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Liverpool, England Catholic Registers Online

30 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

The Liverpool, England Catholic registers are online at Ancestry.com. However, they are easy to miss! It’s important to realize that on most databases for English records, when the term “parish” is used, it typically refers to the Protestant Church of England parish system. Although there were English Catholics who survived the Protestant Reformation, they met quietly, often in houses, and were considered non-conformists, just like any number of other churches. Prior to World War I, Catholic churches would have been considered a “chapel” rather than a parish.

The Church of England, which is part of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, became the state religion in 1559. Until 1829, when the Catholic Relief Act was passed, Catholics faced discrimination.

The Liverpool Catholic Records Collections

The collections, which are indexed and connected with the scanned images can be found in four Ancestry collections:

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1802-1906”

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Confirmations, 1813-1920”

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Marriages, 1754-1921”

“Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1988”

The Liverpool Diocese was established in 1850, and most of the christenings, marriages and burials in these database would date from that time. It’s important to remember, it was the Irish Catholics flooding into the city, which would create huge parishes. The indexes can be searched by name and even by parent’s names if you know them. Also keep in mind that burial is not a sacrament in the Catholic Church, so parishes did not have to keep them. However, baptism and marriages were sacraments.

Importance of the Liverpool Databases

Liverpool was a major drawing place for ships leaving Ireland. Often passengers would disembark and either board another vessel, or they would stay for a while prior to moving elsewhere. This makes the Liverpool collections very important in your quest to document Irish ancestors.

Although Liverpool had one of the largest Catholic populations in England, it’s important to remember, that Catholics tended to register births, marriages and deaths less often with the government. Registration with the government became mandatory in 1874. The sketchy nature of Catholic registration with the government makes these Catholic databases a viable substitute. These are major databases for Irish immigrant research.

For help with your English research Click Here.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Catholic Records, Church records, Databases, England

The Irish Mission at Watson House

16 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

There is a new database called The Irish Mission at Watson House. It has the potential to be a major resource. However, it has to be utilized in a “thinking outside the box” approach.

Introduction to the Watson House

In an effort to help young immigrant women arrive safe, the Irish Mission for Immigrant Girls in New York City was established. The Catholic clergy and others would work tirelessly to help over 100,000 woman. The records generated are part of the Our Lady of the Rosary, Saint Elizabeth Seton Shrine, at Watson House.

The need for such a safe house for female immigrants arose during an agricultural depression in Ireland which began in 1879. This saw more women emigrating alone. The church established the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Protection of Irish Immigrant Girls, purchasing the house in 1885, located in Manhattan at 7 State Street facing the harbor. It was intended as temporary housing until the girls could be met by family, friends or transfer to a final destination.

Using the Database

The first thing you will find when searching the Watson House records is that it is not clear cut. For example, although the records provide date, age, name and county of origin in Ireland, there’s little way know if you have the correct girl. Which Mary Kelly is yours? The solution I found was to use the destination field in the search feature. This allows you to seek all Mary Kelly girls who went, for example, to Cleveland, Ohio. If this is where your ancestor went, then this helps to narrow the field considerably.

In another approach, you can search all girls who went to Cleveland. Then use that pool of names and see if any were associated with your ancestor who settled in Cleveland. Where I see that you would have a problem is if the girl stayed in Manhattan.

These are just two of many approaches to a database such as this. So be careful not to discount databases such as this simply because they are not straightforward. You simply have to look at the information from the sidelines and then determine how to best approach the collection.

Click Here if you need help with locating your Irish immigrant ancestor.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Catholic Records, database research, Databases, Immigration and Emigration

Old Bailey Court Records

25 Mar By Dwight Leave a Comment

London’s Central Criminal Court was known as Old Bailey. This was an important court from which to document the Irish who settled in London.

Records of Old Bailey

The records have been indexed in a searchable database, with digitized images, from 1674-1913. These are known as the Old Bailey Proceedings. Also on the database are the Ordinary of Newgate’s Accounts from 1673-1772. The database provides accesses to 197,000 trials along with biographical information on the 2,500 executions of men and women at Tyburn. The Old Bailey Proceedings databases are free of charge.

