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Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.
From Joan Thomson:
‘I am wondering why I cannot find any record of my great-grandfather, Neil Anderson. According to the 1891 census (he was living in Liverpool in 1891), he was born in Kerry, Ireland. He, for some reason, went back to Ireland with a Priscilla Fagan, who was born in Portsea. Priscilla had three live births, two girls lived and one daughter died (I think), all born in County Down and registered in Belfast, Ireland. They then went back to Liverpool to have more children. I have all the information about the children from the findmypast.co.uk archives.
Do think that you might give me some pointers as where I can go next to find this elusive man?’
Stephen says:
‘Hi Joan.
I’ve looked at the census returns and some other records to try to understand better the family background.
The family appears on the 1871 and 1881 censuses at 27 Darwen Street and on the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses at 15 Daisy Street. Both these addresses are in Kirkdale, very close to the Merseyside docks. Your great-grandfather Neil Anderson is described as a sailor in 1881 and 1891, and more specifically a marine stoker in 1871. This explains the locations of the family home and the connection with Belfast, and presumably too has something to do with how he met his wife, who seems to have been born in the port of Southsea, Hampshire.
Their daughter Caroline was born on 30 May 1866 at Ballymacarrett, which is a Belfast townland down by the shipyards there, while daughter Elizabeth Rose was born on 25 October 1868 at Rosstrevor, on Carlingford Lough. I think we can say with confidence that Priscilla Fagan is one and the same woman as Mary, his wife and widow on the census, as the births for Caroline and Elizabeth both call her Mary Priscilla. I think, therefore, that she was the mother of all his children, and that the toing and froing between Liverpool and County Down was simply connected to work.
Neil was in the merchant navy, and this goes part way towards explaining the difficulties you have been experiencing trying to research his line of your family. For example, I couldn’t see any obvious entry of death between 1891 and 1901 (when Mary is described as a widow). There is an entry in the December quarter 1900 death index for a Neil Anderson in the West Derby registration district of Merseyside but this man was apparently aged 59 at death, when your great-grandfather would have been nearer to 69. This could be an error in the index, or it may be that he died at sea and does not feature in the death index for England and Wales.
I had hoped we might find some merchant navy records for your great-grandfather, but he does not feature in the merchant seamen records on findmypast.co.uk (which admittedly cover a different period of time, either side of when he would have been active) or our crew lists which cover the right period.
Unless you have evidence to the contrary, it would seem likely that he married in County Down in or before 1865/66. As you may know, civil registration of all life events for the entire population of all religious dominations in Ireland began in 1864. From 1845 to 1863, there was civil registration of Protestant marriages (Church of Ireland and Presbyterian) but not of Roman Catholic marriages. This means that there was no civil registration of Protestant marriages up to 1844 and of Roman Catholic marriages up until 1863. This is not to say that such marriages were not registered, as of course they were, as part of the parish registration system that each church operated.
The General Register Office of Ireland website points to locations of parish registers, some of which are still with the incumbent rather than deposited with an archive. You might also wish to take a look at www.findmypast.ie, findmypast.co.uk’s sister website in Ireland.
Similarly, as Neil was apparently born in County Kerry circa 1831/32, this would be in the period for which there are only the three parallel parish registration systems. To search, therefore, you need to know not just the exact place of birth, but also the denomination (which you may know already). This could, therefore, prove a tricky and time-consuming exercise. You could wait and see whether additional records come along online over the next year or two, or otherwise you could start approaching the archives speculatively, or think about engaging a professional researcher in Ireland.
Findmypast.ie has connections with Dublin genealogists Eneclann but there are of course other such researchers. I would recommend a researcher in the Republic because, while the respective General Register Offices in Belfast and Dublin have all pre-Partition civil registration records, a researcher in the south is more likely to be able to assist you with an investigation in Kerry.
I wish you success with your research.’
If you’d like to send your question to Stephen, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Stephen only has time to answer a couple of queries each month but if yours wasn’t answered this month, you could be lucky next time!
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Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.
