Noonan Family

Peter & Helen,

55 Church St is still listed as an existing address. Whether it’s the same building that was there in the 1850s, I don’t know. Regarding burial places, there’s no requirement to record where a person is buried in Ireland, so no database you can search. The Church of Ireland recorded burials of its congregation but no other denomination did. And even then the burial record often doesn’t tell you where the grave is, just that there was a burial on a given date.

You could try the newspapers to see if the funeral arrangements were announced there. Tradition in Ireland is to bury 3 days after death, so check the papers for the next 2 days after the date of death. The Belfast Newsletter for that period is on-line on the Ancestry site. Otherwise you can look up old copies of it and many other local papers in Belfast Central Library which has a separate newspaper section.

You say that the family were probably protestant. That includes a wide variety of denominations eg Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist etc. Try the Church of Ireland and Presbyterian church graveyards. Also check with the local council in case there is a public graveyard they might be in. (In my experience, you are unlikely to find any graveyard plans for the 1800s, but you might be lucky, and they may have a gravestone.)

Statutory registration of births and deaths started in Ireland in 1864. RC marriages from 1864 and non RC from April 1845. So you won’t get a birth certificate for Daniel & Margaret, nor I suspect a stat marriage as all these events would be before the start dates. You may find their baptisms but you need to know their precise denomination and the church or area where they were baptised.

Copies of all the surviving church records for Newtownards are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. They are not on-line and a personal visit is required to view them. There are probably around 12 churches in Newtownards.