I would appreciate if anyone can help me. I have been searching for my great grandparents, Samuel Norris born circa 1820 and Elizabeth Pennington.
I have a copy of a baptism of their children for St Annes 1842-1852 MIC/1/178/A/24, this reads as Page 191 Bap 09/09/1849 name of child Samuel father Samuel and mother Elizabeth Pennington.
Father Samuel was a seaman. I cannot find any birth for either parent or a marriage.
The family moved to Liverpool before 1861 as I have picked them up on the census for Liverpool. They had two children Samuel was the second and a Hugh.
I note on this document for St Annes there are other Norris, two of which the father is Samuel but the mother is a Rachel Graham, these baptisms preceded mine, could it be the same father who while he was at sea, rachel and the two children perished and Samuel then married Elizabeth. There are so many questions that I need answers for.
On the same page there is also a marriage of a Hugh Norris and Arabella Pennington and one of the witnesses was a Jane Norris.
Down my ancestral line the names Jane, Hugh,Samuel, Harry are constant.
Please help as i had employed a researcher to carry out some work for me and unfortunately she looked into the wrong areas.
I look forward to any assistance that you cxan give to me
Christine Shelmerdine nee Norris
Monday 7th Jul 2014, 10:55AM
Message Board Replies
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Christine,
Statutory registration of non RC marriages started in April 1845. So if you cannot find a marriage for Samuel & Elizabeth in the statutory records, it would suggest they probably married before April 1845. Not all pre 1845 church records have survived, and not all are on-line. (Some early Church of Ireland records were lost in the 1922 fire in Dublin). There is a Samuel Norris who married Eliza Jane Caughey in Belfast in 1848. I assume you are aware of that marriage and have discounted it.
Tradition was to marry in the bride?s church, and so that may not necessarily be the same church as children were later baptised in. St Anne?s is the biggest church in Belfast and many of its records are on-line but there are at least 10 other Church of Ireland churches in Belfast with records prior to 1845 (assuming Elizabeth was also Church of Ireland). Copies of the surviving records are kept in PRONI, as you are probably aware.
There?s probably no easy way of finding Samuel & Elizabeth?s baptisms other than searching through the records in PRONI. And that presupposes the records still exist.
I looked in the street directories for Belfast 1840 ? 1850 but cannot see Samuel listed. (There is a Samuel Norris in Carrickfergus who was a tin plate worker. That was all).
Elwyn
Ahoghill Antrim
Monday 7th Jul 2014, 11:38AM