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Hi there, I'm looking for any help trying to track downmy ancestors James SHARPE and Margaret NELSON

James was born in about 1820 in Tyrone Country, and Margaret in about 1823,  they were married 16 January 1849

They had two children in Ireland

Thomas James SHARPE - 12 November 1850

Eliza Anne SHARPE - about 1852

James, and Margaret arrived in the USA on the Constitution with baby Anne Eliza  on 1st April 1852, they lived in Ohio and eventually settled in Minnesota and had three more children.

Thomas SHARPE came to the USA in about 1864-65 so I'm hoping there may be a record of him in Ireland to help narrow down my search...

Both James and Margarets death certificates are pretty vague, they were Presbyterians. James died in Minnesota in 1879 and Margaret in BC Canada in 1888

Thanks so much

Amorley

Monday 14th Jan 2019, 01:56AM

Message Board Replies

  • Statutory registration of non RC marriages started in Ireland in 1845, so if the Sharpe-Nelson marriage in 1849 was Presbyterian (or some other protestant denomination) I would expect to find it in the statutory records. However I can’t find it. I searched 1845 – 1852 but there was no marriage with couples of those surnames. So I am a bit stumped there. Do you have a copy of their marriage certificate?

    Statutory registration of births didn’t start in Ireland till 1864 so there won’t be birth certificates for the couples 2 Irish born children. You might find their baptisms but to do that we’d need to know which church they attended. Not many Presbyterian records are on-line and you might have to go through the records in PRONI in Belfast (the public record office) to search for them. That’s a lot of Presbyterian churches if you don’t know where they lived in Tyrone.

    There wouldn’t be a record of Thomas’s departure from Ireland to the US. The authorities here didn’t need that information, and so it wasn’t compiled. If records do exist of his journey/arrival they are most likely to be in the US.

    Sorry I can’t find anything for you.

    Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Monday 14th Jan 2019, 09:15AM

  • I appreciate you taking the time to look. I figured it may be a long shot, to find anything. That marriage date seems be the popular assumption I found, but alas no records, it may have come from an old family record, perhaps noted in a family bible.   

    Thanks again!

    Amorley

    Monday 14th Jan 2019, 07:28PM

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