Pelan

Thanks so much for your reply, Elwin. Shortly after posting it went to a site which refers to a William Palen of Carleton County, Ontario. He death record indicates he was born in Lambeg but I did not make the connection when I had seen it before. I checked on my William Palen who is my 3rd great-uncle and it’s him but the death record was not transcribed properly so I couldn’t tell that it was Lambeg. Since you were able to find William Barbour I am certain I’m on the right track. 

William Palen was Wesleyan Methodist and John Palen, my 3rd great-grandfather, was Church of England so I think the best place to start is Church of Ireland. I didn’t know about the PRONI e-catalogue so thanks for that as well.

Kerry

This thread is a litle old but you might be interested in looking at the Pelan family history website.  gene.pelan.org

While it hasn't been updated in a while there's quite a bit of information there.

Of particular note to Pelan family research is that the old Lambeg church records have been lost.  The Lisburn cathedral records are intact and there are Pelans to be found there, many listed at the above site.

Kerry

I too am searching for a Matthew Pelan. I've assumed it's not the same one as you, but now I don't know, as the information seems confusing. l

My g-grandfather John Pelan was born in Lisburn in about 1858, and on his marriage certificate he says his father was John Pelan, tailor. I cannot find any other references to them anywhere. However, I have a lot of DNA matches to what I believe are two sisters called Thompson, and their parents were Alexander Thompson and Mary Pelan. Mary was born in Lisburn in 1823, the daughter of Matthew Pelan, and married Charles McIlwrath. As I have so many matches to her, she must have been a close relation of John snr - a sister, or at most a cousin. I have found what I believe are other children of Matthew's, as his name appears on their marriage certificates - William born 1820 who married Margaret Chapman in Lisburn in 1850, Arthur who married in Belfast in 1866, and Ann, born in Lisburn in 1926, who married William Taylor.

I have found someone on a different site who has the same Matthew and Elizabeth in her tree as you. She has their children as William 1818 (Lambeg) and Matthew Addison Pelan, whom she is descended from. She thinks the family may have emigrated in the 1840s.

I haven't found these births, but what seems odd to me is this: Matthew son of William is in the McCabe list, but according to it he is single. He can't be Matthew Addison Pelan who was too young in 1829 to be included, but Matthew snr was married with children - who are not mentioned, nor is Elizabeth, either in Canada or Ireland.

So - were there two Matthews, or one? If there were two, which was the father of my Mary, as she was born in in 1823, so it could have been either. And, as my Matthew doesn't seem to have a son called John, is there any chance your John is the one I'm looking for, unlikely as it seems?

Any information you have would be appreciated!

Paulinec,

The Pelans lived primarily in and around Lambeg, at least until the expansion of Belfast in the 19th century. There are maps of the Hertford estate in PRONI showing where they lived around then.  I hope good colour copies will be available on the Internet at some point. The microfilm copies are not very good.

The early Lambeg church records are missing, presumed lost so there will likely never be a good documented BMD trail for most of the family aside from those that got married in the cathedral or otherwise out-of-parish.  There are some old recorded family trees that pop up from time to time but this is rare. Matthew is also a common Pelan family name, at least early on,  likely stemming from the first "Pelan" that arrived in Lisnagarvey from England in the 17th century. This is detailed in the Pelan genealogy website above.

There are good Y-DNA trails for the family although one is strongly associated with the Hancock family. It also shows how the name mutated from Paling to Pelan, Palen, Palan, Peling etc.

Hello Prognosticator

One of my relatives (deceased now, I'm sorry to say) took a y-dna test after I discovered the Pelan website, and we are Lisburn Pelans, possibly originally Palins from Nottinghamshire.

My g-grandparents, although they were both Irish, met and married in England, and my g-grandfather died before my mother was born, so we know next to nothing about him, except he was born in Lisburn about 1855, and that his father was named John, occupation tailor (marriage certificate). However, he was married before he came to England - though I've never found any record of his first wife's death in either Ireland or England - and with the help of PRONI I found the certificate of this first marriage, to Sarah McMurry in 1876 when he was living in Back Lane, Lisburn. I've scoured all the records I can find on the internet, and I can't place him, so the best clue I have to his antecedents are those I've gleaned from my DNA matches, mentioned in my first post. It's so frustrating! I would love to know more about my Irish ancestors.

I realise Lambeg may not be the right parish, but I wanted to reply to Kerri's query. Thanks for the info about the map - it's so useful to have local knowledge

Pauline