McWilliams, James or Thomas

Felicia,

The James M Williams on the ship’s manifest could easily be McWilliams. Originally those surnames were spelled with an apostrophe as in M’Williams. The Mc/Mac prefix spelling is a more modern variation. For example, you will note a M’Gee is the first passenger on that list. None of the other passengers has a middle initial recorded so I’d be fairly confident it’s M’Williams rather than a middle initial. (Using an initial in your name as in Harry S. Truman, is very much a north American style of presenting your name. It’s not something someone born in Ireland or the UK would generally do. That also makes me feel it’s M’Williams.).

I see James declared himself to be a farmer when he arrived. That makes me wonder whether he actually came from Belfast. (Where would you farm in the middle of a city?) Perhaps he came from an agricultural area near the city?

McWilliams is a very common surname. There are 1319 of them in the 1901 census. Narrowing that to counties Down and Antrim (ie around Belfast) leaves 621. You might be able to narrow it a bit more if you knew his denomination.

The problems that you face are that birth registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864. Prior to that you are reliant on church records. Not all have survived and of those that do still exist, not all are on-line. Plus without parents’ names there’s no real way of determining whether you have the right family. (There were 13 James and 7 Thomas in the 1901 census, and the names will have been just as common in the early 1800s). Without a bit more information about the family’s origins it’s a needle in a haystack, just as you say.

I appreciate your input Elwyn.  I have been considering taking an extended (a month long) trip to Belfast. Do you think I may discover more if I had a lot of time to go through the local records at PRONI? The location of Belfast was found on James's son Walter's death certificate where it asked for father's birthplace.  As for the ship's manifest he appears to have been in England as the ship came from Liverpool. I wasn't able to find him there either unfortunately. I feel he spent time in England as his future wife and father in law were on the same ship to America and they were from England.  Both James and his father in law bought land in the state of WI from the government land office at the same time so it seems they must have known each other before they set sail.

My DNA test didn't connect me with any other McWilliamses.  This is a mystery I just feel compelled to solve, you probably hear that a lot-LOL

Felicia,

You could certainly work your way through the records in PRONI if you have the time and patience. If you know the McWilliams family’s exact denomination that will reduce the search quite a bit. It’s worth bearing in mind that not all church records have survived. Some have been lost for various reasons eg many Church of Ireland records were destroyed during the 1922 civil war in Dublin (where they had, ironically, been sent for safe keeping) plus some others in Belfast churches were destroyed by German bombing in WW2. And then there were a few Ministers who just didn’t bother keeping records.

There’s probably about 150 churches in Belfast, plus another 200 or so in a 20 miles radius of the city, but they weren’t all open in the period you are interested in say 1819/1822 and some have no early records for the reasons I mentioned, so that will reduce the search a bit. It’s still a lot of records to work through though.

Looking at the 1901 census for Antrim and Down, of the 621 McWilliams in it, about 310 were Presbyterian, 150 RC, 150 Church of Ireland, plus a handful of Methodists, Covenanters and Unitarians. If your family was RC, their records are nearly all on-line on the nli site: http://www.nli.ie But for the rest, most of the records are not on-line and you need to work your way through them at PRONI.

Though PRONI’s actual church records are not held on-line, they have a catalogue which lists what they have got and so you can take stock of what the task involves. In most cases the records are on microfilm and you’ll see a reference number beginning MIC for those. They also have some in paper format and they usually have a file prefix like CR or T or D.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/guide_to_church_records.pdf

There’s the occasional church where PRONI don’t have the records. That church either declined to let their records be copied or they simply weren’t available in the 1980s when this collection was put together. Those records say: ‘in local custody” and so to access them you need to contact the minister/Vicar etc of the parish.

All the records for Belfast have been indexed together. Outside Belfast you need to search by parish. Here links to maps showing all the parishes in Cos Antrim and Down.

https://www.ancestryireland.com/civil-parish-maps-for-ulster/civil-parishes-of-county-antrim/

https://www.ancestryireland.com/civil-parish-maps-for-ulster/civil-parishes-of-county-down/

Rootsireland has some church records for Cos Antrim & Down on-line. If you are a subscriber, and search by county, you can see what records they have (they don’t always cover all years). You could then use that to eliminate those churches from your search.

I’d be a bit cautious and flexible about the dates and years of birth that you have. Folk in Ireland in the 1800s didn’t celebrate birthdays and often had little idea of exactly when they were born. So when officialdom asked them for a date of birth they sometimes just made one up. So search a year or two either side of the dates you have.

You say that James may have lived in England prior to his departure for the US. That’s quite possible. Ireland has few natural resources and so the industrial revolution largely passed it by. Many folk from Ireland therefore went to England or Scotland to work for a while before later moving again to North America, Australia etc. It's called stepped migration.

On the other hand, many Irish emigrants left from Liverpool because there were far more sailings from there than from Ireland itself. Liverpool was a sort of clearing house for migrants from all over Europe, bound for the US, Canada and elsewhere. So it had almost daily departures whereas there might only be one or two a month from Ireland. There was quite a lot of competition for the trade and many shipping agents threw in the cost of the short journey from Belfast to Liverpool free as part of the package. And James may just have met his English wife on the voyage. Many couples met like that. If you were young, single and kept in close confinement on a ship with groups of other single people, with nothing to do for 3 weeks, then friendships and relationships were easy to start.

