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Croziers of Kilskeery

TyroneKilskeery (Tyrone)

My 3rd great grandfather Richard Crozier born 28 December 1797 emigrated to America in 1818. I am searching for his parents. Looking at Kilskeery Parish baptisms, John and Elizabeth Crozier whose son was baptised in January 1798 seem to fit best, but other researchers think him the son of James and Mary Crozier who was baptised in Kilskeery on 3 August 1798. I hope someone will know or be connected to this family and can clarify and/or provide information that would rule out one or the other couple as parents of Richard born December 1797. Richard Crozier was baptised in the Church of England and his mother advised him to join the "Wesleyans". He was licensed as a local preacher, ordained a Deacon and Elder in the United States where he married and died. I confess my ignorance of all conditions and circumstances in Ireland that might have influenced Richard's decision to emigrate. I have read that there was a great typhus epidemic in 1817 in Fermanagh, but whether this was a factor in Tyrone or not I'm not sure. If any reader could recommend historical references that could help me gain perspective I would be most appreciative.

b.crozier

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You ask why your ancestor might have left Ireland in 1818. I am sure he left for the same reasons that 2 million others did. To find work. Ireland has very few natural resources (no oil, coal, iron ore etc) and so did not benefit from the industrial revolution in the 1800s, the way Scotland, England, the US, Canada & Australia did, which created hundreds of thousands of comparatively well-paid new jobs in new industries (coal mining, steel making, ship building etc). So that was a big pull factor. There had also been a huge population explosion in Ireland going up from about 3 million people in 1750 to 8 million in 1830. There simply weren?t jobs for all those people. In much of Ireland the only employment was subsistence farming topped up in Ulster and one or two other areas with a bit of linen weaving. And then the straw that broke the camel?s back, along came the famine, numerous times throughout the 1800s. Even by the 1820s there had been several years when the potato crop failed partially.

So people were pouring out of Ireland all through the 1800s. I cannot say whether there was typhus in the Kilskeery area at the time your ancestor left but if there was it may just have been an additional factor. The main issues were overpopulation, lack of new employment and the prospects of economic betterment overseas.

I don?t know of any detailed descriptions of the Kilskeery area in 1818 but there is a detailed description of the parish c 1836 in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs. The Ulster Historical Foundation published these a few years back and should be able to sell you a copy. The OS Memoirs go through each parish in great detail describing living conditions, employment, unusual buildings, patterns of emigration (often with names) etc, etc. Usually about 30 page of information on each parish. You could also contact the local studies section of Omagh Library and ask them if they have anything relating to Kilskeery around 1818.  

http://www.librariesni.org.uk/Libraries/Pages/Omagh-Library.aspx

Try also the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies:

http://www.qub.ac.uk/cms/

 

 

Ahoghill AntrimIrelandXO Volunteer

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