Ferris

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your message.

Have you tried looking for information on George and Isabella in church records in Ballymore parish? As civil registration did not become mandatory in Ireland until 1864, records such as birth, marriage and death records were kept by the local parish church.

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. For Ballymore parish, follow this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Armagh&parish=Ballymore&churchid=192

For information on Church of Ireland records check:

http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.

There are also some incomplete collections of records available online:

www.familysearch.org and www.rootsireland.ie Please note that Roots Ireland is a paying website.

You could also try looking for record of the family in the Tithe Applotment Books. These are land records compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland. You can search these here:

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp  

You could check the later Griffith?s Valuation (1848-1864) to see if there was still any family in the area at the time.

Civil registration records began in 1864 so you may be able to find some records belonging to any family that remained in Ireland here also. These 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

For more information check: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-civil-registration.html

Have you looked into George and Isabella?s emigration? The Public Record Office of Victoria has good online databases of settlers at www.prov.vic.gov.au Otherwise, other records may be found in the Colonial Office Papers of the UK National Archives, class reference CO 201. This class contains a wide variety of records, including petitions for assisted passages, emigrants' lists, records of emigrants on board ship, petitions from settlers for financial assistance and much more. Check http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ for more infoatmion.

Some other websites which may be 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

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

Alternatively you could contact Armagh Ancestry for assistance- ma fee may apply.

researcher@armagh.gov.uk

I hope some of these links are helpful. 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