, called undertakers, there are no records of who these settlers were or exactly where they came from, though often they were tenants of the Scottish Undertaker who first took the land. A lot came from counties like Ayrshire, Kirkcudbright, East Lothian & Fife. See:

http://www.ulsternationalist.freeservers.com/custom2.html

But in summary your ancestors probably came from Scotland in the mid to late 1600s. As you?ll probably realise from the church records copied above, they don?t go back that far, and so normally it?s not possible to trace back to Scotland.

Thank you for all your trouble in finding out the information on my father's family. I have had another look at my grandfather' marriage certificate and marriage took place at the 3rd Presbyterian Church Garvagh in the parish of Errigal County of Londonderry. This is where I found my great grandfather's name was James and his profession was a servant and my grandfather could not read or write and his profession was a servant as well.