Looking for help with Huston/Houston/Royal Artillery

ArmaghShankill (Armagh)

Hi, I'm looking for help with baptisms that took place in the 1850's for the children of soldiers. I cannot find a baptism record for my great grandfather, Samuel Houston, who was born 1 May 1852. According to a personal record I have of his he stated that he was born in Lurgan. I have a failed search from PRONI for a C of I baptism in the Shankill parish plus a researcher I hired (2 hour search at PRONI) also failed to find his baptism record in C of I records for Portadown & Drumcree (? spelling) so I am now wondering ifthere any garrison church records for the 1850's (none for that time period at UK NA's that I could find).

I know that the people I believe to be his parentswere married in C of I in Seagoe Parish (St Grobhans I think) on 16 Aug 1852 & their names were Samuel Huston and Mary Turkington. The father (Samuel Snr) enlisted in the Royal Artillery in Lisburn on 15 January 1852. I just don't know where to even begin to look for military records of baptisms in garrison churches. I have many 'clues' that lead me to believe that this Samuel Huston/Houston &Mary Turkington are my great grandfather'sparents but I would really like to find his baptism record to confirmit as fact.

Would greatly appreciate any help or advice.

Thanks Sherryl

sherrylr30@big…

11 years ago

8 replies

Sorry, Samuel Huston and Mary Turkington were married on 16 August 1851 not 1852 as I said above.

Thanks

sherrylr30@big…

11 years ago

Sherryl,

Military personnel serving in Ireland generally used the local parish churches for baptisms and marriages. I am not aware of any regimental or garrison churches, certainly in Co. Armagh.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

11 years ago

Hi there Elwyn,

I'm not having much luck am I ? First Fermanagh and now Armagh. This afternoon I had another look on the UK NA's website and I did find they have records for a garrison church for Lurgan/Portadown, unfortunately they were 120 years too late for me ... 1974-1981 WO 156/48.

I am finding it extremely difficult in knowing what, where and how to search the records for Ireland, fortunately I have a cousin who is helping me with trying to work out how to successfully navigate the PRONI site.

Would you say it was unlikely for people not to baptise their children back in that time period ? I feel I may be trying to look for a needle in a haystack if he wasn't ever baptised.

Thanks

Sherryl

sherrylr30@big…

11 years ago

Sherryl,

I’d say most people did get their children baptised in the 1800s. I have a “census” for the town of Ballymoney in Co. Antrim compiled by an elderly resident in the late 1800s, looking back to about 1815 when he was a child. He obviously had an amazing memory and was able to say who lived in every house in the town, what their occupation was and what denomination. Interestingly about 10% of the population was of no denomination, so far as he could recall, and never attended any church. So that suggests 90% did, and would probably have baptised their children.

With the RC faith it’s very important to baptise as soon as possible in case the child dies and is left in limbo. However other denominations don’t share that concern and it can often be some months before a child is baptised, and not always where the child was born. For example, if the mother came from another parish, you sometimes see the baptism there (when she is home visiting her parents) rather than in the place she lived. You also see “job lot” baptisms where 3 or 4 siblings are baptised together aged 1 to 6, for example. So sometimes the baptism is years after the birth.

As far as Lurgan is concerned, the Church of Ireland records are full of soldiers marrying and baptizing their children, and more generally across Ireland you often see soldiers in garrison towns mentioned in the local church records. That’s why I say that mostly they just used the local parish church.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

11 years ago

Thank you for the informative info Elwyn. One of my cousins found a military item on Find My Past which stated that Samuel Huston (the father) was first stationed at Christchurch & my g g'father Samuel was born only 3 1/2 months after he enlisted at Lisburn. Now here's where I'm confused, I can't find a Christchurch but I can find Christ Church & Christ Church Cathedral in Lisburn.

The mother, Mary Turkington, was from Seagoe parish & she & Samuel Snr were married in Seagoe parish, however a search of baptisms has failed to find any trace of my Samuel.

sherrylr30@big…

11 years ago

The mother, Mary Turkington, was from Seagoe parish & she & Samuel Snr were married there, however a search of baptisms has failed to find any trace of my Samuel in that parish. I thought it would be the obvious parish to search seeing the old Samuel (aged only 18!!) was new to the army & Mary probably went home to her parents to have the baby.

I understand you saying that just because the son Samuel said he was born in Lurgan it doesn't necessarily mean that he was baptised there so I'm thinking my only option is to have searches conducted for each of the towns the father was stationed at before he arrived in New Zealand with the Royal Artillery in early 1861. I believe Mary arrived in NZ with her husband & 3 children. My Samuel married in Tasmania in 1882, his wife was the daughter of my Fermanagh g g g'mother, Eliza Forster, whom we previously talked about.

Any advice on what/where Christchurch is would be very much appreciated ?

Thanks Sherryl

sherrylr30@big…

11 years ago

I’d suspect Christchurch was Christchurch in Hampshire (England). There were quite a few military units there at one time. (It's presumably the place the Christchurch NZ is named after).

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

11 years ago

Ahh I didn't consider Christchurch would be in England, thank you for that Elwyn.

sherrylr30@big…

11 years ago

Looking for help with Huston/Houston/Royal Artillery

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