Robinsons in Pettigo in 1800 (ancestor was Methodist and likely Free Mason)

Methodism took a lot longer to become established in Ireland as a separate denomination than in England. In Ireland there was considerable resistance to separating from the Church of Ireland. It was 1815 before Methodists started to conduct their own baptisms. Because of continuing loyalty and other factors, many continued to use the Church of Ireland for baptisms for years after this and it was 1871 before all Methodists routinely performed their own.

For Methodist marriages, the earliest that I am aware of, date from 1835 (Belfast Donegall Square, the first Methodist church in Ireland). However in the mid 1800s there were only a few Methodist Ministers (Methodism relied heavily on lay preachers). So that shortage led to the continuing practice of marrying in the Church of Ireland. In addition, in the early years, many Methodist Meeting Houses were not licensed for marriages so that too contributed to couples marrying in the Church of Ireland.

So to summarise, you are unlikely to find many Methodist baptisms before 1820. Few marriages before the 1840s and only a handful for many years after that. If there are no Methodist records in the location you are researching, I would search Church of Ireland records instead, as that’s the most likely place to find the relevant event.

Not many Methodist Meeting Houses have graveyards and so they may be buried in public or Church of Ireland graveyards (which are open to all denominations).

The 2 parishes around Pettigo are Templecarn and Drumkeeran.  Templecarn Church of Ireland’s records don’t start till 1825. Drumkeeran’s start in 1801 though burials don’t start till 1836.  There’s a Methodist chapel in Pettigo. Baptisms start in 1835 and marriages in 1872. (Methodists in Ireland don’t keep burial records).  There’s another at Terwinney with baptisms from 1829 and marriages from 1878. There’s also a Church of Ireland in Lack which is not too far away. It’s records start in 1825. Copies of all these records are in PRONI in Belfast.

Researching in Ireland in the early 1800s and earlier can be very difficult due to the lack of records.

Thanks Elwyn for the fast response!  As we are looking mainly for Pettigo info (probably Templecarn area especially) from about 1815 and earlier, the public records outlook is poor unfortunately. Our part of the Robinson family had emigrated by about the mid 1830s. We suppose we are really hoping to find descendants with Robinson family history (bibles, newspaper articles, Free Mason info, etc.) - perhaps also from families that intermarried with the Robinsons in the Pettigo general area (Grahams, Funstons, Wacobs/Walkups/ Wauchops and likely Reids/Reeds, Armstrongs, etc.). We understand that there may be still a few descendants in the nearby area and perhaps some not a lot farther away. We hope this reaches some of them. Any idea/help is much appreciated.

Regards,

Don Robinson

Don,

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about the family. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

Thanks Elwyn. I do continue to hope more will come of the FT YDNA testing I have done. My YDNA haplogroup is R-FT192191 and I am in a large number of the Family Tree population groups. I have also done autosomal DNA testing and posted it and my family tree to a number of websites like Geni, Ancestry, MyHeritage, etc. So far I am still blocked for verification of possibilities in Ireland.

Regards,

Don Robinson