Please help me find my missing ancestor!

Hi,

Can you tell me if they stayed in New York or moved further west?  Ohio perhaps?  Also, were any children born in Ireland?  

Thanks,

Marsha

Marriage certificates were only introduced in Ireland in 1845 so if Zachariah & Rachel married in Ireland in the 1830s, there is no certificate to find. You might find an entry in church register, but not all pre 1845 records have survived and many of those that do still exist are not on-line.

You mention the Black family having land near Dungannon. I checked the tithe applotment records (a series of records created for tax purposes which list most folk with land) and there were no Black households in the parish of Drumglass, which includes Dungannon, in 1832.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/tyrone/tithe-applotment-books/parish-of-drumglass.php

What religious denomination was your family in Ireland?

I have one possible clue for you which is that in the 1901 census there was 1 Zachariah Black in Co. Tyrone. (There were only 9 people named Zachariah in Ireland in 1901).  Families tended to repeat the same names, generation after generation, so it’s just possible the Zachariah in the 1901 census is distantly related to your Zachariah:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tyrone/Ballynasollus/Beltonanean/1730464/

He was Church of Ireland lived in the townland of Beltonanean, in the parish of Kildress, Co Tyrone. That’s about 15 miles from Dungannon.

Zachariah in the 1901 census had a father named William Black.  Probably not the William b 1787 but evidently a family name.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1900/10352/5768488.pdf

William died in 1879 aged 74, so born around 1805, give or take a year or two.  (Most ages then were just guesses).

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1879/06520/4878271.pdf

Kildress Church of Ireland records start in 1794 (for baptisms & marriages). They don’t appear to be on-line anywhere but there is a copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast and so you could look them up there to see if your Zachariah is listed around 1811. If you are unable to go yourself, you could employ a researcher. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

 

 

 

Colette,

Yes it’s possible that Rachael’s maiden name was Black. It’s a very common surname in Ireland (and in Scotland). Looking at the 1901 Irish census there were 4264 people named Black in the country and 19 were named Rachael. For the same census in Scotland there were 14,502 people named Black and 28 were Rachael. So it’s a quite common name in both countries.

I can see that both William & Rachael arrived in the US in 1837 but did they travel together? If they did you would expect them to have left Ireland together, and for her to be more likely born in Ireland. But she could have been born in Scotland. People went back and forth all the time. It’s a very short journey. People from Ireland often went to Scotland for work (still do) and there are plenty of Scottish born people in Ireland. (In that 1901 Irish census there were 26,574 born in Scotland).

Doesn’t really make it any easier finding Rachael’s birth, especially if it was in Ireland. There are plenty of gaps in the Irish parish records, and many of the records are not on-line. You would need to hire a researcher to have a look at possible parish records in PRONI in Belfast.  I’d focus on Church of Ireland & Presbyterian records. And I’d check out the Kildress records first, for William’s baptism, and also for Rachael. People in Ireland in the early 1800s tended to marry the girl next door. I'd check the same records for a marriage c 1837. (Many young couples emigrated soon after marrying).

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. If you have already tested your DNA with Ancestry, My Heritage or 23&Me you can upload your DNA results to Family Tree DNA for free and then join the North of Ireland Family History Society DNA Project. Simple instructions on how to do this can be found here: https://www.nifhs.org/dna/uploading-your-dna/