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William Dick Family

Hi there, in October of last year, I submitted a post seeking assistance trying to obtain information of William Dick (1774 – 1849), his wife Esther Taylor and their 6 six children prior of leaving their home in Tyrone County.

In the second post of William Dick and co, I was given a link of information for the surrounding areas of the counties in Northern Ireland including Tyrone.   I did find some useful information like 2 of his children’s baptism entries a year different to what is mentioned in Ancestry, William’s occupation as a weaver and they lived in Claggan, Dungannon in Co Tyrone.

Recently I discovered in the Trove website (Australia) that William had a younger brother named Samuel (1793 – 1846) from Cookstown who was sent to Australia in 1818 as a convict for Rape and abduction in Antrim, Ireland.   With the information I have obtained of the court transcript in Ireland and the coroner’s inquest, I also discovered that a sibling named Jane was in a Lunatic Asylum later in life in Northern Ireland and there were 2 other brothers that are not accounted for.

I would appreciate if someone can assist me in locating details of the Lunatic Asylum as well as the 2 other Dick siblings that lived in Northern Ireland.    Would there be any other way to locate their parents as I do not know where to look

Thanking you

colinmorrissey…

1 reply

Codrake,

There were numerous lunatic asylums in Ulster in the 1800s.  If you go to the PRONI e-catalogue and use “lunatic asylum” as your search criterion, you’ll get 313 matches. You might want to look at them for ideas as to where Jane might have been.

https://apps.proni.gov.uk/eCatNI_IE/SearchPage.aspx

I have no useful suggestions as to how you might easily find the 2 un-named Dick siblings. I assume you have already explored church records. Beyond that it’s going to be pretty challenging. Looking at the surname Dick in Tyrone in the 1901 census all but 1 of the 24 living there were Presbyterian (so indicative of Scots origins).  That seems likely to be the denomination to focus on with churhc records.

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. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

 

 

 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

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