Robert John Close 1812, Dromore

Margaret,

Looking at the tithe applotment records for Dromore in 1834 there were 3 Close households in the townland of Balleny (David George & John). They were the only Close farms in the parish.

http://www.countydown.x10.mx/html/dromore_u.htm

Looking at the 1901 census for the same townland I see about 5 or 6 Close households, all Church of Ireland.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Down/Quilly/Balleney/

So on the basis that your family were Church of Ireland and came from Dromore, have you tried searching the local church records for the 2 children’s baptisms in 1842 & 1847? You might also find the parents marriage there, but that’s only if the bride happened to attend that church. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church after which she’d attend her husband’s. So they may have married elsewhere but you might expect the children to be baptised in Dromore Church of Ireland.  You might also find Robert’s baptism c 1812 and any siblings. The baptism & marriage records start in 1784. Copy in PRONI in Belfast.

Mudgie,

The records in PRONI are on microfilm and so you can’t search them on-line. You need to go in person (or get someone else to go for you). The Church of Ireland is putting its records on-line but that project is probably a couple of years away from completion. So no clear start date at this point. In the meantime getting someone to go to PRONI is probably your best option. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

You can also write to the Rector of the parish and ask him/her to look the records up. They don’t have to do that but if they do, there is a charge. Something like £19 (sterling) an hour. But many parishes have too much other work to attend to and this would be a low priority, and so you are not guaranteed any quick success with that. (The standard line is that the living parishioners take precedence over the dead ones).

Many migrants travelled via Canada as it was generally cheaper. Unfortunately Canada mostly didn’t start requiring passenger lists till around the 1850s, so for someone who arrived there before that, there is frequently no record of their journey, save occasionally a land border crossing into the US.