Wilson Family

Zelda,

Several trees on Ancestry, eg the Hamilton tree, say that William Wilson was born in Monaghan c 1820 and that  Mary Ann Hastings was born c 1825. Their marriage is estimated at c 1843. It records a son Joseph who died in 1917. There is a death that fits:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

I think this is Joseph in the 1901 census. He was born in Belfast. (1911 census says the same).

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Saint_Anne_s_Ward_Belfast/Roden_Street/953798/

The couple married in 1871. The groom’s father William Wilson was a railway guard (train conductor), which could account for him moving around a bit.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1871/11359/8169989.pdf

Family were Methodist in the 1901 & 1911 censuses. The history of Methodism in Ireland is complex. It took a long time for Methodists to establish themselves as a separate denomination because many didn’t want to break from the Church of Ireland. Though there are some Methodist baptisms from 1816 onwards and some marriages from around 1836 onwards, many Methodists continued to use the Church of Ireland for those events up until the 1870s. So you may need to search both sets of records to try and locate the family. However you know that Joseph was born in Belfast so you could start by searching around 1850 in Belfast for him. That’s probably going to involve a trip to PRONI in Belfast, especially for the Methodist records, few of which are on-line. Prior to 1816 the family would have been Church of Ireland.

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church so unless bride & groom happened to attend the same church, the 1843 marriage may be in a different church and perhaps of a different denomination. And again not necessarily recorded on-line. Not easy to find.

This may be William’s daughter Letitia in the 1901 census, again Methodist and born in Belfast:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/St__George_s_Wa…