Fox Ancestors

DownTullylish (Down)

I've been trying to do my family tree but have only been able to identify that my great-great grandfather comes from Ireland but unable to find any records on-line for him and his family and unable to trace any further back. I am in Australia so only able to do online research at this stage. Details are as follows from his death and marriage certificate, etc:

John Fox born about 1849 in Gilford, Down County, died 27 November 1921 in Dunedin, New Zealand, aged 72;

Parents: John Fox (occupation Quarryman) and Elizabeth Moore;

Married: Elizabeth Smith in Glasgow, Scotland 19 September 1873 (his father John Fox was deceased at this time).

From this and other information, he obviously moved from Ireland to Scotland at some stage prior to 1873, they had four children in Scotland before moving to New Zealand between 1878 and 1880 where they had another six children. My father, Hugh Fox, is descended from him in New Zealand. My family are Presbyterians so I would presume that John Fox may have been the same.

Any help anyone can provide would be most appreciated.

Regards

Coral Fox

coralfox

13 years ago

1 reply

Coral,

John?s birth was before the start of civil registration (1864) so you won?t find a birth certificate for him. You might find his baptism if the records have survived. There are several Presbyterian churches in the Gilford area. (Which one you attended was a matter of preference and not necessarily the nearest to where you lived). The baptism records for Gilford Pres church only start in 1851, so you might be out of luck if that was the family church.

I don?t think any of those church records are on-line but copies are held in PRONI, in Belfast. A personal visit is generally required to look them up.

There?s a mention of a Francis Fox s/o John Fox on this site, who came from Tullylish (the parish that Gilford is in). His age might make him a possible brother to your John:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rosdavies/

I searched for deaths of John Fox 1864 to 1873 in Banbridge registration area. None is listed suggesting that John senior died before 1864 (which is when death registration started).

Elwyn

Ahoghill AntrimIrelandXO Volunteer

13 years ago

Fox Ancestors

1 reply

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