Good morning,
I am hoping to find information on Ann Mawhinney and Samuel Johnston. Ann was baptised in Templepatrick in 1840. Her parents were Robert Mawhinney and Janet Sterling. Samuel's parents were John Johnston and Agnes Wilson. Samuel and Ann were married in Muckamore in 1859. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Have a great day, Sandra Johnston
Hi Sandra,
Could you please post your message on the Muckamore parish page here: http://www.irelandxo.com/group/muckamore-grange-antrim
Do you know what religion they were?
There are Roman Catholic church records available for the diocese of Antrim (Down and Connor) (for the civil parish of Muckamore). These date from 1848 for both baptismal and marriage records. You can find these at the National Library of Ireland, Pos. 5472, or the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI), MIC.1D/68. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for more assistance.
Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870 are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyed in the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most 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. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.
Prebyterian registers are held in three main locations: in local custody, in the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Belfast. PRONI has microfilm copies of almost all registers in Northern Ireland and also lists of records held by the Presbyterian Historical Society. For the rest of Ireland, almost all records are in local custody. It can difficult to locate these as many congregations in the South have moved, amalgamated, or simply disappeared over the last sixty years.
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 Griffith'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. Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38). Microfilm copies of the books for all of Ireland are available at the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/tithe-applotment-books-and-the-primary-griffith-valuation/ or the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS).
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)