Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for your message and for your offer to share information. I hope that someone with information on the family makes a connection with you.
In the meantime here are some resources:
Church Records:
Civil registration did not begin in Ireland until 1864 so prior to this records of births, deaths and marriages were kept by the local parish church. Do you know the family?s religion?
Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. It also shows you where copies of the records are available. For Glenavy&Killead parish, follow this link:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Antrim&parish=Glenavy&churchid=417
Unfortunately as you can see from the link above records for the parish do not begin until 1849.
Church of Ireland generally tend to have an earlier start date as it was the official church of the country.Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42
Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.
Civil Records:
Civil registration began in Ireland in 1864 so any births, deaths or marriages in the family after this date would be recorded in these records. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:
http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You can search the indexes to these records up to 1958 online at:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
Griffith?s Valuation:
This is a property valuation survey that was carried out in Ireland 1848-64. You can search this online here:
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp
Census Records:
If there were any family members still in the area at the turn of the 19th century you should be able to find record of the in the 1901/1911 census records. These can give lots of useful information. Here is the link:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
Some other websites that you may find useful are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm
Family Search: www.familysearch.org
Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/antrim/index.html
I hope some of this is helpful. Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
