John, Jane, and Patrick A Morrow

Hi Ruth,

Thank you for your message.

Have you tried looking for record of the Morrow?s in Griffith?s Valuation? this is a property valuation survey carried out in Ireland 1848-64. You can search it here:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

You could also try looking in church records for information. Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Glenarm  parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Antrim&parish=Glenarm&churchid=414

Church of Scotland would have been Church of Ireland here. Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42

Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.

Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 so any births, deaths or marriages in the family after this date would be recorded in these records. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:

http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You can search the indexes to these records online at:

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347

You could also check in the 1901/1911 census records to see if there were any Morrows still in the area at the time:  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Some other websites that you may find useful are:

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm

Family Search: www.familysearch.org

Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/antrim/index.html

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,    

Genealogy Support

Thank you Emma, those links are very helpful. I will try to find Patrick's parents among them. I totally understand that IrelandXO is just starting and I think it is a wonderful idea. Eventually someone may connect a second wife to John and half-siblings to Patrick and I'll be off and running again.  This genealogy game is full of fits and starts.  

I have just discovered additional family information for Patrick A Morrow of Glenarm.

Patrick and his wife Elizabeth "Betty" Hasson placed two separate "Missing Friends/In Search Of" ads in The Boston Pilot in 1855.  Patrick's ad read:

"OF ROBERT, James, Mary, and Jennie CLARKE, natives of Cougherty, county Antrim, near Ballymana. James is a cooper by trade. They left Toronto, Canada West, in the year 1848; when last heard from they were in Springfield, Ohio. Any information from them will be thankfully received by their brother, Patrick Morrow. Direct to Patrick Morrow, Little Sioux, Harrison County, Iowa."

As he identifies himself as their brother, I suppose he was John and Jane's only child but might have had half- or step- or foster-siblings or...

I searched the internet for Coughtery but did not get any hits as a place name. Possibly it was a misspelling or an alternate spelling.

An update on "Cougherty" placename above. On another board, someone suggested Cougherty should be spelled Caugherty and, more recently, Caherty (as pronounced). Caherty is a few miles from both Glenarm and Ahoghill, so it fits.