From Joan Thomson:
‘I am wondering why I cannot find any record of my great-grandfather, Neil Anderson. According to the 1891 census (he was living in Liverpool in 1891), he was born in Kerry, Ireland. He, for some reason, went back to Ireland with a Priscilla Fagan, who was born in Portsea. Priscilla had three live births, two girls lived and one daughter died (I think), all born in County Down and registered in Belfast, Ireland. They then went back to Liverpool to have more children. I have all the information about the children from the findmypast.co.uk archives.
Do think that you might give me some pointers as where I can go next to find this elusive man?’
Stephen says:
‘Hi Joan.
I’ve looked at the census returns and some other records to try to understand better the family background.
The family appears on the 1871 and 1881 censuses at 27 Darwen Street and on the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses at 15 Daisy Street. Both these addresses are in Kirkdale, very close to the Merseyside docks. Your great-grandfather Neil Anderson is described as a sailor in 1881 and 1891, and more specifically a marine stoker in 1871. This explains the locations of the family home and the connection with Belfast, and presumably too has something to do with how he met his wife, who seems to have been born in the port of Southsea, Hampshire.
Their daughter Caroline was born on 30 May 1866 at Ballymacarrett, which is a Belfast townland down by the shipyards there, while daughter Elizabeth Rose was born on 25 October 1868 at Rosstrevor, on Carlingford Lough. I think we can say with confidence that Priscilla Fagan is one and the same woman as Mary, his wife and widow on the census, as the births for Caroline and Elizabeth both call her Mary Priscilla. I think, therefore, that she was the mother of all his children, and that the toing and froing between Liverpool and County Down was simply connected to work.
Neil was in the merchant navy, and this goes part way towards explaining the difficulties you have been experiencing trying to research his line of your family. For example, I couldn’t see any obvious entry of death between 1891 and 1901 (when Mary is described as a widow). There is an entry in the December quarter 1900 death index for a Neil Anderson in the West Derby registration district of Merseyside but this man was apparently aged 59 at death, when your great-grandfather would have been nearer to 69. This could be an error in the index, or it may be that he died at sea and does not feature in the death index for England and Wales.
I had hoped we might find some merchant navy records for your great-grandfather, but he does not feature in the merchant seamen records on findmypast.co.uk (which admittedly cover a different period of time, either side of when he would have been active) or our crew lists which cover the right period.
Unless you have evidence to the contrary, it would seem likely that he married in County Down in or before 1865/66. As you may know, civil registration of all life events for the entire population of all religious dominations in Ireland began in 1864. From 1845 to 1863, there was civil registration of Protestant marriages (Church of Ireland and Presbyterian) but not of Roman Catholic marriages. This means that there was no civil registration of Protestant marriages up to 1844 and of Roman Catholic marriages up until 1863. This is not to say that such marriages were not registered, as of course they were, as part of the parish registration system that each church operated.
The General Register Office of Ireland website points to locations of parish registers, some of which are still with the incumbent rather than deposited with an archive. You might also wish to take a look at www.findmypast.ie, findmypast.co.uk’s sister website in Ireland.
Similarly, as Neil was apparently born in County Kerry circa 1831/32, this would be in the period for which there are only the three parallel parish registration systems. To search, therefore, you need to know not just the exact place of birth, but also the denomination (which you may know already). This could, therefore, prove a tricky and time-consuming exercise. You could wait and see whether additional records come along online over the next year or two, or otherwise you could start approaching the archives speculatively, or think about engaging a professional researcher in Ireland.
Findmypast.ie has connections with Dublin genealogists Eneclann but there are of course other such researchers. I would recommend a researcher in the Republic because, while the respective General Register Offices in Belfast and Dublin have all pre-Partition civil registration records, a researcher in the south is more likely to be able to assist you with an investigation in Kerry.
I wish you success with your research.’
If you’d like to send your question to Stephen, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Stephen only has time to answer a couple of queries each month but if yours wasn’t answered this month, you could be lucky next time!
More...
Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.