Scotch-Irish-L Archives

Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2000-09 > 0969123539


From: Linda Merle <>
Subject: Re: Linen Hall Library
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 09:58:59 -0700
In-Reply-To: <20000916072312.12f485bf.in@pc.mhiconn.net>


Hi Carl,

Gotta agree with you about the Linen Hall Library. In Northern Ireland,
the only things in PRONI (public records office of Northern Ireland) is
government records and private records others have deposited. Raw material.
People go there every day for years and research; then they write books. The
books are usually not in PRONI, but it is highly likely the book is in the
Linen
Hall Library. Now....you go over for a week. It's not likely you can
replicate in a
week what a professional, or someone trained to do research, like a minister
(thinking of the Mullins, here folk), did in a few years. So don't try.

Go to the Linen Hall Library. There you may find books about either your
family or the locale in which they lived. Local history is VERY important. So
in "Families of Ballyrashane" in Antrim, by T H Mullin, I found a lot of
information about probable relations. I just opened it randomly
(I eventually bought a copy at Books Ulster) here's the Irvine and Irwin
family. Says John was a miller and some of his family emigrated. Gives
several children. George, died unmarried. Edward of Newmills married
Annie Irwin (not a relative), and has various kiddos. Has stuff like "The
Lyle family have many ramifications throughout County Derry. This
Samuel Lyle was resident at Oaks Lodge, and was married to Esther
Acheson. [gives source for this info]. His son Hugh Lyle of Oaks married
Catherine Bateson, and thus gained an intereste in the Bateson lands in
the barony of Raphoe in Co Donegal." Re a lease gotten about 1840 by
Hugh to the lands at Cairn a Gariff, Moville: "the house here was originally
a single storied thatched cottage standing in a rocky common. The older Lyle
built a new house, made a garden, and surrounded it with a high wall, and
by constant blasting made arable fields around the house. Vineries and a
peach house were erected by the father, and by the son Hugh Chetham Lyle,
who was a Colonel in the Army"...On for pages on the holdings of the Lyles.
(p 133). Where ELSE are you going to find all this info??

Has photos: John Blair, tobacco farmer in Rhodesia, Curry brothers spraying
potatoes, the Norris home in Articrunnagh, Dunlops of Ballyversal, Hamills,
the coachbuilders, McDonalds of Heagles,

Now, I'm researching Norrises further south in Castledawson. I am fairly
certain they moved into the area from the north. In Ballyrashane there was
a Norris family THERE for 2 centuries. He tells me the Hearth Money Rolls
in which they appear in 1740. "At one time there were six Norrises in Cloyfin,
so any they had to be distinguished thus: Big James, wee James and Jackie's
John." (p 49". Goes on to tell me of a row of six Norris gravestones in the
old Ballyrashane graveyard and gives the info. On the next page says "Naturally
the Norris family had to branch out into other districts...." And all this
info is
later than mine (we left in the 1820's through the 50's in a chain migration
that we are still sorting out) to western PA. Now, it's highly probable the
reason they moved to western PA is that they had family and neighbors there
already. Do you think this book might help me figure that out?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See the place here:
http://www.worldlandmarks.com/europe/ireland/belfast/library.html

(Note for Scotophiles: the Burns collection. My Ulster Scots granddad only
gave me ONE thing in his life (he had a lot of grandchildren). That was his
book of Burns poetry. This volume had been enshrined in a box and my
mother says no one was allowed to touch it. I have no idea why one day when
I was a teenager he gave it to me. I memorized a lot of poetry out of it. And
it's enshrined in my home. We like Burns, we do!! I got a couple other
Burns volumes, but I sure hope this one gets passed on down to my grand
daughter some day. My granddad's her great great granddad. WOW. That'll
be five generations in our family. I am sure my Irish grannie thought he
was demented <grin>.)

The Linen Hall Library has the look and smell of an old world library. I hope
they do not modernize it too much because a lot of the appeal is sitting in
this lovely old place reading incredibly old books. Lots of stuff on Scotland,
too.

It has a book that I was told by Nelson McCausland (he writes books on
things Ulster, is a Belfast City Councilor, and heads up the Ulster Scots
Heritage Council) to go and check. It details everyone known to be in
Derry during the Siege. I'm not back there yet in my research, but I got
four chances!! One of my lines was there, I know it. Also found an O'Gribbon
on the outside there.....which is a little worrisome.....I got McKibbons,
who of course probably thought they were of Scottish origin....Oh no......
Just when you thought you knew what you were....you find an Irish clan
living close by with about the same name, or visa versa for them <grin>.
Could be a Jacobite branch of the McKibbons who assimulated into the Irish....
...Feck! Nope, McLysaght has an Irish clan there. ...in Down where most of
the McKibbons come from....Oi! Someone pass me another pint.....I'm
ethnically confused.

You can search the Linen Hall collection here:
http://www.lights.com/hytelnet/uk0/uk091.html

They have yet to figure out that genealogy, local history, etc can be a
draw -- their website is focused on the United Irish Rebellion. I'm a little
tired of it by now....it's been 2 years since the centenial and the long
period leading up to it full of efforts to wring money from me over it...

Carl's so right, the complexity of Belfast society in the 1600's was
astonishing. Rainey's book gives you some insight into that world and
from it you can get huge numbers of clues on how to search for family.
You learn about how the Belfast merchants married into the merchant class
all over Ireland ....so that will from a fella with the same surname in Cork
MIGHT be worth looking at after all.....

I'm going to be there again in just a couple weeks now....

Linda Merle



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