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John Arthur Gibson

Hi, I am looking to trace my husband's maternal great grandfather, John Arthur Gibson.

The only facts I have from his life in Australia are taken from his Western Australian marriage certificate, 18th September 1900, stating that he was 38 years old when he married Emily Sarah Harber. His father William Gibson was a farmer and his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Wiley. That puts his dob at about 1862.

The only other record I have is when he joined the railways in Western Australia where his dob is listed as 26th Feb 1865.

I have exhausted my research in Australia and the UK with no results so I looked into an Irish connection which has a John Arthur Gibson in a large family of 8 siblings from Killashee, Co Longford.

DNA tracing maybe our only option if you are unable to help us.

Thank you for any assistance you can offer

Kind Regards

Fiona Blake

 

Fionah

1 reply

Fiona:

Civil registration of births in Ireland started in 1864. I looked at the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie for all 23 John Gibson birth records for 1864-1865 and did not see a record for your John Gibson using the parental names provided.

I searched on the subscription site Roots Ireland for church records using the parental information you provided but did not locate a record for John.

You did not mention his religion but I will assume Church of Ireland. Many of the C of I parish records were lost in the Public Records Office fire in Dublin in 1922 but a good number of parishes have records held localy or at the Representative Church Library in Dublin. The RCB records are not available in a centralized data base at this time.

At this point, as you suggested, a DNA test would be your next step. Hopefully you will have matches with individuals who have Gibson or Wiley connections and have more info on the origins of your family in Ireland. Its is very likely they came ffrom Ulster province.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

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