Missy

Birth registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864 so for a birth around 1828 you will need to reply on church records where they exist. Looking at the 1901 census for the county I see 92 people named Forster. The vast majority were Church of Ireland (ie Episcopalian) with a few Methodists. However since Methodism had only just been established in Ireland in the 1820s most Methodists still used the Church of Ireland for marriages. Some used their own chapels for baptisms eg Enniskillen’s baptism records start in 1823 but many still used the Church of Ireland too. So I’d say that the chances are your ancestors baptisms will be in Church of Ireland records with a small possibility of Methodist. Their parents marriage will almost certainly be Church of Ireland.

Some of the Church if Ireland records were lost in the 1922 fire in Dublin. (Ironically they had been sent to the Public Record Office for safekeeping). So quite a few parishes in Fermanagh have no records for the period you are interested in

Some of the surviving records are on rootsireland, but they don’t have them all. Copies of nearly all the surviving Church of Ireland and Methodist records for Fermanagh are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. However they are not on-line and a personal visit is required to view them.

If you have no other leads, you could go through the Forster entries in the 1901 census and search the parishes that they live in first.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

There are about 500 mentions of Forster in Fermanagh on this site:

http://search.atavus.org/page/search

The local newspaper is the Impartial Reporter, founded in 1825. It might have reported the trial but don’t expect more than a couple of lines. Back copies held in Enniskillen library. Again, a personal visit required to view them.

Thanks for the info/links & help Elwyn. I've had a look at PRONI & there are some M registers that survived the fire for Enniskillen. I'm only assuming she lived in Enniskillen because that's where she was tried & I have nothing else to go on. I also think she was probably Church of Ireland as my grandfather & his siblings (her daughter's chn) were all baptised Church of England in Tasmania. I was told by somebody that children were usually baptised in the religion of the mother, would that be correct ? 

Thanks

No I wouldn’t agree that the children were always baptised in the mother’s denomination. In mixed marriages this could often be an issue if both felt strongly about their respective denominations. Sometimes the boys were brought up in the father’s denomination and the girls in the mother’s. Sometimes one of the couple didn’t care so much and then all might be brought up under the other. And so on.

In this case though, I would take heart from the fact that nearly all the Forsters in the 1901 census of Fermanagh are Church of Ireland, and so I would think it pretty likely that that was Eliza’s denomination.  (Church of Ireland is the Church of England, in Ireland).

Enniskillen is the county town and so would hear court cases for the whole county, not just the town itself. There’s something like 30 parishes in the county, and about half have Church of Ireland records for the period you are interested in.

Hi Elwyn,

Thanks again for the help & the explanation re; baptisms/religious denomination. I'm finding the towns & parishes for each county a little confusing at the moment on the PRONI list. I have looked under Enniskillen & there are names like Clabby & Tempo etc which I don't really understand. I have also noticed Lisnaskea in Co Fermanagh ... so are you suggesting that I would need to find the names of all of the parishes in Co F & then search the C of I records for each one ? Are the old local newspapers available for viewing online ? Sorry for all the questions but I'm quite lost with trying to investigate the Irish records. Thanks, Sherryl

Sheryl,

Here’s a link to a map of all the parishes in Co Fermanagh:

http://www.ballynagarrick.net/ulsterancestors/Parishes%20of%20County%20Fermanagh.htm

There’s 22 parishes, but some of them have more than 1 church due to population changes, which is why you find 4 churches in the parish of Enniskillen. So about 30 churches. But only about half will have records for the period you are interested in.  About half were lost in the 1922 fire.

Yes, I am saying you would need to work your way through each parish.

The PRONI catalogue tells you what records they hold, but the records themselves are not on-line. You need to look them up. (They are mostly on microfilm). And there’s at least 1 parish where the records are still held by the church. Can’t remember which one but I did COI Fermanagh research some years ago and remember going through every set of records and finding at least 1 had never been copied. It took me about a day to check them all.

The main local paper is the Impartial Reporter. Founded 1825. There are back copies of it in the local studies section of Enniskillen Library but as far as I am aware they won’t do look-ups. You need to get someone to go and search them. Might also be copies in Belfast Central Library. They have copies of most NI papers. Again a personal visit is required.

There’s a list of researchers on the PRONI site:

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/research_and_records_held/can_someone_else_do_research_for_me/independent_commercial_researchers.htm

If you do find a mention of the court case, don’t expect too much. Usually just a line or two. “Eliza Forster, found guilty of stealing clothes, sentenced to 7 years transportation.” And the date. Sometimes a mention of her place of origin, or an accomplice or previous convictions but often not.

This is not easy research. (As you have probably already discovered).

Thanks for all the wonderful help Elwyn, but as you say, it is not easy research. And even more complicated because I don't have a good understanding of it as yet. I have all of Eliza's convict records from Tassie but I was hoping to find records from Enniskillen that may contain info of her parents names

I think I will either have to take your advice & hire a researcher or make a trip to Ireland myself. You have been very helpful so thanks again for your time. Kind regards.