Trying to find where in Ireland my ancestor Henry McWilliams was born in 1811.

Question

Henry McWilliams, born 1811 in Ireland, died 1892 in Canada. Married Elizabeth McCammon in 1833. Took a boat to Canada on an unknown date. Where was he born in Ireland?

Answer 1

Some Family Tree"S have him as Henry  Davidson McWilliams,

Naming conventions in Ireland and Scotland,males use there mothers

maiden name as there middle name.I have checked both,in Ireland most

records were destroyed during a paper shortage,and a Warehouse fire

abt 1920.But catholic church records did survive.Most have him as Methodist or Presbyterian.

Answer 2

Daniel, would you enter Henry's profile ID on your question? That may give us more information to work with! Thanks!

What marriage source are you using for his marriage? Unless it was one of those rare cross Denominational marriages with a Catholic woman, if he was married in the Church of Ireland he would be baptised Church of Ireland.

From his time in Canada, what did he say about his religion and place of birth on the censuses? Where was he buried, in a Catholic or Protestant graveyard? Take a look for a death notice in any contemporary newspapers. Does he appear on Find A Grave - many ex-pat Irish have headstones reflecting their religion and also sometimes where they came from.

As Wayne said in his reply, a lot of Church of Ireland church registers were destroyed, but it was when there was a fire at the archives of the Four Courts in Dublin during the Irish Civil War in 1922. All the pre-1901 census records and Wills proved in Dublin were destroyed in the fire as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Courts

Any surviving Church of Ireland registers for Eire (Southern Ireland) are held in the Representative Church Body library in Dublin. They are not on line ... yet. There is a plan to get them indexed and on-line in the next couple of years.

The surviving registers for the parishes for the six counties that now make up Northern Ireland are at PRONI, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Again, not on line.

Comments

Thanks for the answer. I am very new to this. I just created the profile for Henry McWilliams (McWilliams-1417). Here is the source of name, birth, and marriage dates for my ancestor. His family ended up in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and they were members of St Andrew's United Church there. I have a typed family tree created by a great aunt, but I don't know how to attach it as an image here. In it, you can see Henry at the top, and at the bottom left is my grandfather, Edwin Dunseith. It says Henry was born 1811 in Ireland, and married 1833 (with no place of marriage listed). I know he came to Canada on a boat at some point, and settled in the Gravenhurst area between Toronto and North Bay, Ontario. His son then moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in the late 1800s. I will try to complete more of the family tree, and maybe can find the ID info after I've created his spot in that tree.

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I've just clicked back from your profile Daniel, and the Henry McWilliams who you created today is McWilliams-1417. Its in the URL and at the top of his profile page. If you put the profile ID in any question that you ask, people can then click straight through to see who you are talking about. You may wish to edit your question adding Henry's ID.

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There was supposed to be a smiley face at the end of that last posting but it didn't come out <sad face >.

 Everyone is a beginner here at some point Daniel. Stick with it and you'll be flying in no time!

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Is the great aunt or any of her generation still alive? If so, go and visit her NOW, take a dictaphone and camera and record every bit of information you can , even if it seems irrelevant now. It sounds like Henry comes from the non Catholic population of Ireland. Can you get any information from the St Andrews United Church?