MONTGOMERY: James, Sarah & children emigrated to Canada in 1848, naturalized same year.

Mary Anne,

I can confirm that Montgomery & Houston are names commonly found in Northern Ireland. In the 1901 census, there were 3968 Montgomery and 2088 Houston (and variant spellings).

William & Sarah were both born long before the start of statutory birth registration in Ireland (1864) and they married before the start of non RC marriage registration (1845). To find them you need to rely on church records. To do that you really need to know their exact denomination and roughly where they lived. Otherwise it’s a needle in haystack. Not all churches have records for the period you are interested in and not all the surviving records are on-line. PRONI (the Public Record Office) in Belfast has the most complete collection of church records for the counties of Ulster but, as I say, you need to know roughly were the family lived to make any meaningful use of them.

You say the family were protestant. That covers a wide range of denominations. If you can narrow that bit further it may help you slightly. Both names are obviously of Scottish origin which would suggest they may have been Presbyterian. (That’s a very common denomination in Northern Ireland, because half the population originated in Scotland, arriving here in the 1600s).

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. 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 Family Tree DNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website). You don’t need to be a member of the NIFHS to participate in the DNA project.