I’ve been offline now for about three years since the last blog post, but I didn’t stop doing family history research – I just slowed down a bit as I didn’t get a lot of time.
I’m currently checking and updating various posts and information on the blog, including fixing any broken ‘links’ that may exist. Once I’ve fixed all, I’ll start posting about what I’ve found over the last three years (mostly online archival information).
I searched the PRONI Freeholder Records, and was surprised to find a likely match for Christopher Wilson:
Christopher Wilson was listed as the leaser of some land in the town of Derryenver, County of Armagh.
How do I know he is the likely ancestor of Christopher Wilson (father of Abraham Wilson)?
I have previously searched the marriage records held on PRONI, and found Christopher and Catherine’s marriage certificate. On the Certificate, Christopher’s place of residence at the time of marriage is ‘Derryinver’. This is not a big town, in fact it is a very small village, so there is unlikely to be another Christopher Wilson living there.
The Freeholder record lists the landlord as being William Brownlowe, and date of registry is 1712. The lease was listed as being held for Christopher’s life and also the lives of his sons Christopher and Robert:
The above is the extract of the lease agreement (paid yearly)
It reads:
Christopher Wilson
In part of town land of Derryenver
dated July 21 1712 for (the) lives of ye (?)
Christopher, Christopher, Robert, his sons
at (?) yearly rent of – (Pounds) 8-10-0
William Brownlowe was a prominent figure in Lurgan (Armagh) history. He was landlord over much of the land in the Lurgan area, including the towns Derryadd (where Abraham was born) and Derryinver (likely where Christopher was born). More information about Lurgan freeholder land history can be found here.
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.
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:
Christopher Wilson (married to Catherine) , father of Abraham, lived in Derryinver on marriage to Catherine. This was within the Montiaghs district within the county of Armagh.
Catherine was listed as living at Derrytrasma, Montiaghs. Catherine’s stepfather, Thomas Bunton, was listed as living at Ardmore Montiaghs, also within the county of Armagh. All of these locations were within a few miles of each other.
Both locations are also near Derryadd (also within Montiaghs), where Abraham was born.
The marriage location was listed as ‘Ardmore’ Montiaghs, Armargh. I believe this is because the marriage took place in the ‘Ardmore’ parish Church of Ireland, which is located in Derryadd (where Abraham was born).
Christopher, his father, Catherine and Thomas all had ‘weaver’ listed as occupation – so they probably worked together?
Did Christopher’s father own the land at Derryinver, or was he renting?
Links below:
I’ve been searching for Christopher Wilson’s death certificate. It is not easy. Ireland have civil records dating back to 1864, and also have non-Catholic marriages recorded from 1845 onwards. Records are stored by the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI). So I should be able to type in Christopher’s name with a range of years for his death (I don’t know what date or year he died), and his name should pop up with a year of death and age. I understand 1800s records are not completely accurate, but a record of Christopher’s death should be stored somewhere?
Well, I’ve tried typing in ‘Wilson’ ‘Christopher’ and various date ranges up until 1891 (When Catherine, Abraham and Robert left Ireland to emigrate to Australia). Nothing has turned up so far. I’ve found just three ‘Christopher Wilsons’ who died between 1880 and 1891. I’ve also searched on ‘Chris’, ‘Christy’, ‘Christie’, ‘Kris’ and I’ve left the forename blank altogether. I’ve also looked at various entries for other names which might be his middle name eg. ‘Robert’, ‘James’, ‘William’. And some odd looking names like ‘Reid’ (just in case the transcriber read the name wrong) and ‘Charles’ (just in case the transcriber thought the name read ‘Chas’). No luck.
Curious, I thought I’d also look up the dates of death for three of his children who probably died in childhood, and before Catherine emigrated (as I couldn’t imagine she would leave children behind in Ireland). None of the children came up in the search for date of death. The three children are: Edward (b. 1869), Emily (b. 1871) and Mary (b. 1875). I also checked if perhaps Emily and Mary might have got married before Catherine left Ireland (as I don’t think she would leave them behind as young single women). No marriages. So why are there no records of death for Christopher, Emily, Mary and Edward? No idea.
Perhaps Catherine left the reporting of death to her local Church – all the births were recorded, but none of the deaths. Why?
There is a group of dedicated people who are transcribing all Queensland School Registers – showing historical records of Schools and the list of children who attended the school, including the year of attendance. I believe the registers will show school attendance records up until the 1940s (not sure if they are going to record details beyond the 1940s). It is a work in progress – they haven’t completed all schools, and when I looked at the School register databases early last year, it appeared none of the Townsville School registers had been done. Some work has now been done, and there are now some Townsville schools on the database.
Townsville West State School celebrated its centenary in 1987. In a book produced by the school, included in the class of 1887 were the following names:
Smith, Maggie
Smith, Martha
The school register database is divided into 5 parts – I found Maggie and Martha in Part 5 of the database. I also did a name search using the surname ