Looking for porter relatives

Sarah-Louise:

I tried to find a birth index record for Samuel and Sarah in the Newry registration district. No luck on either but I did find an 1876 birth index record for a Sarah Jane Blakely in the Banbridge registration district. You would have to write to the GRO www.groireland.ie to get a copy of the record. If you decide to get a copy, you need to provide the info in the record below and also fill out their form. Costs around 4 euros. There are also a number of Porters in the 1901 census for Newry. www.census.nationalarchives.ie

Roger McDonnell

Samuel Porter and Sarah Bleakley?s marriage was registered in Irvine in 1897 GROS ref 595/00 0067. If you obtain a copy of that certificate from Scotlandspeople, it will give you both their parents ? information you need to make sure you have the right birth certificates in Ireland.

30 credits on Scotlandspeople will cost you ?7. Each cert is usually 6 credits.

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/welcome.aspx

I would then search for the parents in the 1901 Irish census.

Sarah-Louise:

No luck on Porter and Cochran. Better luck on Bleakley and McKee. If you think this record is your family, you can write to the GRO www.grorieland.ie for a copy. (Not sure if the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)) would have a copy. (My colleague from Antrim would know). If you go to GRO, fill out their form and provide the info from the index record below. The marriage record should show the names of the fathers of the bride and groom and where they lived in 1867.

Roger

First Name: John  

• Last Name: Blakely  


• Year: 1867  


• Registered Quarter/Year: 1867  


• Registration District: Newry  


• Volume: 1  


• Page: 967  


• Potential Spouse Names: Sarah M'Kee

Sarah-Louise,

I looked for the Porter-Cochran marriage but could not find it either.

To answer the question about whether PRONI would have a copy of the Blakely - M'Kee marriage certificate, the answer is that it depends. Sometimes they do have them and sometimes they don?t.

The main repository for statutory births, deaths & marriages in Northern Ireland is GRONI, in Belfast (the Northern Ireland equivalent of GRO). However GRONI don?t offer a photocopy option and they charge ?15 for a full certificate. So GRO is much better value (at ?4 for a photocopy) and I would generally point people in that direction, unless it was for a certificate in Northern Ireland after 1.1.1922 in which case you have to use GRONI.

PRONI holds copies of baptism and marriage records (all denominations). Their focus is on those before statutory registration, and so a lot of their records stop around 1864 (1845 for non RC marriages) because the information after those dates ought to be in the statutory records. However with some churches, especially smaller one with fewer records, the copying team obviously bashed on regardless and in some cases there are marriages certificates right through until the 1960s. (And they are all free to view. 30p to copy).

So you have to know the church where the marriage took place, and then check the PRONI site to see how far the records go, and therefore whether you can get a copy there. Otherwise stick to GRO, is my advice. In this case we don?t know which church the marriage took place, and so you wouldn?t know where to look in PRONI. So get a copy from GRO.

When you get the certificate, let us know the townlands (addresses), occupations of the couple, also their fathers names and occupations, and we'll see if we can find them for you, in Griffiths valuation, and perhaps the 1901 census, if they were still alive.

Elwyn