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Devlin Family of Mountjoy

Tyrone

The only information I have is from an 8-page"manuscript" type family tree from the Historical & Genealogical Society of Somerset, County, PA. It was handwritten in 1872 and typed in 1941 from "records and notes in possession of Anna Lane Menges" who died in 1966.

John Lane from the"Rhine, the western part of Russia"and Catherine Devlin from "Mount Joy near Armaugh, Ireland", my 5th great grandparents. I am sure she means Mountjoy near Armagh.

It says Catherine was the daughter of John Devlin who emigratedto America and settled and died at Carlisle, PA.

Catherine Devlin marriedJohn Lane about 1780.

She died in Somerset County, PA in 1840.

It shows eight children born to them.

From here I am completely stuck! Any suggestions on how to trace this Devlin line?

marlogan68@out…

3 replies

Marlee,

Statutory birth, death and marriage registration (in some jurisdictions called Vital Records) only started in Ireland in 1864, save for non RC marriages which were recorded from 1845 onwards. So you probably won’t find birth, death or marriage certificates for this family. For earlier years you usually need to rely on church records, where they exist. You obviously need to know the precise denomination in order to search the correct records. Not all churches have records for that period and not all are on-line.

RC records are mostly on-line on the nli site:  

https://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

For other denominations, the churches usually hold the originals but there are also copies in PRONI, the public record office, in Belfast. A personal visit is required to access them. Access to the records there is free. This link explains what records exist, parish by parish:

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

If you are unable to go yourself, you could employ a researcher. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

Mountjoy is in the parish of Cappagh.  The Church of Ireland records for that parish start in 1753, RC in 1843 and Presbyterian (Mountjoy/Crossroads) in 1821.  So unless the family was Church of Ireland it looks unlikely there will be any record of them.

Research in Ireland in the 1700s is notoriously difficult due to the lack of records.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Elwyn,

    Thank you very much for your responses to all three of my posts.  I really appreciate all the information and will look into all the suggestions.

Marlee

marlogan68@out…
I found my people in Mountjoy in the church records. They were all gone by 1830. So it is possible.
salopiangurl

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