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Mary Anne Alcorn

On 24 June 1868 Mary Anne Alcorn married my Great Grandfather, William Makin in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. Little is known of her except that she was the daughter of William and Mary Anne (maiden name unknown) Alcorn who were from County Donegal in Ireland. Mary Anne Alcorn had sailed to Australia, arriving as a 19 year old immigrant to Victoria, Australia, in 1865. I can't find a shipping record for her. Her birth date is around 1846 in Donegal. Between her marrige and her death on the 28th of February 1875 at Sandhurst, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia,  the family had 4 children. My problem is that I can't find any vital information about her family in Dongal, her baptismal record or shipping record from Ireland or England. My Great Grandfather William Makin remarried a time after her death and a further family eventuated. Can anyone help in my search for Mary Anee or her parents (William and Mary Anne Alcorn) ?

tomodriscoll

3 replies

Tom,

Mary Anne's birth in the 1840s is before the start of birth registration in Ireland (1864). Prior to that you need to rely on church records, where they exist. And not all surviving records are on-line.

I looked at the 1901 census for Donegal and there were 210 people named Alcorn in the county then. All but a handful were Church of Ireland (ie Anglican), so that’s probably the denomination to focus on.

Some Church of Ireland records for Donegal are on rootsireland but not all are. Without any knowledge of where in the county your family lived you might just have to work through all the 52 parishes in the county. (They don’t all have records for the 1840s so you might have to go through 25). There are copies in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast.

Being Church of Ireland and residing in Co. Donegal points to the family probably being descended from setters from Scotland or England who arrived in the 1600s.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer
My family are Alcorn's from Milford, Donegal. There were many Alcorn's living in and around that area. I have been trying to trace back from my Grandfather WILLIAM ALCORN, but it's difficult! My family seem to have followed the naming pattern traditions closely. So there are so many William Alcorns in Milford at the same time as him and all their fathers seem to also be William Alcorn... so which is which?!?!?!
Debra
Hi Debra, Thanks for your advise. I new it wouldn't be easy. (My) Mary Anne Alcorn b 1846 had a father William, and a mother also Mary Anne (maiden name unknown). Does that combination help with a result? Regards, Tom Collie Western Australia
tomodriscoll

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