Burt History 1700's

You don?t say what denomination the Burt family were. (Though they may have relatives buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard, that doesn?t necessarily mean they were of that denomination). I looked at the 1901 census for Co Antrim and there are only 4 Burts, a mix of Presbyterian and Church of Ireland. Hopefully yours were COI, as their records for the parish go back much further than the Presbyterian ones.

Glenavy baptism and marriage records start in 1707 but they are not on-line anywhere as far as I can see (the burials are on-line, on rootisireland). There is a copy of all the parish records for that period in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast and if you can?t get there yourself, you might need to get a researcher to call on your behalf.

I note that the Burts may have been United Irishmen. There are no records of the rank and file members (and there probably never were). After the 1798 uprising failed, the rank and file who weren?t killed on the battle field, slipped away and were effectively pardoned. One or two leaders were executed and a fair number of middle ranking officers were offered a deal whereby they wouldn?t be prosecuted if they and their families left Ireland by a specified date. Since the alternative was a trial for treason (penalty - death) naturally most took the one way ticket option. Some of these, and some 200 United Irishmen prisoners in the Belfast area are detailed in the Black Book of the Rebellion. There?s a copy of that in PRONI. (MIC 575/1).

Debra,

If your grandparents were Episcopalian then that?s an indicator their ancestors were Church of Ireland here. So I would certainly give the Glenavy Church of Ireland parish records careful scrutiny. (The only flaw in my logic is that most United Irishmen were either RC or Presbyterian, because those denominations suffered discrimination that members of the Church of Ireland did not. However there were other injustices and some COI did support the United Irishmen).

Birth certificates weren?t introduced in Ireland till 1864 so there are no Government records that you are going to find that will show their dates of birth, marriage dates or deaths. For the 1700s, there?s not much more than church records unless you were  major landowner or notorious in some way.

Don?t expect too much from the church records even if you find them. Though there will be a baptismal date, for the late 1700s you often don?t get the birth date, and so all you can really say is the person was probably born within the previous 2 or 3 months. Sometimes you get townlands (addresses) but often you don?t.  It?s pretty limited. Marriages don?t have parents names etc. However with Burt being such a rare name, you may be able to pick up other members of the family in the registers and piece them together.

You are correct that very few records go back to the 1700s. (Glenavy is one of the few parishes that does). As Clare has commented, research in the 1700s is difficult. Sometimes next to impossible.

It?s probably worth checking the tithe applotment records for Glenavy (which date to around 1830) to see if there are any Burts listed. (Only people with land would be there, so it?s not as good as a census, but better than nothing. Those for Co Down are not on-line and so again a trip to PRONI is required to view them. That might throw up any Burts that stayed in Ireland.

I don?t know of anywhere near Belfast called Glenarg. There?s Glenarm which is about 30 miles from Belfast, in Co Antrim, and obviously the parish of Glenavy. That?s probably the 2 nearest.

The defeat of the United Irishmen was in 1798, so if Nathaniel had to flee in 1801, it took him 3 years to get around to it. As I said previously, most of the rank and file were pardoned. Unless he was higher up in the organization he wouldn?t have had to flee (though he might well still have chosen to leave).  The United Irishmen were created because of injustices in respect of Catholics and Presbyterians (restrictions on what they could do), so even after the defeat they had political and economic motives for leaving, together obviously with opportunities for cheaper land etc in the US and other destinations.

 

 

Elwyn

Burt in Co Donegal seems to be the anglicised version of the Irish name ?An bheart? which means something like ?the place?.  It?s not named after anyone called Burt. Put it that way. Unlikely to be connected to people in Co Antrim with the surname Burt.