Month: October 2014

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PRONI records – missing deceased records for the Wilson family

I’ve searched and searched and tried every option I can think of, but I cannot located the deceased records for Christopher Wilson and three of his children – Edward, Mary and Emily.

Christopher died in a shipyard accident (probably in Belfast) sometime in the late 1880s-1891 (when Catherine emigrated).  I’ve searched on every name variation I can think of, but he is not coming up.

I thought perhaps he used a different surname or first name.  So I did a search for the children’s deaths – I’m almost certain the three were deceased at the time Catherine left Ireland, otherwise she would have taken them with her too?

None of the children’s death records are on PRONI either.

So I give up – for the time being.

 

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The Wilson family were Scottish in origin

While researching my family’s history, I realised the Wilsons were not Catholic and did not have typical Irish names (eg. Patrick, Michael, Bridget etc).  When analysing further, I noted the Wilsons’ religion was  Methodist, a Scottish Christian religion (or possibly Presbyterian?).  Also, some of the male family names are of Scottish origin – Christopher, Thomas Andrew, Robert.  Initially I thought this was unusual, to have a Scottish family living in Ireland, but some historical research provided the answer.

The first King of England and Scotland was James I.  Elizabeth I Queen of England did not marry or have kids, so her half-sister’s son, James I, got the inheritance – England.  Her half-sister Queen Mary (mother of James) was Queen of Scotland.   So James I, got England and Scotland together.  While having all the mainland real estate, James also wanted the nearby Island – Ireland.  His plan was to send Scottish ‘low landers’ to Ireland and settle them there.  He thought this would help keep the Irish under control.  The plan worked, but in many ways it didn’t work.

So the Wilson family were probably  lowlander Scots in origin.

Some history is below:

Scottish emigration to Ulster

Ulster ancestry