Hi, does anyone know where I should start. I have little experience of trying to find anyone using Irish records as whenever I have looked I have had no luck. I am looking for Theophilus Peare/Peerwho was born around1805 in Ireland ...thats it that is all I have to go on. He came over to England before 1833 when he married Eliza Hicks in 1833 so before the fathers name was added in the parish records. Any help where to start is appreiciated thank you
Hi There, at that remove we are mainly reliant on church records so specifying religion is important, a lot of Anglican records were lost in the civil war and Presbyterian records can be diffficult whille RC records vary and can be patchy.
I done a search on Roots Ireland a subscription site and and in the period 1795 to 1815 there is a Peare family in Galway on the west coast, there is no Theo but a number of baptisms there, no other Peares turned up in Ireland, however a number turn up in the 1850s in Wexfords on the east coast and I searched the Tithes about 1824 to 1838 and there are Peare entries in Galway but no year given, there are also Peares in Wexford, Cork and Dublin circa 1833, this is just head of house or land. http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp So it looks like Galway is the place but as it is not an Irish name they may have arrived, McLysaghts Surnames of Ireland has the name Perry (meaning Pear head, sorry had to tell you) anyway it says Peere was an earlier form and came to Cork in the first half of the 17th century, Also was Pirrie and Peery. Peere appears in the Plantation of Ulster and later as a Cromwellian immigrant (1649) it is now mostly Perry and found all over the country.
Libraries are due to reopen on the 8th June I think and you could email Galway library and ask about the name as there is a good genealogy and local history there.
There is an ongoing voluntary project on land registry here and there are a couple of Peares mentioned. https://irishdeedsindex.net/search/search.php Shown in hte early 1700s here.
I also had a look in Google Books and searched Peare Galway and see an Ann Peare of Galway married a Condon from Waterford in Nova Scotia in 1851, also done a very quick Peare Ireland and got a couple of hits, not really any help but shows they were about.
At the remove you are at 1805 it is tricky to pinpoint a person, may be something in Wills in the National Archives but think a lot destroyed
Good Luck
Pat