So do you think I should get these marriage entries?

[KiteRunner]

OH's g-g-grandfather was Simon Sloper, born County Down about 1840, married Christiana Stephenson 12th April 1860 at Cleator Moor, Cumberland. On the marriage certificate, it says his father was Simon Sloper, a weaver, and various other certificates for the family agree with this - "Master Weaver" on one; "Muslin Manufacturer" on another.

Simon senior's wife Margaret, born about 1810 in Ireland, moved over to Cumberland too and I suspect she may be the Margaret Sloper who was renting a house, yard and small garden in the village of Conlig, Bangor, County Down from Alexander Ross on Griffith's Valuation - which would presumably mean her husband died before the family moved over to England.

Other children of Simon senior and Margaret who came over to England included Mary Ann M born about 1831, George born about 1833 and Catherine born about 1835. None of them married.

Now, the County Down BMD indexes available online (so far) only show 3 entries for Sloper - all marriages, Jane Sloper in 1852, Mary Sloper in 1854 and Agnes Sloper in 1855. The father in each case was called Simon. I paid to view the details of Agnes's marriage a while ago and her father was Simon Sloper, a farmer. Agnes was "full age" when she married, and she kept producing children until 1873. There is a Simon Sloper on Griffith's Valuation who is a farmer (of Donaghadee), so that must be him. But the name Sloper is very rare indeed in Ireland, so surely this Simon must be connected with the master weaver Simon in some way? I'm wondering now if the farmer could be the weaver's father. Never managed to find details of a will for any of them, unfortunately. I don't know, Jane, Mary and Agnes would have been quite a lot younger than Simon the weaver, but do you think I should fork out 5 euros for each of Jane and Mary's marriage cert transcriptions to see if there is a clue in them, or will I be wasting my money? I can't decide!

[samesizedfeet]

I think the €5 deal ran out at midnight.

I've had very bad luck with marriages that the ones I'm most desperate for don't give any fathers name at all - so I'd be inclined to say no, it'd be waste.

But being Ireland I know how hard it is to get anything concrete and the scarcity of records, so my gut says yes go for it - it might just be hiding the one clue you need to find Simon.

[KiteRunner]

Oh, I should have stayed up late! I wish it had said the offer would run out at midnight clearly enough for me to notice! Well, the Agnes marriage I downloaded a while ago had plenty of info in it, so I would think Jane and Mary's will too - also, then when I've found out who they married I might be able to look for names of their children etc to see if it helps, I suppose.

[Cloggie]

As far as I can tell the records still cost €5. If I remember correctly, earlier in the month it said a St Patrick's Day / Easter discount was being given? But I can't see any mention of that anymore... only that the records cost €5.

Do you think maybe they've changed the price to €5 permanently? Or was I just imagining the note about the St Patrick's Day discount? :D

[KiteRunner]

Well, the good news is the price is still 5 euros per record (and they cheekily suggest you buy 40 euros worth of credits at a time to save the bother of repeated purchasing!!!) but the bad news is their site security looks a bit dodgy to me - I clicked to buy credits and it came up with a screen which admittedly is an https one with the padlock, but on the left hand side where it says you can update your personal details, it has all my details already filled in for me, apparently including the "password" and "retype password" boxes, which are displaying the correct number of asterisks. Bit strange, isn't it?

[samesizedfeet]

Kate

If you've signed up to any of the previous Irish county releases then it's remembering that password for you. You can't log onto the site without cookies enabled so I'd guess it's that filling in your information.

I've used the site to buy transcripts and haven't had any problems at all with it.

It's a government backed service so hopefully they're hot on security (Irish government, not ours, so far more reliable)

If you go into the about us/FAQ page there's some assurances about security on there

[KiteRunner]

Oh, well, I chickened out and bought credits on the UHF site instead, and they kindly displayed my password on the screen for me after I bought the credits! You can't win, can you? I suppose the main thing is now I can look at the marriage entries... back in a minute...

[KiteRunner]

Doesn't really help, except that Simon's occupation is shown as Tailor on the transcription of Mary's marriage entry. I wonder if it is a mistranscription of Farmer? Tailor would go better with weaver / muslin manufacturer, wouldn't it? I don't suppose there is an easy way of looking at an image of the entry instead of a transcription, is there?

[samesizedfeet]

Don't think so

Only way to get proper copy of entry is using the microfilm at the National Library or the National Archives in Ireland.

It may be worth directly contacting the foundation for whichever County your using and asking if they are able to confirm a transcription for you.

I've not done it myself as my transcripts weren't helpful enough to have a father, but they may be accommodating as you're already purchased the transcript.

[Christine in Herts]

Maybe there was some weaving going on when the weather/season meant there was less to do on the farm - assuming we're talking agriculture, of course, not animal husbandry!

Christine

[KiteRunner]

Well, could be, Christine, but "Master Weaver / Muslin Manufacturer" sounds as though it was his full-time occupation to me, plus I'm sure the weaver Simon must have died before the farmer one. Think I'll leave the Slopers for a while now and move on to some other branch...

[Olde Crone Holden]

Oddly enough, I have a Simon too, who was both farmer and "cotton master".

The farm was in the family, and Simon first appears in the 1700s as a Reed Maker (something to do with weaving). Towards the end of his life, he owned a cotton factory, which his sons ran on a day to day basis.

Perhaps this is something similar. Agriculture and weaving certainly went hand in hand in my family and in this case, it was certainly not because of financial need.

OC

[KiteRunner]

But if the farmer Simon was the master weaver as well then his family would be really complicated. I suppose it could be, but I'm hoping it's the simpler possibility - farmer Simon had a son Simon who grew up to be a weaver, farmer Simon's first wife died and he married again and had daughters Jane, Agnes and Mary when he was relatively old. But I really need some County Down baptisms, marriages and burials to confirm this!! Or of course it could be that he moved to County Down with his family and they were all born somewhere else...!