Sample Family

Hi,

Thank you for your message.

It may be difficult to find information on the family without a specific parish of origin as most Irish records sources are based on parish divisions.

You mention some townlands in your message. Both Knockroe and Shanonny are townlands in the parish of Ardstraw. I could not find any reference to the other place names you mentioned.

You may be able to find a place of birth of the other children if you can find their birth records in civil records. These records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records here:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

For more information on these records check: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-civil-registration.html

Civil registration only began in 1864 however, so you will not be able to find George and Eliza?s birth records there. You will need to search in Church records. These records are based on parishes, so we can take Ardstraw parish as a starting point.

Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For parish, follow these links:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Tyrone&parish=Ardstraw-East&churchid=345

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Tyrone&parish=Ardstraw-West&churchid=344

For information on Church of Ireland records check: http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. 

www.familysearch.org also have some church records available online

You could try searching for any family that may have remained in the area in the 1901/1911 census records. These can sometimes have lots of useful information. You can search these here:

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

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

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

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/tyrone/index.html

I hope that this is helpful. Remember to post any new information that you find. 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.

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support