Seeking information on John Sharpe, born1804in Ahoghill, County Antrim Ireland; sonRobert John SHARPE, born 11 Dec 1834in Ahoghill, County Antrim Ireland andSarah Simpson,wife and motherrespectively, born 1810, died1848. John and Robert John emigrated to the U.S. in 1848. It is believed they were all Presbyterian.
SESharpe:
Our volunteer for Ahoghill is on Holidays at the moment. He should be back in about two weeks. I will alert him to this message when he returns.
Roger McDonnell
The births, death and marriage for this family are all before the start of statutory registration in Ireland and so in this situation, you are generally reliant on church records. Unfortunately none of the 3 Presbyterian churches in Ahoghill has any baptism records before 1836. The earliest marriage records are 1841 for Ahoghill 1st, 1836 for the 2nd (Trinity) and 1845 for Ahoghill 3rd (Brookside).
There are some Simpson Graves in Trinity graveyard and also in the Old Graveyard in Ahoghill but I don’t see any for Sarah Sharpe. So possibly she was buried in an unmarked grave (as were most of the population at that time).
I can see 4 Presbyterian Sympson households in Ahoghill parish in the 1766 census. Headed by Robert, William and 2 Johns:
http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ShowFreePage.php?id=328
I don’t see any Sharpe households so perhaps they moved into the parish after 1766.
I think you may struggle to find anything on this family, due to the lack of records for the period they lived in Ireland.
Elwyn,
Thanks so much, you've confirmed my suspicions. We walked the Trinity graveyard and the Old Graveyard and saw some Simpsons, and no Sharpes. I've always wondered about Sarah's death and the fact that John and Robert left that year for the U.S. The 1766 information gives some more clues. I've seen some Sharpes in Ballycastle so maybe I'll go down that rabbit hole. Thanks again.
Steve