John Raycroft/Raecroft1800

Hi

Thank you for your message.

Unfortunately 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. 

Outside of a professional county service there is no central searchable system for births, marriage and death records pertaining to an entire county readily available. And civil registration wasn't mandatory in Ireland until 1864. You will need to narrow your search to a particular area. Do you have any other information regarding their emmigration which may point you to a particular place in County Sligo? 

You can check for information about the frequency of the name in the mid-19th century and any other variant spellings of the name here: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ which may give you a place to start. 

Also if you know the religion of your ancestor and can pinpoint a location you can then try church records. 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

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.

Some sites which may be of assistance to you are: 

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/

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm

Kind regards,                    

Genealogy Support 

Thank you so much for your thorough reply.  John Raycroft was probably presbyterian although I can't find any proof other than his children called themselves such.  There is a possibility that John's father was a William Raycraft.  I found an entry in Griffiths Valuation of a William Raycraft, County Sligo, Killerry Parish.  John named his oldest boy William.  We guess that John was born about 1795 and was married about 1818.  He arrived in Canada in 1823 with 2 children under the age of 12.  Subsequent research on the first boy, William, puts his birth at various times from 1818 to 1823.  They didn't keep track of birthdays apparently.  Thanks again.

Sharon