If going to PRONI, take photo id (ie your passport or driving licence) on the first day to get your reader’s ticket (takes just a couple of minutes). Late opening is Thursday, when it’s open till 9.00pm.

Can’t really help you with the DNA mystery. An adoption or some other non-paternal event, at some time in the past might be one explanation.

Good luck anyway.

Elwyn,  I'd like to say thank you for all the information, and time you put into the reply,  It is so appreciated.  God's blessings to you.

Felicia

February 13, 2020

It's been almost a year since my last correspondence and I have done more online research using your suggestions above.  I have a possible lead on a father for James and Thomas McWilliams.  I have attached documentation found on PRONI.  I have also looked at Griffiths Valuation but I think the information there is too new for the time frame I am looking at (1830-1840). I am unable to determine religion but did look through the online Catholic records as I am Catholic.  I have seen family references to Luthern and Methodist so it could be anything.

I have been trying to research William McWilliams (see attachments).  My reasons for thinking this is a possible father (for James & Thomas) are as follows:

1. Family first names have repition in my lineage: James, Walter, William, Thomas,etc.

2. Trade: This person is a copper and tinsmith.  My father has told me he is a 7th generation tinner (sheet metal worker, tinsmith, tinner, all names for this trade).  This William would be 6th generation.

3. Thomas's obituary while it doesn't state his father's name, it does say Thomas was born in Belfast in 1822, came to New York in 1834 with his father.  After remaining there one year they both returned to Belfast where he (Thomas) lived another 10 years. So his father was back in Belfast in 1834. The documentation I have attached is from city directories and freeholder records in Belfast dated 1836-1839.  I couldn't find anything after that so I don't know if he passed away or what happened to him.  I couldn't find a death record for William but I am not sure death records were recorded this early, other than in the Church. Thomas did return to New York around 1845.

I do know Thomas was a Mason and in the Knights of Templar-are these of Irish origin and do they tend to lead to any specific religions?

The last document I am sharing lists a James McWilliams 1842-43.  James came to the US in 1843-wondering if this could be him working/living near a ship yard earning passage to America?

I think I am out of resources for research unless any of this leads you to advise me otherwise.  I hope to make a trip to PRONI in the next couple of years but no plans yet.  Any tips or advice you can give me are appreciated.

Thank you!

Felicia

Felicia,

You have found some entries on the Freeholders lists. Freeholders lists were those eligible to vote. There wasn’t a universal franchise then and in order to be eligible to vote, you had to own or rent land over a certain value. So these lists are of people who were comfortably off financially, and aren’t a full list of all adults in the community at the time. Probably only 5 or 10% of the population were eligible to vote in the early 1800s.

The 1837 insolvency record you have found for William McWilliams might tell you a little more about him. The full document is held in PRONI. Something for you to look up if you visit.

The Northern Whig of 15th June 1837 has a notice announcing that the assets of William M’Williams, tinsmith of Belfast, were to be sold at auction on 19th June 1837. This was as a result of a court order following court action by James Stewart. So it appears that William owed James Stewart a significant debt and the court had ordered his assets to be sold to recover it. (Copy attached).

Death registration didn’t start till 1864 so if William died before that there may not be a record. The Church of Ireland kept burial records for it’s congregations but few other denominations bothered. So for someone who died before 1864, who wasn’t Church of Ireland, there’s often no documentary record. You might find a gravestone but in this case you can’t be sure there will be one if he was made bankrupt. Perhaps his sons paid for one though.

Griffiths Valuation for Belfast was compiled around 1860 and so that would likely be too late for your family. In any event it won’t tell you much you don’t already know.

No sign of William McWilliams in the 1843 street directory. He had either died or left Belfast, I would say.

https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/alphanames1843L2Mc.htm

You ask about Masons and Knights Templar.  Freemasonry isn’t particularly unique to Ireland. It’s origins go way back. There were masons all over Europe in the 1600s and 1700s, and English & Scottish settlers probably brought it to Ireland in the 1600s. Freemasons in Ireland, and elsewhere, can be of any religious denomination:

http://www.freemasonsnorthmunster.com/Freemasonry_History.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Freemasonry

My own guess as to the McWilliams denomination is that they were probably Presbyterian. I say that simply on a statistical basis because in the early 1800s they were by far the predominant denomination in the city. The city was largely built in the 1700s by Scots (who in the main were Presbyterian, and who brought Presbyterianism to Ireland).  St Mary’s, the first Catholic church opened in Belfast in 1784. At that time there were only 365 Catholics in the whole city.  The industrial revolution changed all that. The city expanded dramatically in the 1800s and people – of all denominations – poured in from the nearby counties looking for work in the mills and shipyards.  But even in the late 1800s the majority was still Presbyterian.

If you are looking for the McWilliams baptisms, I’d start with Presbyterian records in Belfast. This link explains what records exist, parish by parish:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/publications/proni-guide-church-records

As explained previously, you’ll need to go through them all, church by church. Perhaps a day’s research in PRONI.

Elwyn,

As always you are a wealth of knowledge and I can't thank you enough for this information.  

God Bless,

Felicia