Barry,
If I have understood your message, your McGuire/Goff ancestor came from Templepatrick, Co Antrim. Is that correct?
There are no birth certificates for someone born c 1801 - 1803. They only started in Ireland in 1864. For the period you are looking at we rely mainly on church records, where they exist. You haven’t said what denomination he was. Do you know? If born RC, then the bad news is there are no RC records for that area. They don’t start till much later. There are records for Presbyterians and start in 1796. The Church of Ireland’s records don’t start till 1825. There’s a copy of the Presbyterian records held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. I don’t think they are on-line anywhere, so personal visit required.
I searched for the surname Goff. The name is found in Ireland but is not very common. However in the 1901 census, there were none at all in Co. Antrim. In Griffiths Valuation c 1864, there were just 2 in Co Antrim, both in Belfast, 15 miles from Templepatrick.
What took your ancestor to India. Did he serve in the army? If so, have you tried military records for him? Some are on-line on Ancestry & findmypast but there may be more detailed records help, in paper format., in the National Archives at Kew, London.
Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.
The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price. http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).
