Hi isabelle,
Thank you for your message.
Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find Robert?s father?s name as reality of finding documentation pertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas ? is that they simply may not exist. Catholic records for the area do not begin until 1832, you can see this at the Irish Times website:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Armagh&parish=Killeavy-Upper&churchid=198
Church of Ireland records tend to have an earlier start date than Catholic as it was the official church in Ireland. 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.
It may be an idea to contact Armagh Ancestry for some assistance, however a fee may apply. Here are their contact details:
Armagh Ancestry,
40 English Street,
Armagh,
BT61 7BA,
Northern Ireland.
Phone: +44 28 3752 1800 Email: researcher@armagh.gov.uk
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
