James McGuire or Maguire family

Hi Stephanie

you are doing great in searching your roots and Carlingford is the right place, I am the volunteer for Drogheda but my wife is from Carlingford and the names you mention are there, we normally spell the name Quinn without the "e" and either spelling of Maguire.

Carlingford is a small beautiful village at the foot of a small mountain Sliabh Foy which is a 65 million year old extinct volcano. It is on the shores of Carlingford Lough and looks out on Northern Ireland and is a popular tourist area. There is a site here http://www.carlingfordpeople.ie/ with a good gallery of photos. The village is on the Cooley penisula about 12 miles from the nearest large town Dundalk and also Newry in Northern Ireland. The Quinn name is found around the penisula and the owners of a hotel the Ballymacscanlon are Quinns, is is nearer Dundalk. Maguires are in Carlingford.

A point of interest if you do not vote republican is that Joe Biden has ancestors on his maternal side from the Carlingford area.

Also if you search Carlingford on this site you will see recently someone else was researching the Quinn name.

There is also a site for County Louth here which is a good read. http://www.jbhall.freeservers.com/

Irish records are not great before 1800 and even then you rely on church records until 1864 when civil records start, but I have listed sites below which may assist. Some are subscription.

The Irish Census of 1901 and 1911 are available online at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/ and the default census is 1911.

Griffiths Valuation of property owners and tenants is available at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/ and is only the head of household and was done between the 1847 and 1864 the year of publication is given on the information and it includes small area map.

The tithe applotments were carried out between 1823 and 1837 and are only of landholders of 1 acre and more who were registered to pay a tax to the Church of Ireland and the divisions are of their parishes, urban dwellers are not included. See http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

The Flax Growers List of 1796 is available at http://www.failteromhat.com/ This is just a list of farmers who agreed to grow flax at the time. This site also contains the Hearth Money Roll lists of the 1660s for some counties (not all counties available). This site also contains other information mainly for the Cork area.

For County Louth see http://www.jbhall.freeservers.com/ and for the Termonfeckin area see http://www.termonfeckinhistory.ie/

Two subscription sites are http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/ and https://www.rootsireland.ie/

Irish civil records only commenced in 1864 but Protestant marriages commenced in 1845.

Church records go back to the early 1800s for Catholics and a few decades earlier for the Church of Ireland (Protestant).

The Family Search website is free and has detailed information but I find it can be difficult to use but here it is https://familysearch.org/

I hope this is of some help and do not hesitate if you wish to seek further assistance.

Regards

Pat