Cochran family in County Antrim

Laura,

From the information you have provided, Alexander Cochran was born in the late 1700s. There are very few records of births in Co. Antrim for that period. Indeed if he was Catholic, as you suspect, there are basically none at all. (The first that I know of start in 1798 - St Patrick’s in Belfast). So if born Catholic you probably won’t find any record of him at all.

But I have doubts as to whether Alexander was born Catholic.  Looking at the 1901 census for Co Antrim there were 416 people named Cochran(e). Only 36 were Catholic. The majority were Presbyterian or Church of Ireland, reflecting the fact that the name is essentially Scottish and would have been brought to Ireland by Scottish settlers in the 1600s.  Most Scots were Presbyterian though a minority were Catholic or Episcopalian (Church of Ireland).  John Grenham’s site confirms the likely Scottish origins of your Cochran(e) ancestors:

https://www.johngrenham.com/findasurname.php?surname=Cochrane

There was a huge amount of migration from Antrim and adjacent counties, to North America during the 1700s but the vast majority (70% or more) were Presbyterian.  These were Scots who had already made one migration and so were more relaxed about moving on again, in contrast to native Irish folk who didn’t really start migrating in large numbers till the 1800s when a population explosion, famine, economic and other social factors drove them to leave.

So I suspect your Cochran ancestor was probably born Presbyterian. But without clear information on the parish or townland that your ancestor lived in, it will probably be impossible to say with any certainty where he came from.  And in most cases, even with that information there may be no record of him. He may well be descended from Scots who moved to Ireland in the 1600s, but it’s difficult to offer anything beyond that.

Have you found a marriage for Alexander & Catharine? If so, what denomination? If you ancestor was born Presbyterian// Church of Ireland but married in a Catholic church, then at the period we are looking at he'd have needed to convert. So you would be looking for a Catholic adult baptism in the local parish records. Typically 1 to 2 months before the date of the marriage.

They were married by a JP. So a civil marriage, not a religious one. That does tend to suggest to me that it was a mixed marriage. I’d say he was born Presbyterian or Episcopalian and she was RC. And from what you have said, she brought the children up in the RC faith.

I see that Catherine Kirk was from Co. Cavan. I looked in the 1901 Irish census (the oldest complete census). There were just 17 people in the county named Kirk. A mix of Catholic & Church of Ireland.  Just about 6 families. That might help narrow the search as to where she came from.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie

Unfortunately Cochran is so more common we can’t really apply that skill to that family.