Chain Migration from Ulster and One Name Studies Nick Cimino, January 2017 INTRODUCTION In order to have a reasonable chance of finding Ulster ancestors, it is generally necessary to know at least three things: • The Name of the family • The County, Parish or Townland where they lived • Approximate Date STARTING POINT If you are starting with a name, a place and an approximate date, then the best place to begin is as follows: For a person living around 1901 or 1911 -Census Returns for those years For a person living in the 1850’s or 1860’s -Griffiths Primary Valuation For a person living in the 1820’s or 1830’s -Tithe Applotment Books For a person living prior to the 1820’s -Freeholder Records In cases where the parish or townland in which the family lived is unknown, indexes to the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffiths Primary Valuation are available showing the locality in which each surname appears. CENSUS AND SUBSTITUTES A Census of Ireland was taken every 10 years from 1821. Complete sets of enumerators’ returns have survived for two years – 1901 and 1911. The returns were arranged by townlands or in urban areas by streets. The returns for each townland or street include a form giving the names of all persons living in that household with their age, occupation, religion and place of birth. No enumerators returns survived from the Census of 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891, because they were destroyed by the government. The Census of 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were largely destroyed in 1922, in the fire at the Public Record Office (now the National Archives of Ireland).There are some remnant returns covering part of the counties of Antrim, Cavan, Cork, Fermanagh, Galway, Offaly, Derry, Meath and Waterford. Primary Valuation, Tithe Applotment Books and Freeholder Records While no complete set of Census returns survives for a period prior to 1901, there are three records, which provide a partial substitute: 1 Primary Valuation also known as Griffiths Valuation was a survey of the land and property carried out between 1847 and 1865 for purposes of local taxation. There is a printed valuation book for each poor law union showing the names of all occupiers of land and buildings and of the persons from whom these were leased, the amount of property held and the value assigned to it. Tithe Applotment Books were compiled between 1823 and 1837 for the purpose of determining the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings were to pay in tithes to the established church, the Church of Ireland. The Applotment book for each parish gives the names of occupiers, the amount of land they held and the value assigned to it. There is no online source for Tithe Applotment that is complete for the entire island so it recommended that researchers look for Tithe Applotment by locality. Freeholders' records are lists of people entitled to vote, or of people who voted, at elections. A freeholder was a man who owned his land outright (in fee) or who held it by lease which could be for one or more lives (for example, his own life or for the lives of other people named in the lease). VITAL RECORDS http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm or https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/ordering-life-event-certificates A system of state registration of births, deaths and marriages began in Ireland in 1864. The General Register Office (GRO) is the central civil repository for records relating to Births, Deaths and Marriages in the Republic of Ireland. After 1922, the General Register Office of Northern Ireland became responsible for records in the six counties and also has copies of historic records for those counties. The local records for a specific County can be obtained from the Registrar, Births, Deaths & Marriages in that County. CHURCH RECORDS For the period before 1864, parish registers provide the only source of information relating to births, marriages and deaths. It is usually necessary to know the religious affiliation and the name of the parish in which the baptism, marriage or burial occurred. Roman Catholic parish registers are normally still held by the parish priest, but there are microfilm copies of most of them for the period up to 1880 in the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 http://www.nli.ie/ The Irish government is also making some of these records accessible for free at www.irishgenealogy.ie/en Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870 are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes. Most are still held by the local clergy, although some can be found in the following repositories: Irish National Archives, http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and others are in the Representative Church Body Library, http://www.ireland.anglican.org/library and still others in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni Presbyterian church records 2 are arranged by congregation through the Presbyterian Historical Society, http://www.presbyterianireland.org/ CEMETERIES All over the country there are cemeteries and tombstone inscriptions providing details of name and date, which might not be available from any other source. Several transcriptions are available in both online and published sources. IRISH ESTATE RECORDS Few people realize that many of the landed estate owners kept detailed records of their estates, including records of their tenants. These estate records are invaluable for the genealogist. For example, estate records might contain: a history of the noble family, a list of the townlands encompassed by the estate, account books, correspondence, ejectment records, freeholders registers, household inventories and accounts, Irish Land Commission papers, Manorial Court books, lease books and leases, mill records, plans and maps, rentals, school records (names of the pupils, their age, religion, residence, and names of the parents), title deeds, valuation and surveys, wage books, yeomanry documents, and miscellaneous records. Estate records usually include the business accounts of the estate owner or his agents. Such accounts might detail the type of work done and wages paid to tenants for various tasks performed on the estate. Estate records may also contain information about tenants who emigrated, often under assisted emigration schemes sponsored by estate owners. Some estate owners took censuses of their tenants. It is not always easy to trace Irish tenant families. Estate records remain as one of the few sources that provide details about the day-to-day lives of the tenant class as well as genealogical information that might not be found in any other source. PARISH HISTORIES The Centennial of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1984 led to the production of club and parish histories. Most club histories include valuable genealogical information. Check out this website for a compilation of Parish Histories by County: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/books/ PAID RESEARCH Since travel to Ireland can be costly, one alternative to consider is paying a genealogist in Ireland to conduct research for you. Ulster Historical Foundation can conduct research at PRONI and members have access to its website which includes resources in County Antrim and Down. https://www.ancestryireland.com/ 3 Similar sites are available for every county in Ireland through the Irish Family History Foundation website: http://www.rootsireland.ie/map/ It is also recommended that you develop strategic partnerships with professional genealogists at the Association for Professional Genealogists: https://www.apgen.org ONE NAME STUDIES Guild for One Name Studies http://one-name.org/ The Who Do You Think You Are magazine for January 2015 named The Guild for One Names Studies as the top web site for One Name Research. IRISH GENEALOGY LINKS Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni To send a query: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/forms/proni-enquiry The first place to look for Ulster ancestors. Use every feature of their website, order copies through their enquiry form or go there to touch the original records. https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/ Free government sponsored Irish record site which is home to the on-line historic indexes of the Civil Registers (GRO) of Births, Marriages and Deaths and to Church Records of Baptism, Marriage and Burial from a number of counties. The original records are gradually being attached to the transcript pages. The search engine on their main page links to most of the principal online Irish research sites and is an excellent tool for a One Name Study. National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/introduction-to- genealogy/ Free government sponsored Irish Census site http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ Emerald Ancestors https://www.emeraldancestors.com Emerald Ancestors is a commercial site that provides instant access to one of the largest collections of Northern Irish genealogy records available, containing birth, marriage, death and census records for over 1 million Irish ancestors. The free sites should be checked first. Then use this site to obtain transcriptions of the original records. Public Record Office – United Kingdom http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ It must be remembered that Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom for most of its history. GENUKI: Ireland http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/irl/ GENUKI provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland. It is a non-commercial service, maintained by a charitable trust and a group of volunteers. 4 .