Help me find my Owens family

Hi

? The reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas ? is that they simply may not exist. Some registers for urban areas pre-dating 1800 may exist ? though often these can be fragmented- as there was an increased need in cities or larger towns to document the population. Please also note that the Church of Ireland was the official church of the country and therefore the bulk of information that does survive for earlier periods is often from these registers.

ROMAN CATHOLIC: Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is - http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ?browse? an overview of available records per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possible assistance.

 CHURCH OF IRELAND: Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870-are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyed in the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.  The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf

Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left, who they may have travelled with?..etc..Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g. Liverpool, New York, etc.), this could be a good place to find more information. 

Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at ). www.failteromhat.com

You may also try:

British parliamentary papers on Ireland can be found at: http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/9824/eppi_pages/215093

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

Remember to post as much information as you can with regard to the people you are researching. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,                    

Genealogy Support 

Hello Jeanne,

I can be of some assistance in your quest. Firstly, the parish of Kilglass or Legan has Catholic records that begin only in 1855. The Church of Ireland registers, which dated from 1813, were destroyed in the explosion at the Public Record Office in 1922, which is a great tragedy. 

However, we have some records relating to property, and one of those, the Tithe Applotment Book for Kilglass, dating from 1824 gives very important information for you. The only Owens in the parish was John, who lived in the townland of Breaney. Tithe was a a tax paid by all landholders to the Church of Ireland (Anglican). It is safe to assume that he is related to you. There was no Owens household in Breaney in 1854, when Griffith's Valuation was compiled, though there were a couple in the surrounding area.

Kind regards,

Martin Morris

Is there any way to know how old the John Owens was? Were landholders at least 21 or some other age of majority? Do you know what was the typical age for a person to own property in this time frame?  thanks for your help. Have been at this for many many years. so unfortunate to have lost the records. Since I think John was the eldest son of Edward it could be that this John of 1824 was Edward's father but then he would have been circa45- 50 years old