I am searching for the birth or baptismal records for my great-grandfather John Wellesley Henderson who was born in 1851 in Ballyclug. His father & 3 brothers drowned in a fishing accident (according to family legend). I believe his mother re-married & that he came to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada as a young boy.
Birth registration only started in Ireland in 1864 so you won?t get a birth certificate for someone born in 1851. You might find his baptism but to do that you really need to know the family?s denomination. Do you know that? (Looking at the 1901 census for the Ballymena area, the majority of Hendersons appear to be Presbyterian, but there are some Church of Ireland too).
Some church records for the Ballymena area are on-line on rootsireland. However not all are, and if you don't find it there, you may need to go to PRONI in Belfast to look them all up. There?s about 5 Presbyterian churches in Ballymena that the family might have attended and 2 Church of Ireland (Kirkinriola and Ballyclug).