Richard Richards

Have you found your Richard on the Canadian Census returns ?

I see a few people of that name on the 1861 and 1871 census - those I checked were Church of England (Anglican) or Methodist. Knowing the denomination of your Richards family could help narrow down any likely church records.

Church records for most Catholic parishes in Ireland are available on the (free) National Library website the name of the Catholic parish for the areas in Camolin. There are some Church of Ireland records for Co. Wexford on (pay-website) RootsIreland, unfortunately they dont have any for Ballycanew Church of Ireland parish so far. According to the latest parish list from the RCB Library baptism, marriage and death/burial records for Ballycanew Church of Ireland parish go back to 1733 and available on MicroFilm in the National Archives in Dublin. The original registers are most likely still held by the parish.

The Tithe Applotment Records, which cover those with certain types of agricultural land, shows a number of entries for people with the surname Richards in Co. Wexford, including one in Ballycanew civil parish - a Francis Richards (see item 92 in the image) with a small holding in Ballycanew townland near the village. This section of the Tithe records is dated 1st July 1833.

There was no Irish Army at that time, the '39th Foot' would be a British Army Regiment and seems to be reference to the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot (Wikipedia), which served in several locations abroad including Crimea, Canada & India.

Thank you for taking the challenge. I have checked Canada census, denomination is Methodist. I also found Francis in the Tithe Applement records. The family lived in the Merricksville area of Canada for a while before moving to Western Canada or the States.

How should I proceed to find "Irish roots" around Ballycanew?

The entry in Lewis Topographical Dictionary 1837 for Ballycanew (civil) parish mentions that there was "...a place of worship for Primitive Wesleyan Methodists in the village, built a few years since...". As I understand it after a split in 1816 the Primitive Wesleyans continued their links with the established Church, i.e. Church of Ireland, and the remaining Wesleyan Methodist ministers started to perform their own baptisms etc, but since only marriages in the Established Church were legally valid, e.g. for inheritance etc, most Methodist marriages would have taken place in Church of Ireland parishes.

SInce it seems most likely that your Richards where Primitive Wesleyan, at least at this time (there were only small number of meeting houses in rural areas in the south east), I'd start the search with the Church of Ireland records for the parish - assuming that visiting the National Archives in Dublin is not an option for you, then the websites to watch for any updates for these records are RootsIreland (pay-website) and also from the RCB Library Anglican Record Project (free). 

Edited to add : a few years after the Tithes in 1845 Francis is mentioned in the Valuation Office House books, his house is described as being 'in very bad repair'.