I am looking for my Oliver ancestors. My gggg grandfather John Oliver Sr and his son John Jr came from Ireland to Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada in 1833 and 1834 according to the Canadian census of 1851 although I found a passage record for a John Oliver Jr (age 19) and Andrew Oliver (17) on the Edward Reid from County Tyrone in 1833. At this point not sure if it is the same John but right now it is all I have. There was also a William Oliver living next door who came in 1829 according to the same census. Any suggestions you can give me on how I might find more information most appreciated! It seems that the official records in Ireland don't start until after those dates. John Oliver Sr was born in approximately 1765 according to his age on the 1851 census and I have also been able to find a marriage record for his son to a Sarah Ann Watt (may be Wall as writing somewhat unclear). She came in 1847 according to the Census but no clue as to from what part of Ireland..
barkerm
Thursday 27th Jun 2013, 10:48AMMessage Board Replies
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It won?t be easy locating this family because as you say the dates pre-date statutory birth and marriage registration in Ireland. You will need to rely on church records, where they survive. You don?t say what denomination the family were. If you know that it will help focus your search. Looking at the 1901 census for Tyrone there were 86 people named Oliver. They seem evenly split between Church of Ireland and Presbyterian.
Chances are that the Oliver family left some family behind in Ireland. Griffiths Valuation is a tool used in Irish research in the absence of 19th century censuses. For Co Tyrone in 1860, there were about 25 people named Oliver listed, in 7 parishes. If you have no other leads, you could search the church records for those townlands and parishes to see if any have the baptisms of John and Andrew c 1814 ? 1816. (I think you?ll struggle to find anything on the father if he was born c 1765. Very few churches have records that go back that far).
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch
Copies of most of the surviving church records are held in PRONI, Belfast. Most are not on-line, and so a personal visit is required to look them up. You can see what exists on this site:
http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/research_and_records_held/catalogues_guid…
Ahoghill Antrim
Thursday 27th Jun 2013, 12:25PM -
Thank you very much for your response. I will check this out!!
barkerm
Thursday 11th Jul 2013, 03:13PM -
Forgot to add that the information that I have is that they were Presbyterian.
barkerm
Thursday 11th Jul 2013, 03:14PM