I'm interested in the family of Samuel McBride and Mary Jane Speers in the mid to late 1800's in Ballymoney, Country Antrim. Children John, Mary Jane, William and Daniel emigrated to the U.S. around 1850. The parents as well as children Samuel and Andrew remained in Ballymoney.
Hi there,
First of all, do you know what religion they were? If they were Roman Catholic, there are church records available starting from 1853 for both baptismal and marriage records. These cover the diocese of Ballymoney (Down and Connor). They can be accessed at the National Library of Ireland, Pos. 5473, or the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI), MIC.1D/69A, or the Ulster Historical Foundation (UHF). If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for more assistance.
Civil registration records are available from the General Register Office (GRO). These start from 1864 however. You can access the website here: http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You could also try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) or the later Griffth's Valuation (1848-64). Griffith's is freely available here: www.askaboutireland.com or here: www.failteromhat.com Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at.
There workhouse records (1839-48 Famine period) available for Ballymoney. It might be worth taking a look at these too. These are in PRONI, ref. no. 259174-5.
Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.
Kind regards,
Sinead Cooney
Genealogist (Ireland XO)
I am a direct decendant of Samuel McBride, born ca 1740, Antrim and Margaret Brown, born ca 1744, Antrim, Married ca 1759, Antrim. Children: John, James, Samuel, Martha, Betsy, Daniel. Contact me if I can help: Kirk D. McBride, USA, k.d.mcbride@att.net
Kirk,
Thanks for the reply. Do you know where in Antrim your McBride family lived? My McBrides lived in Ballymoney. The children were born between about 1824 and 1841. I don't have an age for the parents but it looks like they could have fit in with your McBride family. Their religion was Catholic. I would appreciate hearing from you again.
Jim TeVogt - jimtv@juno.com