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Visiting Antrim County-McCurry/Hamilton

AntrimAntrim (Antrim)

Iam decended from Archibald McCurry and Ann Hamilton who were born in Antrim County between 1819 -1822 and immigrated to Canada (Grey County, Ontario) before 1845. Ann is possibly of the William Hamilton who obtained a grant of land in Canada in 1825. I will be visiting Antrim County May 21-24, 2014 to do some research on these two families, and am looking for any information on these families from other members of the Ireland Reaching Out community. Many thanks!

IrelandXO member

4 replies

Archibald & Ann?s births and marriage were before the start of statutory registration in Ireland (1845 for non RC marriages and 1864 for births). So you won?t find a birth or marriage certificate for them.

You might find their marriage  and their baptisms in church records if you know roughly where that took place, and what precise denomination(s). Otherwise it?s a needle in a haystack.

Some church records for that period are on-line, but many are not. I have searched the rootsireland site but do not see the marriage listed. So that suggests they married in one of the churches whose records is not on-line, or is lost.

There are copies of most surviving church records for Co.  Antrim in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast, but you need to try and find some way, from information in Canada, of narrowing your search to a specific area and denomination. Otherwise you have literally hundreds of sets of church records to go through.

 

Elwyn

Ahoghill AntrimIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Elwyn for the response to my post of April 26.  I do know that both Archibald and Ann were Roman Catholics, but I have no information on what parish(s) they came from.  I've been told that the McCurry name was most abundant in the northeast part of Antrim County but that's all I have to search with for a location.  I know the names of Ann's father and siblings, since they all settled together in Canada on farms beside Archie & Ann.  But I have no information on Archie's parents, siblings, place of birth, residence in Ireland, when he (or Ann & family) emmigrated to Canada, or on what ship, other than that it was before 1845 due to the age of their first born in Canada.  I've even checked for an initial USA entry, followed by relocation to Canada, but drawn a blank on that too.   I'll try the PRONI.

Thanks again Elwyn.

Pat.

IrelandXO member

Pat,

There were very few passenger records to Canada prior to about 1850 (they just weren?t required). PRONI has some for ships from Londonderry to New Brunswick, Quebec and Philadelphia (compiled by J & J Cooke the ships agents for their own commercial purposes) but they don?t start till about 1846.

Since you know the family were RC, that narrows your search a little. You can see what RC parishes there are in Co Antrim, and what records exist on this link:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/

Another problem you will face is that some parish records don?t go back far enough. For example Cushendun?s records only start in 1848.

Good hunting anyway.

 

Elwyn

Ahoghill AntrimIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Elwyn (or whomever picks up this note!)

It's been over 10 years since our last correspondence, and I have discovered more information about my Archie McCurry, but still have not been able to find anything prior to his arrival in Canada around 1844+/-. Since 2014, I have learned that Archie settled in Canada with his parents John McCurry and Catherine Murphy (b. 1788, presumeably in Co. Antrim), and 4 (known) sisters - Catherine, Margaret, Mary and Jane. It seems that Archie travelled with Hamiltons, McClartys and Murphys from the Cushendall area, and given that there were several Irish settlers as immediate neighbours in Grey County, Ontario, Canada, he may also have travelled with Quinns, Reids/Reads, Leachs, and Lawlesses. I don't know if Archie and his fellow emigrants initially travelled as individuals, and the families travelled later, or if they all came at the same time. My future plans are to use some of these names to investigate information to see if I get a connection to my McCurry immigrants, but that will be a long undertaking. Would you be able to use this additional information in any possible search that you can undertake through your records?

Looking forward to any tidbits you can find!

Many thanks.

Pat McCurry, Ottawa Canada.

pjmccurry

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