Seeking Ancestory

Perhaps a bit of confusion about location here. You have posted this under Co Cork but the locations listed are in Co. Antrim at the other end of Ireland.

Benjamin Dobbin & Jane’s marriage was registered in Ballymoney (co. Antrim) on 24.12.1852. You can view the certificate on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

(You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2 to a view a certificate). The certificate should give you their addresses, occupations, fathers name and occupation plus the 2 witnesses.

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church (which should be on the certificate, unless it was a Registry Office marriage). That church may be the place to look for her baptism and that of any siblings.

You say James Dobbin was a weaver. They are notoriously difficult to trace and they often moved around and don’t always show up in land records.

The 1822 marriage was before the start of statutory marriage registration (1845) and so the register may only contain the couples names and their witnesses. You might get townlands, but not always. According to the PRONI guide to church records, Roseyards marriage records for 1799 – 1844 appear to be lost. However I know someone with access to them surviving records and can check on that should you wish.

Here’s the occupants of Leitrim townland in 1901. Note one Dobbin family:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Stranocum/Leitrim/

Another Dobbin on Topp Lower:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Stranocum/Topp_Lower/

Topp Upper:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Stranocum/Topp_Upper/

You can use Griffiths Valuation to see where these places are, and who was farming there in 1861:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

For example I can see that William Dobbyn was in plot 2b which was an agricultural labourer/weaver’s cottage on James Wallace’s farm in Leitrim.

You can follow that through to see how long he lived there using the revaluation records:

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/val12b.htm

You can use various records on Bill McAfee’s excellent site to search further back. Try the 1803 agricultural census for example.

http://billmacafee.com