Seeking marriage, death, & family info on Joseph McCormick b 1712 in Scotland, d Country Antrim c 1750-65 perhaps in or near Giant's Causeway

The Giant?s Causeway is in Aird townland which is in the parish of Billy.

You don?t say what denomination your ancestors were, but if they came from Scotland I?ll assume Presbyterian.  Bushmills Presbyterian church only has records from 1820, so well after your ancestors left Ireland. And that is a common problem. Very few church records exist for the 1700s anywhere in Ireland, and so this makes tracing ancestors from that period very difficult indeed. Often impossible. There are none for Billy for the 1700s for any denomination.

If Henry served in the British Army as a doctor, then there may be some records of his service. I would expect they, if they still exist, they would be held at the National Archives in Kew (London).

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Thank you so much for your response and the identification of the town and parish where Giant's Causeway is located.  That is very helpful to me as I look at potential information sources. And thanks for the specifics on the availability of records there.

 I think you are probably correct that my McCormicks were Presbyterian.  Even when living in areas in the U.S. where there quite likely were Anglican and/or Episcopal churches, my McCormick line belonged to other protestant churches (there weren't that many Presbyterian congregations in PA and NY  when they first moved to America).

Are there many Presbyterian Churches in the Parish of Billy that date back to the 1700's?  I would hope that Joseph was given a Christian burial in one of the church cemeteries. My sister and I are thinking of visiting Northern Ireland and would want to pay our respects where he may have been laid to rest, even if his grave is no longer identifiable/marked/recorded.

Thank you for the suggestion to check the British Army records and the link.

I greatly appreciate your help! 

The choice of church for Presbyterians in Ireland is based on personal preference rather than the parish system and isn?t always the nearest one to where you live. Nor are you necessarily buried in the churchyard of the church you attend either. Some people had family plots that they used even if they were no longer attending a particular church, and some churches don?t have graveyards at all. There are at least 3 Presbyterian churches in the area ; Bushmills (which dates to 1646), Moss-side and Toberdoney. In addition there?s the Church of Ireland in Bushmills. (Presbyterians were often buried in COI graveyards). So you could have a look at any of those for graves. The majority of the population couldn?t afford a gravestone so most people were buried without one.

This information is most helpful!  It is this kind of background on the typical practices of the time and place that is virtually impossible to glean from the genealogy websites.  While it is disappointing that one can't just go to the churches of a specific denomination in an area and cover all the possibilities re a burial place, it is good to know what the other alternatives were at the time. 

I looked at the website link you provided for the British Army records and you need the regiment to search in those records for the 1700's.  According to the information I have, Joseph McCormick's son, Henry, was a surgeon in the British Army and was sent to America during the American Revolutionary War.   Online, I found a list of the British Army regiments that saw duty in that war (I am often amazed at what information has been collected and made available on the web) and will try checking them one-by-one when I have some time to do this systematically.

In looking at some other messages on this Ireland Reachin Out website, I see that you kindly responded to a note posted 4 Jan 2014 looking for "birth and marriage documents." 

It is so nice of you to take the time to help us try to find our Irish roots.  We appreciate it!

Hi!

This is about 9 years late, but Euphias is my 6th generation great-grandmother. I’ve found lots of information on the family and where they ended up in America if you are still interested! :)