Scotch-Irish-L Archives

Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1998-11 > 0910768955


From: linda Merle <>
Subject: Re: Contenders and Theories
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 23:22:35 -0800


Hi Denise,

I don't know why a ship wasn't listed. Did you email the folks running the
website??

> Also, I paid the Ulster Foundation for an initial search of Ulster records last fall for
>"McKinney" and they found zip as well.

Not surprising. If I gave them my stuff they'd find nothing. They search a limited
number of records, which they have indexed -- church records,w hich start for
presbys and Catholics about 1820 though you CAN get lucky, etc...so they don't
find Scotch Irish or Irish who left early. I found one family of mine in 1729 on
a ship -- but not a ship list -- a compulsive diarist in the family...the Rev
Charles Clinton Beatty.

The best thing to do is focus on learning what to search for. I'd read Falley
"Irish and Scotch Irish Ancestral Research" and the whole study outline at the
PRONI website. And GENUKI's Irish sections. And then take some classes.
And read a lot of history. The British Isles Family History Society also has a good
research outline -- maybe the best if you use LDS. David Rencher is an
accreditted genealogist employed at Salt Lake with wonderful credentials.
He spoke at August's seminar -- where in 3 days you can learn so many
new ways to research you never get caught up.

In an article in the British, Irish, Scotish Welsh Journal, 1991 on
"Sources and Methods for Doing Irish Research in America" he says the key
is source research. You have to find out what records exist, etc. Reasons
we fail:

-- trying to research in IReland before you have enough info
-- trying to do Irish research like US or British so you use all the records in
the wrong manner.

He says due to the availabilty of records (ie many were destroyed), here are
the four steps and the percentage of time you MUST devote to each:

1. Investigate the existence of records (30%)
2. Learn the history of the record source (20%)
3. Determine the availability of the record (40%)
4. Search the record (10%).

He warns us that in Ireland, recording of deeds was NOT mandatory. You
do not find common people in registered deeds, like you do in America.
The real land records are estate records. These are scattered all over the
British Isles, though us in the North are blessed by PRONI having done
a "Guide to Landed Estates" -- which you can get on film at LDS, buy at
the PRONI website, or find locally. Or...you can really learn a lot (spending
time in 1 and 2 of above) on the internet reading the PRONI webpages.

So you don't search the deed indexes for your surnames -- you search for
the names of estate owners on which your ancestor was living. It is in their
records you will find your ancestors. He suggests taking a class in doing
Black research -- it is exactly the same because in Ireland, land was owned
by only a few landed families. You can find his articles at LDS probably in
a thick three ring. You need to read them.

Same goes for church records -- they are not complete. Only Anglicans,
early on. And I can tell you (having gone blind looking) religiously zealous
Presbyterians and Catholics DID NOT get married in the Anglican church.
And since it probated wills, they didn't do that either. Please, don't shoot
yourself --- you can succeed <grin>. They DID register wills and long
term leases -- in solicitors records and estate records. You need another
methodology for Catholic tenents with short term leases -- they show up
in different records than Presbyterians.

You are going to be very lucky to find Irish ancestors in early ship lists
at all. They came in on the very same ships as the Germans, but because
the move was internal to the British Empire (and they were no threat to
the Empire like those German Baptists <GRIN>) , no records were kept,
any more than we document moves from Massacheusetts to California.
Major bummer !

There's a free class at www.familytreemaker.com on how to trace
immigrating ancestors to locate the place of origin. There's a lot more to
it than you can type in an email message.

David found his Renchers -- his first was a quartermaster in the Revolutionary
Army. His question was -- how do you get to be a quartermaster? He
eventually fouond them in Drogheda and Dublin and constructed a
history based on scanty records. He gave a lecture on how to get a lot more
than we usually do from those name lists....that's what he used. Oh,
they were merchants -- the perfect background for a quartermaster.

Happy hunting....

Linda Merle

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