Noonan Family

Helen,

55 Church St does appear on the current electoral register. Whether it’s the same building that was there in the mid 1800s, I can’t say, but there appears to be something there anyway.

You won’t find a birth certificate for Edward Patrick because his birth was before the start of statutory birth registration. (That stared in 1862). You might find his baptism, if you know which church his family attended.

Not all church records are on-line but there are copies of most of the surviving church records for the Newtownards area in PRONI, the public record office in Belfast. (A personal visit is required to search them).  In addition to the Church of Ireland, Newtownards has about 6 Presbyterian churches, a Reformed Presbyterian, 2 Methodist and an RC church.

If the family were church of Ireland, then the bad news is that the records pre 1880 are lost (in the 1922 fire in Dublin). However the most common denomination in that area was (and still is) Presbyterian, and some of the numerous Presbyterian churches have records back to the 1820s. If the family were RC there are no records earlier than 1864.

The place of burial is not something formally recorded in official records in Ireland. (The Church of Ireland keeps burial records but no other denomination routinely does, and even with the COI records it only tells you that the person was buried, not exactly where the grave is). Once you have found the family denomination it may just be a matter of searching graveyards in the Newtownards area. People were sometimes buried in the graveyard associated with the church they attended, but not always, and not all churches had graveyards anyway. The Church of Ireland graveyards were open to all denominations, so bear that in mind. Finally, only wealthier people could afford a gravestone and the majority of the population didn’t haveone. But perhaps one was erected later by a descendant with some money. Few graveyard caretakers have plans that detail who was buried there in the 1800s.