Robert F Ballard

Hello Adesso, I also can find no record of the marriage or births to those parents. There are Bollards baptised in St Mary's Parish Church of Ireland, Drogheda. This parish is in Drogheda but in the diocese of Meath but some of the parish is in Meath in a geographical sense. the C of I is Anglican.

St Marys Catholic parish has no baptismal records prior to 1834, this is the year the present RC church was opened so there may be a lack there. Marriages here are not available pre civil records for all in 1864, 1845 for Prostestant marriages.

There are some Ballards born in St Peters parish north of the river Boyne in the county of Louth and diocese of Armagh.

There are a few Bollards (I am typing name as seen) in the reocrods of St Peters C of I church, you can see them here 

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library/online-parish-record…;

There are no names as you gave but Bollards from 1813 I think on the baptisms.

I located two William marriages but wrong wife, one in Swords, Co. Dublin but he is in the Kings County Militia, this is now Offaly and the other in Queens County now Laois, both counties in the midlands. Marriages in 1798 and 1799, spouses names Graham and Merser.

There is a site here about Louth but little about Ballard, one poor chap sentenced to be hanged in 1793. 

https://jbhall.clahs.ie/ 

Most church records for Dublin can be found here for free but sign in, click on church records and place Dublin, very few other church records are here. https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ 

Feel free to ask again if you see anything that requires clarification. Drogheda was a major port at that time with a regular service to Liverpool which was a big port for migration to the USA and elsewhere. Of course there were also direct sailings to the USA from other Irish ports.

Regards

Pat

Thanks Pat

The mothers maiden name is McBride. Is this likely to be catholic? I see from the surname maps of Ireland that Ballard and McBride like most surnames there are found in catholic and Protestant records. However I think there is more likelihood of them being catholic looking at those maps although Dublin was 20% Protestant at the time.

Pat… I forgot to say… there were other children who may have been born in Drogheda

Letitia Ballard 1834/5

catherine 1831

william born 1816

richard 1825

mary 1821

all ballards

PS

McBride is an Irish name

Ballard can also be an Irish Gaelic name .. meaning high settlement 

Hi Adesso, I made a mistake on the St Marys baptism which do not commence until 1835 and there is a baptism there is 1839 but not your people. Thomas father James mother Clark. There are no baptisms on Roots Ireland for any of those children, the only children born to a father William are in Wicklow, where the notes states he is Protestant and the children are baptised RC assuming the mother RC but not McBride, also some in nearby Carlow.

I looked at the books MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland, Ballard refers you to Bollard and says it is of Dutch origin coming to Ireland in the early 17th century. They became prominent in the commercial life of Dublin. Ballard it says came to Ireland in the in medival times and is a distinctly Norman name, the Norman Invasion (actually invited in to fight by one of the Munster kings, McMurrough I think) this took place in 1170, and they became more Irish than the Irish themselves and families from then are prominent in Irish life to this day. It says Ballard it says is a middle English name meaning Bald Eagle, so you pays your money and take your chances but when does a name become Irish as DNA changes completely I think in about 5 or 6 generations.

MacBride is an old Irish name (devotee of St Brigit) is mainly from Donegal and was a prominent religious family. In east Ulster now Northern Ireland it may have Scottish origins, again MacLysaghts.

I will ask some local historians if they are aware of an Ballard graves in Meath, the main RC cemetery here only opened in 1902 and I have the transcriptions but ones in St Mary's parish are dotted around the east Meath area.

There is a William Bollard in Griffiths Valuation in Yellowbatter, Drogheda, St Peters Parish. Lives in Wallace's Row. Only head of house recorded, this is 1854 or so. See https://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSear…;

Too late for your William I think. He is a tenant of a Gernon. 

Pat

Thanks again Pat for your time!

I did see there are places in the republic called Ballard…from the Gaelic word  ‘Baile Ard’ or high settlement,

who knows

Even If it was Norman they would have been Irish by then like you say as the Normans left little or no DNA imprint.

thanks once again!!