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Kinsley/McKinley

Donaghmore (Tyrone)

I have an ancestor, James Kinsley, who stated on the 1851 census that he was from Omagh when he went to Newcastle. The name is spelled several different ways on documents initially- Kinsally, etc until it becomes Kinsley. Giving Kinsley is not a name from that part of Ireland, and I couldn't find any other people in the Omagh area with that name, I'm guessing he changed his name from McKinley (lots of them). Any information/ideas anyone has would be welcome.  Barry

Barry

4 replies

Birth registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864. Prior to that you need to search church records. Not all early church records have survived and of those that do exist, not all are on-line.You haven’t said what denomination your ancestor was.  In this case Omagh is in the parish of Drumragh. They have Church of Ireland records from 1801. Methodist records start in 1832 & RC in 1846. There are several Presbyterian churches. Their records probably all start  too late. The earliest is Omagh 2nd Presbyterian church whose records start in 1821. The RC records are on-line on findmypast and the  NLI site:

https://registers.nli.ie/

For the others you would need to go to PRONI (the  public record office) in Belfast and look them up.

If James married in England, then you should be able to get his father’s name and occupation from his marriage certificate. You’ll need that to be sure you have the correct baptism.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Elwyn,

thanks for the response. They were Presbyterian, going by the church they used in Newcastle. I had a look at the Tyrone site CoTyroneIreland.com, which has lots of transcribed documents. I found one Kinsley in Tyrone, which is why I assumed they had changed their name. McKinley seemed the closest logical name. Given that my ancestor James was an illiterate shoemaker, who knows what he told census takers or church people when asked his name, or what they interpreted it as. I was aware that records were lost. Thanks for the more detailed information. I will have a look, and it may be records start too late as he was born about 1817. I posted on the Donaghmore page as there seemed to be lots of McKinley's from the area, The joys of genealogy......

PS I'm assuming James married in Ireland as his wife is from Ireland as well. I live in Western Australia so can only access on-line records.

Regards Barry

Barry

Barry,

Presbyterian points to them having Scottish roots. (Family probably arrived in the 1600s as part of the Plantation. Many Scots settled in Tyrone). McKinley would fit with Scottish roots. It’s essentially a Scottish name according to MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland”.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Elwyn, 

I thought the same, and followed the same path. I've already told the family we have our own tartan......

Barry

Barry

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