Additional Old Bailey Research Helps

Due to their historical nature, the website has a Glossary which can help you understand the older English as well as the legal terms. There are also guides to help you sort through what constituted crime and punishment as seen in the records. If this wasn’t enough, then check out the section on “Gender in the Proceedings.”

Searching the Old Bailey Database by Category

Aside from the general name search, there is a category search. You can search by offence. From different types of theft to different types of sexual crimes; this section alone provides a rare window into the world of the people on trial. It also can help us understand what a “religious offence” was all about. One interesting offence category is labeled “Miscellaneous” with attached sub-categories to it. Here we get a glimpse into the lives of people charged with infanticide, illegal abortion, piracy and return from transportation. An offence category under “Violent Theft” includes “Highway Robbery.” That was not just an expression in the world these people lived in.

As far as thought provoking databases, this one is hard to beat. Even if your ancestors never went to London make sure you explore this resource. Their world was very foreign to us; yet at the same time, these Proceedings teach us how little things have changed. People are still people and we just have new ways of doing what they did back then.

If you would like to hire a professional genealogist Contact Us.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Court Records, Crime and Punishment, database research, Databases, England

Strategies for Using the Boston Pilot Database

18 Feb By Dwight Leave a Comment

People looking for missing relatives and friends from Ireland would place ads in the Boston Pilot (1831-1921) newspaper because of its wide circulation. Although published in Boston, ads flooded in from everywhere. It is within these want ads you often immigrant origins preserved and where various family members settled. Databases can be found on the websites of Ancestry, Boston College and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

What if Your Ancestor is Not Listed in the Database

When you find your ancestor, then your research really opens up. However, what if you don’t find your ancestors listed? I have found these databases are much deeper and can be used in many more ways than a simple straightforward search. Some of my favorite strategies are below.

Secondary Strategies for Using the Boston Pilot Database

Place Names: I may not know where a person was from in Ireland; however, I know where they settled. Use the search feature to identify all Irish who settled in that locality. Who was looking for people who settled in a particular state, city or with that surname? Once you study these ads, does a pattern emerge? For example, are most the ads looking for people from County Roscommon? If so, then you might have stumbled upon where your ancestor was from.

This strategy can also be used in reverse when you know the county in Ireland but you cannot identify a parish. Who from that county were placing ads for people living where your ancestor settled? Does a pattern emerge?

Associate Names: In research, we always assume the godparents at children’s christenings were friends and family of the parents. Then we wonder if they may have known them in Ireland prior to immigrating. Using this logic, take the names of the godparents as found in the immigrant parish and run them through the Boston Pilot databases. Does a pattern emerge? Who is looking for them or who are they looking for?

Religion: Do not assume everybody placing ads were Catholic or even practicing Catholic. Upon immigrating many Irish Catholics either dropped out of church or switched denominational affiliations. I see this all the time. So just because your ancestor became a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian or Adventist, do not assume they would not place an ad in the Jesuit published Boston Pilot. Also, do not assume nobody is looking for them!

With these few extra strategies, the Boston Pilot databases may actually yield where your family came from. These are not straightforward searches, but they have worked for many in many cases.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Catholic Records, database research, Databases, Immigration and Emigration, Newspapers

Could This be my Ancestor? (Pt 2)

14 Jan By Dwight Leave a Comment

Irish research presents unique challenges

If you’re using online indexes to Irish church records, then you are faced with some unique challenges. In your immigrant research, you know ages mean little as they can vary five or ten years in either direction with each census. Also, Irish given names sometimes vary. So what do you do when you find a baptism in an index which really catches your attention?

You have to come to terms with that targeted family in the index, even if it’s only to eliminate them. If I find an entry in an online index, then I take the entire family unit and look at naming patterns. If the targeted family has some unusual names (siblings of the potential ancestor), then ask if these name names passed down in your branch of the family. If they did, then you may be onto something. Another strategy is to see if any of the potential siblings, found in the index, immigrated to where your ancestor did.

