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Advice for finding Irish records in early 1800's

Hi all,

This has been a great board for gathering information that has helped me find my Irish ancestors!

I've looked at a number of records on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, irishgenealogy.ie, etc., and there is certainly a wealth of info out there. I'm wondering what the experience of others has been in terms of finding records from the early 1800's, particularly when little information is known.

In the early 1800's, my Lee family ancestors --Robert Lee, his wife Mary, and several of their children (including my great-great-great grandfatherWilliam Lee)-- left Ireland around 1820for Liverpool, England. Numerous records from Liverpool in the mid 1800's list the place of birth for my family as "Ireland." No specific townland or county is indicated (looks like this wasn't done on English census records until the 1900's.

Of course there is no census data from Ireland in 1820 that is available, but looking through parish records, baptismal records, etc. I can't seem to find the family. I imagine not all of the records from that time period are available? I know many Irish records were destroyed. Any advice on how to go about piecing together information to try and find the county of origin for the Lee's?

Thank you as always!
- Pat

patrickjlee01@…

4 replies

Pat:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Very difficult to find records back to the early 1800s. You will have more success if your ancestors lived in a big city such as Dublin, Cork or Limerick. Were your ancestors RC or C of I?

If they were Roman Catholic and lived in the west of Ireland, you won't find any records. Many of the Church of Ireland records were destroyed in the 1922 Public Records Office fire but some records are still available either locally or at the Representative Church Library in Dublin which requires a visit.  Another good resource is PRONI in Belfast for Northern Ireland records which also requires a personal visit. 

Likely the records for your family are not available.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Roger!

In terms of Roman Catholic vs. Church of Ireland, here's what I know: It appears that the children of William Lee (who was born in Ireland, son of Robert and Mary Lee) including my great-great grandfather, were baptized at various Irish Roman Catholic churches in the Liverpool area . The generations of the family to follow were all Catholic, from what is known, up the present-day Lee's. This makes me assume that the initial family from Ireland (Robert & Mary Lee, and their children William (my direct ancestor), Thomas, Michael, Charles, and Catherine) were Catholic.

However, I find a record in the Marriages & Banns records from the Church of England from 1839 from William Lee and Maria Webber (my ggg-grandmother).... I'm wondering, were marriages in England in 1839 typically done in the C of E by law/practice, to be officially recognized? Also, any clues from the forenames of the family? (Robert, Mary, William, Thomas, Michael, Charles, Catherine, Elizabeth). Would seem odd to be married in the Church of England and then have your child baptized only a few short years later in an Irish Roman Catholic church.

While whether they were RC or C of I doesn't matter much to me in terms of their beliefs, it helps me narrow down where to look for records, as well as gives me more likely Counties to focus on in Ireland. 

Thanks for any help anyone can provide as I learn the ropes here!

-Pat

patrickjlee01@…

Pat:

In 1839 if the two paries were RC then the marriage would have held in an RC church. I'm wondering if Maria Webber was Church of England but she agreed to have the children raised RC.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Roger.
Maria Webber was from Devon, England, so I'm guessing Church of England and that your theory is correct. I think given the Catholic baptism of the children, it was likely William Lee was RC. Every other direct ancestor that married into the family from the mid-1800s on was an Irish RC immigrant to Liverpool, making me think it was likely the Lee family was as well. That being said, there were several Lee family origins in Ireland: English planter Lee's and Gaelic anglicized Lee's.
I think I'll need to do some more research of the Lees just as they arrived in Liverpool to get clues about their Irish origin. I wish there were English records from the early 1800's that indicated county of origin in Ireland to narrow the focus.
Pat
 

 

patrickjlee01@…

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