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Tracing Irish ancestors

OcadoOcado Posts: 1,583
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I did ask before, and search seems to be acting oddly for me, but I want to get my family tree finished. I have gone back to the 1800's, where the trail goes cold for one side of the family as they are from Ireland. I assumed it was Southern, ie Republic of, but no it is Northern Ireland. I know where the wedding took place, Armagh, and want to travel there to do some searching for a day.

How do I go about planning this? Like, is there a register office there like we have here in England? I'm just totally stumped as to how to move along now with my Irish ancestry.

Thanks for any guidance given.

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    Rab64Rab64 Posts: 1,296
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    There is a place in Armagh city, can't remember its name, which has a lot of info.
    Remember nearly all Irish were destroyed in a fire in Dublin during Irish rebellion, early 1900's.
    Ireland was one country at that time
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    OcadoOcado Posts: 1,583
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    Thanks, yes I did find that out today. Ah well, just would be nice to be able to go back a bit more if I could, as everyone in the family who has done the tree has only been able to go back that far and I want to be able to go back just one more generation.
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    Z StardustZ Stardust Posts: 430
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    Could be worth trying DNA testing? If you can afford it, test yourself and the oldest person(s) you can going back on the line(s) you're stuck on.

    I had also come to a halt going back to early 1800s County Mayo in Ireland. I paid for my mother to test and got her results back last week. One of her matches has the same surname as her last known relative in Ireland. I haven't been in touch yet but I'm hoping they might known something.

    Also through DNA, I was contacted by someone regarding another branch of my tree in Scotland and, piecing together what I knew together with what he knew, we got one generation further back for both of us.
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    oulandyoulandy Posts: 18,242
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    Some local councils in NI have indexed various records and registers for their locality (some info may be online) and even provide a research service - such is the demand for family history / genealogy. There may be a small fee for them to do a search for you.

    There's a Genealogy Centre in Armagh City - Armagh Ancestry - Contact telephone number 0283752 1800 and email address: researcher@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk
    - which has all sorts of records and expertise in searching. Where national civil records exist, it has copies. If there aren't civil records for the period you are looking at, there are church records of marriages, baptisms and deaths which the centre has copies of. If you know whether the religion was one of the main three: Church of Ireland, Presbyterian or Catholic, and the name of the town, church or parish, that will be an important pointer to which records to look at. They all kept their own records and they all may span different periods. If none of the three, then you may have to look at other religions (or variants of the above three, such as Reformed Presbyterian), of which there were quite a few, or use other kinds of records.

    There are other useful records, sources, contacts and references and indeed searches you could do yourself from here if you have details of names, place, dates of birth or marriage etc. Which are relevant depends on the particular date - certain records only cover a specific period of relatively few years. I can maybe suggest some further ones if you can be more specific about dates.
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    cdtaylor_natscdtaylor_nats Posts: 816
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    OcadoOcado Posts: 1,583
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    Thank you very much for the link, has helped a bit. Still planning on making a trip to Armagh though at some point this year. Now I have got this far into the tree, I want to finish it.
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    albertdalbertd Posts: 14,361
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    Don't forget that there was a lot of migration to Ulster, admittedly most well before 1800, so it is just possible that the generation you are looking for was brought up elsewhere, like Scotland, and moved to Armagh.
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    OcadoOcado Posts: 1,583
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    albertd wrote: »
    Don't forget that there was a lot of migration to Ulster, admittedly most well before 1800, so it is just possible that the generation you are looking for was brought up elsewhere, like Scotland, and moved to Armagh.

    Wow, didn't know that. Ugh. Sometimes I wish I had never started this family tree, like when it comes to this sort of thing. All I can tell is, the ancestors I have been able to go back to is that they were married in Armagh in 1868 and then between then and 1871 moved to London, as they were in the 1871 census at a London address.
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    swingalegswingaleg Posts: 103,116
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    Ocado wrote: »
    Wow, didn't know that. Ugh. Sometimes I wish I had never started this family tree, like when it comes to this sort of thing. All I can tell is, the ancestors I have been able to go back to is that they were married in Armagh in 1868 and then between then and 1871 moved to London, as they were in the 1871 census at a London address.

    Does the 1871 census record not give you the person's place of birth ?

    I know the later ones do .........have you located them in the later census records ?
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    OcadoOcado Posts: 1,583
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    I have, the male was born 1821 and the female 1823, both in Kerry. Which, I believe, is Republic of, not Northern?
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    MARTYM8MARTYM8 Posts: 44,710
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    Ocado wrote: »
    I have, the male was born 1821 and the female 1823, both in Kerry. Which, I believe, is Republic of, not Northern?

    Yes - definitely the Republic and one of the most beautiful counties in Ireland. Killarney is worth a visit.

    My ancestors hail from Kerry as well - we might even be related!::D
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    Peg ODwyerPeg ODwyer Posts: 43,109
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    Some Churches have old records. My Mother was from Kerry, it is far south, & a very beautiful place.
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    swingalegswingaleg Posts: 103,116
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    If your dates are correct the woman would have been 45 when she married ?

    ........and then went on to have children ?

    I think that would be pretty unusual for the mid 19th century
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