Sometimes the name of the game is disproving what you find

An additional strategy is to see if the family from index, including who you think is your specific ancestor, actually stayed rather than immigrated. If they stayed when your family immigrated, then you have dis-proven them. However, this strategy can be a little tricky because of the massive amount of immigration. So look at it from the perspective that staying behind would answer your question.

Remember, what happens when you assume

Never just accept an entry from an index as your ancestor unless you have enough information to positively prove your case. If you do not know some information such as parent’s names, siblings names, or mother’s maiden name, then you certainly cannot use age, or even first names to necessarily identify a correct entry. In these cases, you are still working with an immigrant research problem, not an Irish research problem.

Click Here if you would like to explore having a professional work on your family history.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Databases, Research, Strategies

Could This be my Ancestor? (Pt 1)

10 Jan By Dwight Leave a Comment

You Know What Happens When we Assume

I want to reiterate why you should question what you’re seeing in online indexes. As more databases come online, I am noticing an explosion of incorrect assumptions drawn. I do understand why certain assumptions are made. The time period is correct; the name is unusual; the children’s names are familiar. It just makes sense.

For example, in dealing with an uncommon given name and common surname, I had a client find a naturalization record online for someone in Georgia with that exact name. However, the ancestor settled on the western Pennsylvania frontier. The migration pattern simply did not fit. Could it have been possible? Yes, as anything is possible. Was it probable? No. This is where knowing early nineteenth century migration patterns was usually from Pennsylvania down into Georgia; not the other way around.

Asking Additional Questions is Essential in Research

In another case, a client had found online a rather common surname in a medium sized town in the 1860 U.S. Census of the city’s poor house, except the father was missing. His name was the unusual one and would have acted as the identifier. I immediately suspected the odd first name pointed to him having Irish Quaker roots. I already knew this common, typically Irish Catholic surname, was also quite prominent in Irish Quaker circles. My subject was not a Catholic; rather was buried in a Baptist cemetery. I automatically began wondering about the Irish Catholics in the city with that surname. Were they actually the ones in the poor house? The mother and children had common Irish given names. The questions themselves not only opened up possibilities, but I believed helped in making correct decisions about which direction to go next.

In the next blog, I will continue with other examples. Always be careful about thinking you have found your ancestor in a database.

But, if you really think you’ve struck gold and would like a professional genealogist to look over your find, please contact me by Clicking Here.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Databases, Research, Strategies

One Step Removed but Still Addressing the Problem

7 Jan By Dwight Leave a Comment

I found a baptismal entry on RootsIreland for County Wicklow which I thought was for my client’s ancestor. The clincher was the ancestor’s sister was not listed in the family. Was this really the ancestor? The name was uncommon enough that the Wicklow entry was certainly reasonable. However, I also knew church registers can be incomplete.

Creating Your Own Research Strategy on the Spot

I had to formulate an immigrant strategy right on the spot to address this situation. What I came up with was to trace out the two Irish men who acted as godparents at the baptisms of the immigrant’s children in Quebec. I couldn’t find one, but I did find the other and traced out his family.

At this point, I took all the Irish godparents to the original godparent’s children and assumed they may have been connected to my client’s ancestor in Ireland. Could I have been wrong? Of course. Yet, this is how you create your own research strategies, tailored to a particular problem If you find your wrong, you simply move on!

One Step Further Removed but Still Within the Targeted Strategy

Once I translated the Catholic parish in County Wicklow into the corresponding civil parish, I could then utilize the Griffith’s Primary Valuation (1847-64) database online at AskAboutIreland (there are others). I found my client’s surname was indeed rare and was from across the border in County Wexford. However, for the Wicklow research, I found the surnames of both godparents which I had identified in the Quebec Catholic registers. Did this prove my case? No, but it added more evidence, especially since some of the surnames acting as godparents for the godparent’s children were also found in that Wicklow parish.

