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Martha Henning from Armagh

Hello,
I'm looking for information on my great-grandmother, Martha Henning, originally from Armagh.  
Her obituary stated:
- She was born on 11 June 1855 in Armagh, Ireland. 
- Martha and her parents moved to England when she was 15 years old (Abt. 1870).  
- Martha moved to New York, USA at the age of 18 (Abt. 1873) 
- Martha married my great-grandfather, Edmond Field, in New York, USA in 1876-1877.

What I've found:
- Church records in Rochester, New York, USA show a Martha HANNING marrying Edmond Field sometime between July 1876 and Jan 1877 
- The church record lists Martha's parents as John HANNING and Mary Emerson.
- My DNA matches on ancestry.com suggest that Martha may be a daughter of John Henning and Mary Emerson of Armagh, Ireland, by way of matches to me through their other children William, George, Hannah and Samuel. 
- Another DNA match links me to Edmond Field in Upstate, New York, USA to suggest I have the correct Edmond Field.
- Martha and Edmond moved from New York to Michigan, USA which is where I grew up.

Another message board (https://irelandxo.com/ireland/meath/killeen-meath/message-board/henning) may be related to my search.

I have not been able to find any records of Martha's time in Ireland or England.  I would greatly appreciate any information you can offer!
Kind regards,

RalphM

5 replies

I found a civil birth of a probable sister to your Martha - might help get your search started with regard to location etc..

Sarah Henning born 12 November  1865, Killeen, Market Hill, County Armagh  (see entry 39)

parents John Henning and Mary Emerson, father's occupation is shoemaker

There are at least two townlands named Killeen in county Armagh, I believe the one where the family lived at the time the townland of Killeen in Lisnadill civil parish, it's located on the road from Armagh to Markethill.

I dont see any corresponding Catholic baptism so suspect that this Henning/Emerson family is probably Church of Ireland or Presbyterian.

 

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks so much for your quick reply, Shane!  
The information on the correct Killeen should be very helpful.
I believe I have identified 11 of the reported 13 children of John Henning & Mary Emerson, including Sarah.  Many of the childern immigrated to the United State and at least 3 went to Australia.  Several remained in Ireland.
I mainly looking for evidence of MARTHA.  I've seen her listed in a number of family trees on ancestry.com, etc. but no one has any information other than the name.
Thanks for your help!
Ralph D Marmion

 

RalphM

Ralph,

Statutory birth registration only started in Ireland in 1864. Prior to that you need to rely on church baptism records, where they exist. And not all are on-line.

Martha was born c 1855, so you won't find a birth certificate for her. You haven’t said what the Henning family denomination was but looking at the 1901 census of Armagh, most were Church of Ireland or Presbyterian (indicating settler origins, either from Scotland or England). If the family that Shane has found in Killeen is the right one (and that seems likely to me) then you should know that the early Church of Ireland records for that parish (Lisnadill) were destroyed in the 1922 fire in Dublin. So if baptised in Lisnadill in 1855 or thereabouts and COI there probably won't be a baptism record to find. There was a COI church at Aghavilly, with records from 1844. That's also in Lisnadill.  Copy in PRONI in Belfast. It might be worth checking those, but if the family used the main parish church, then the records are lost. If they were Presbyterian, then again the records should be in PRONI, and are probably not on-line anywhere.

You say the family moved to England about 1870. The 1861 Irish census is destroyed. The only record of Martha’s presence in Ireland might be school attendance records, if you can trace the right school and if the records survive. (They will probably be in PRONI if they exist).

If the family was in England in 1871 then they should be in that census (available on Ancestry). Otherwise there may not be any other record of Martha’s presence in Ireland or England.

 

 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for the detailed post, Elwyn.  It's very helpful to understand when birth registration began in Ireland, as well as the loss of many records.  It confirmed my suspicions that finding Marth won't be easy...
I do think the family was COI as two brothers were married in COI churches.  Armed with yourinformation I will dig deeper and see what I can find.
Thanks again!
Ralph

RalphM

Ralph,

I should have mentioned that Protestant marriages were registered in the statutory records from April 1845 onwards. I searched for John Henning’s marriage to Mary Emerson but without success. So they appear to have married before 1845. Again you are reliant on church records, which may not have survived.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

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