John McCaw (wife Elizabeth Tompson)

John?s birth is long before statutory birth registration in Ireland (1864) and to trace him we would really need to have some idea of where in Co Antrim he came from, and also his precise denomination, in order to search church records. Not all churches have records that go back to the late 1700s, so that doesn?t help.

Griffiths Valuation (c 1860) lists 100 McCaw households in the county. Mostly in the northern part, north of a line drawn from Larne to Portglenone. But that?s still a huge area to search.

Usual advice in this situation is to exhaust all possible sources outside Ireland in the hope of getting a clue as to where he originated. Poor Law records, military records, gravestones, wills, obituaries, tuaries, natiralisation records, marriage and some death certs, can provide this information.