Hello,
I'm having difficulty in finding information for an ancestor of mine - Robert Colwell or Caldwell. He emigrated from Ireland to New Brunswick, Canada in 1820 (probably landing in Saint John). He was born in the County of Donegal in 1791 and married a Sarah Porter. I am seeking specifics on where he lived, when/where the marriage occurred, and the ship that he traveled on. Thanks very much for any information!
Wayne Langley
Wayne:
I assume Robert Colwell/Caldwell was Church of Ireland. The subscription site Roots Ireland has church records for some Church of Ireland parishes in Co. Donegal back to the late 1700s/early 1800s. However, I was not able to find a baptismal record for a Robert Colwell/Caldwell around 1791 or a marriage record to a Sarah Porter. Many C of I parishes had their records destroyed in the 1922 Public Records Office fire in Dublin. Other parishes have their records held locally and the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin has other parish records which up to now are not searchable online.
In looking at available Tithe records from the late 1820 and the Griffiths Valuation records from 1857, the one parish that had a number of Caldwell records was Clonleigh near the border with Co. Tyrone. There were also some other records in nearby parishes along the Tyrone border.
Maybe your first step would be a DNA test. You may get matches with others who have Colwell/Caldwell connections and know more about the family origins in Donegal.
Roger McDonnell
Roger,
Thank you very much for your speedy reply. I'm sorry that I did not thank you sooner, but I was traveling, and I expected that I would get some sort of email reminder that someone had replied. I will do some following up on the things you mentioned. I did a DNA test on Ancestry and the ThruLines do show some distant cousins that I need to contact.
Thanks,
Wayne
Wayne:
Thanks for the response. You should have received a notification but maybe we had a systems glitch for a few days. All the best with your research.
Roger