as far as we know for fact the 2 girls emigrated to Australia separately. Ellen in 1872 onboard the Polmaise & Rebecca in 1875 onboard the Star Queen, also on this voyage was a 7 yr old girl Sarah Lamont who accompanied Rebecca. We haven't been able to find out any info re Sarah but are assuming that she was the Illegitimate daughter of Ellen as she went into her household on arrival in Maryborough Queensland. On both their marriage certificates the girls named William Lamont as their father, but on the birth certificates of their children named several places as their place of birth being Dungannon, Ballymoney, Cookstown & Tyrone & Antrim. We do know that the family were Presbyterian & think that their mother was also Sarah. We also know but can't verify that both parents were deceased at the time they left Ireland. ANY HELP WHATSOEVER WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. Many thanks Susanne.
Saturday 25th Mar 2017, 12:10AM
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Statutory birth registration started in Ireland in 1864. That means that Ellen & Rebecca’s births are before that and will be difficult to trace. However Sarah Lamont was born c 1868 and so should have a birth certificate.
I looked at all the Sarah Lamont births around that year but did not find any to an Ellen Lamont. There was 1 illegitimate birth, Sarah Lamont on 30.3.1870 at MacAulay Terrace, Ballymena. Mother was Mary Read and father James Lamont, of Ballymena.
Statutory registration of marriages started in Ireland in 1845 (save for RC marriages which start in 1864). I searched the records for 1845 to 1855 for a William Lamont married to a Sarah. I did not find one, suggesting they married pre 1845, which again will make it difficult to find.
Death registration only started in Ireland in 1864. Presbyterians don’t keep burial records so if the parents died before 1864 their deaths will be difficult to find. Searching the death records 1864 – 1875 I found 2 Sarah Lamont deaths of the sort of age that might make them the girls mother. One die din Ballymena in 1875 aged 64, the other in Newtownards aged 52. For William Lamont there was a death in Ballymena in 1871 aged 80 and one in Magherafelt aged 72. You can view the original certificates on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:
You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.
Looking at the marriage indexes for Ireland, the name Lamont seems most common in Co. Antrim and so that might be the area your girls originated.
Prior to statutory registration you need to rely on church records. Not all survive and not all are on-line. Given the uncertainty of where the family lived, that leaves a lot of Presbyterian records to go through. You could try rootsireland which have some Presbyterian records on-line. Most of the surviving records have been copied and are in PRONI the public record office in Belfast but there’s a lot of them if you don’t know where the family lived.
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Saturday 25th Mar 2017, 08:25AM