William Sanders

Some early baptism and marriage records for the Belfast area are on-line on the rootsireland and UHF sites but not all records are. Many are only on microfilm in PRONI the public record office in Belfast. In addition, at the beginning of the 1800s, Belfast was expanding rapidly which meant that huge numbers of people moved into the city from the surrounding countryside. So there’s always the possibility your family were born outside Belfast.  Very few records exist for the 1700s and it will be a needle in a haystack trying to trace them. And the records may not exist anyway. No easy way of progressing this.

There’s a William Sanders in the 1819 Belfast street directory but I can’t say whether it’s your family:

http://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/1819_Alphanames.htm

Elwyn, thank  you so very much for that information about William in the Belfast Street directory. I see there are also Hills and Carruthers also listed in the directory and those families  are related to the Sanders. Interesting that William was involved in wool and a Carruthers was a weaver because there are rumours of this being the family business. Where is Shankill and St. Anne's Church in relation to Belfast? Would St. Anne's Church be Protestant or Catholic. Do you know anything about the MacCartney farm which I would guess was a sheep farm. Again, I am delighted to have this new information. Thank you for taking the time to forward it to me. Sandy

Sandy,

Shankill is the main parish in Belfast. It covers most of the city centre. The original St Anne’s church was demolished around 1900 and replaced by St Anne’s cathedral (on the same site), in Donegall St.  They built the cathedral around the old church which they continued to use whilst the building was taking place. It was then demolished, removing the rubble through the doors of the new Cathedral. Novel, I thought.

It’s Church of Ireland (ie Episcopalian). See:

http://belfastcathedral.org

Though there are plenty of other churches in the city, St Anne’s was always the main Church of Ireland church. Their records are on-line on the UHF and rootsireland sites.

A huge proportion of the population were weavers. Irish linen mostly comes from the counties of Ulster and originally was made on hand loom weaving machines which people had in their houses. (The same sort of machinery still used today to make Harris Tweed in the Outer Hebrides). The looms were portable and so people dismantled them when not needed or when moving home. See:

http://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/handloom.html

In agricultural areas, labourers were only needed for part of the year. So to top their incomes up most people grew a little flax and wove it into linen in the quiet winter months. Linen buyers would buy it off them at local markets. It provided a little extra income and some cash in a society that otherwise lived largely by barter. It also came in useful for buying things that couldn’t be bartered eg a ticket to Canada. There were rows of weavers cottages in Belfast too, though as the 1800s progressed mechanisation arrived and large weaving factories were built which made home weaving uneconomic.

Can’t help you with the MacCartney farm. It’s a common enough name in the area. Looking at Griffiths Valuation (c 1860) I see about 270 McCartney farms and properties in Counties Antrim & Down (ie the two counties around Belfast).

Again my thanks Elwyn...you area wealth of information about Ireland...information which I have been trying to find for years. Great idea to have IRELAND XO so those of us ont he other side can betetr understand the hstory and what life was like ove rthere for our ancestors. For example...Shankill...I didn't know if it was a town or what. Interesting idea to build the cathedral around the old one...so I assume the altars, pews, etc would have remained and they just removed the old walls. I think we could learn sosmething from that now-a-days. In Halifax where I live, they just demolish old beautiful buildings and it is happening  alot now...condo building is happening everywhere. Church of Ireland...Episcopalian relates what my Sanders ancestors were practicing inCanada.  My great, great grandfather's brother's daughter and son's baptism is registered at St. Anne's. Rosannah and Robert Sanders, 1839. Must havebeen just before they left for Canada because I have them in Havelock, Quebec in 1840. Robert, the son either died in Ireland or on the ship, but he didn't make it to Canada. They weer twins. Anothe rpiece of information, lived mostly by barter. Maybe they saw the shift in mechanisation coming and moved to Canada where it didn't really happen to 1891. The William Sanders family lived a couple of days walk to Montreal so machines didn't arrive out there for a while after they arrived in 1830.  Hmmm...yes, seems McCartney is not  a good clue!!!! So it would seem there are no Sanders left in Antrim. What about Hills and Caruthers? Thank you very much for your time and valuable information. Sandy

Sandy,

The mechanized linen mills not only put paid to home weaving it particularly affected men. It had been the men who mostly did the weaving at home but in the mills it was women and children who tended the machines (cheaper and with more nimble fingers than men). There were very few men in the mills, just the odd engineer and some overseers. So a whole tranche of men lost their weaving work. (So many looked for work outside Ireland). On the other hand it brought huge social change for women in Ireland who for the first time could gain some independence and earn a proper wage instead of having to work around their parents cottage or farm, 7 days a week, for their board and lodging.

By around 1860 Belfast was known as Linenopolis because of all the linen mills there. By 1870 it was the largest linen producing area in the world. Weaving history on this link:

http://www.fergusonsirishlinen.com/pages/index.asp?title2=History-of-Irish-Linen&title1=About-Linen

Regarding the surnames, I looked in the current phone book for Northern Ireland. There are 15 Sanders listed, 136 Hill and 17 Hills, 7 Carruthers, 50 Caruthers and 39 Crothers (a common variant). Many around Belfast. So plenty to choose from. (Plus of course many people are ex-directory these days so the real numbers will be considerably higher).

http://www.ukphonebook.com