Looking for Turner/Magee birth, marriage information

If William and Anne were both RC, and we married in the parish of Down, then the bad news is that the parish has no records earlier than 1851, and so it may not be possible to confirm the information you have from church records.

The surname Magee is mostly RC but Turner is not. In the 1901 census of Co. Down there are 201 people named Turner. Only 2 were RC. The rest were of various protestant denominations. So I?d say there?s a very strong chance William was protestant and that this was a mixed marriage. (The breakdown of the population of Co Down in the 1901 census (290,061) was 75% protestant and 25% RC, so a mixed marriage wouldn?t be at all surprising).

In the 1830s the RC church generally regarded mixed marriages as unlawful and so couples often married in the Church of Ireland instead. There are 3 Church of Ireland churches in the parish ? Down parish church, Downpatrick cathedral and Hollymount. The parish church does have records for 1808-1835, but the records for the other 2 for that period are lost (the cathedral only opened about 1816 anyway so though they might have married there, they wouldn?t have been baptised there). The Down parish records are on-line on rootsireland but there?s no mention of either of them, nor of Frances? birth/baptism. So possibly they married in the Cathedral or Hollymount, both of whose records for the 1830s are lost.

There?s a chance that William was Presbyterian rather than Church of Ireland (though for a mixed marriage in the 1830s he would almost certainly still have used the Church of Ireland). However if he were Presbyterian, then you might theoretically be able to find a baptism record. There are 2 Presbyterian churches in Downpatrick but neither has records for 1808.

Difficult to give any useful advice on where to search next. If the records don?t exist, there?s not much that can be done.

Hi Anne

Further to Elwy's advice these may be relevant:

there is a baptism of Ann McGee in Down 23 Oct 1815; parish KILBRONEY R C; parents John Magee & Bridget Brannan on www.rootsireland.ie/ - a subscription site.

there is a baptism of William Turner in ANTRIM 4 Jun 1808 parish BLARIS C of I father Henry Turner (no mother's name given)

There is also a baptism of Francis Turner 30 Jul 1837 in BALLINDERRY co ANTRIM C of I parents William Turner & Anne (maiden name not supplied)

No luck with the marriage I'm afraid!

I also tried findmypastireland but no luck.

Col