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William Roark from County Antrim, 1760 - 1841

Antrim

DOB:  6 June 1760

DOD: 4 March 1841 

Does anyone know anything about William Roark's origins in County Antrim?  He emigrated to the American colonies before the Revolutionary war, as he fought in a New Jersey regiment during the conflict.  His gravestone bears a different death date, but the above date is the one used by other descendents when applying for his war memorial stone. 

My Roark grandfather died before I was born, and I have been unable to find information on William's parents or parish.  Any additional information would be appreciated.

emil24@aol.com

2 replies

MaryLinda,

There aren’t many records of people in Ireland in the 1700s, so this sort of research can be very difficult. Few churches have baptism records fro someone born around 1760.

I searched the 1796 Flax Growers list to see if it threw up any Roarke (and variant spellings) in Antrim but there are none there at all. Indeed it’s not a common name in the county at all.

https://www.failteromhat.com/flax1796.php

The 1901 census has 1 Roarke family in the county. They lived in Ballintoy, plus there are small number of Rourkes (a more common variant spelling) mostly in Belfast.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Ballintoy/Ballintoy_Demesne/922201/

Ballintoy does not have any baptism records for the 1700s. There was a census in 1803 (conducted by the local Minister) and it does list several Rourke families living there then. You can view that census on Bill McAfee’s site:

 

http://billmacafee.com

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you Elwyn for these ideas.  I have been trying periodically trying to find information for a couple of years, but it's been hard to find leads of where to search, so I appreciate your ideas.  

MaryLinda

emil24@aol.com

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