Now with this knowledge, I have a good possibility and I can go back into the Quebec records and see if I can continue to match up findings there with that specific parish in County Wicklow. I now have a target family which could be the one I’m looking for and I can see what happened to them.

For in-depth professional research on your difficult family history Contact Us.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Databases, Immigration and Emigration, Research, Strategies

Strategies for Using the Landed Estates Database

3 Jan By Dwight Leave a Comment

The University of Ireland Galway has developed a Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database covering estates in counties Clare, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary and Waterford. It documents historic estate houses, families and records from c1700 through 1914, opening up new research avenues for family historians.

The database can be searched by Estate, Family and Houses. The Estates included those with over 500 acres, although when interconnected with large estates, smaller ones are also listed. There are over 4500 Houses and 2700 Families currently in the database. There are alphabetical links which directs the researcher to the appropriate page. There is also a Search feature which does allow for a word search in the entire database.

The various searches are cross referenced with each other; making this feature one of the most important on this website.

Research Strategies for the Cross Reference Listings

The Registry of Deeds can record marriages as well as layers of leases. This can be confusing. By taking the names mentioned in the deeds and comparing them with the database, the chances are good family and social relationships will begin to emerge more clearly.

Often connections between various landed families are not obvious. The database includes maps showing where the estates were located which may give you extra clues to connect your tenant family with another one with the same surname a few miles away.

When studying the townland names, it is important to remember these did change. Townland names and boundaries were not officially set until the 1830s by the Ordnance Survey. A search may help you identify places no longer on an official map.

The cross references is also helpful in determining if a landed family had several estates. If tenants were moved between the estates for work, this can explain migration patterns.

Reference Listings in the Database

For the genealogist, the References are the very core of this database. These include Archival Sources, such as manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland; Contemporary Printed Sources, such as Griffith’s Primary Valuation or the Parliamentary Papers; and Modern Printed Sources, such as local periodicals. It is within these References that the survival of estate papers can be identified. That in itself is the end game for most of our research.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Databases, Estate Records, Landed Estates, Strategies

Using Tithe Applotment Databases

26 Dec By Dwight

Online are three major databases for the Tithe Applotment

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Databases, Land Records, Tax Records

St. Lawrence Steamboat Company Passenger Lists, 1819-1838

25 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

For Irish immigration within Canada in the early nineteenth century, a major resource has recently been indexed online. The St. Lawrence Steamboat Company regularly transported goods and passengers on the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec. The lists for the passengers from 1819-1838 survive. This means that with a little care and a lot of wisdom, a new source has just been opened up for research.

Information Found in the Records

These manuscript records will provide lists of passengers on a particular steamboat on a particular day. They are simple in their presentation so you have to do a lot of “reading between the lines.” Remember, this source affects not only Canadian migration but also many of these people would have eventually migrated to the United States.

Information includes the date of the trip, where the steamboat embarked and landed, fare paid and sometimes general remarks. The names themselves are sometimes abbreviated as in Mr. Kelly, Mrs. Kelly, or Miss. Kelly. If you find an entry of interest you have to take into consideration everyone on the steamboat. This may help you determine the identity of Mr. Kelly. Also, since interrelated families may have travelled together, you may find a group from the same place in Ireland your ancestor was from

When families were travelling together, you will see only the number of children being listed. As children under 12 travelled for half fare, the number of children should reflect this. There are no ages attached to the names. The collection is indexed with scanned images in “Canada, St. Lawrence Steamboat Company Passenger Lists, 1819-1838” on Ancestry.com.

This is Not Necessarily a Straightforward Source

Remember, this is not a straightforward resource. You have to think past what the index and the record itself is conveying to determine if the Mr. Kelly on that steamboat was actually yours.

If you would like to know more about your Canadian immigrants Click Here.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Canada, Databases, Immigration and Emigration, quebec

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Dwight A. Radford

Dwight A. Radford is a professional family history researcher. Along with his staff they specialize in Ireland, England, Canada, African American, Native American, and United States. Connecting families together through historical documents and then creating a cherished family heirloom published book for generations to enjoy. Full bio…

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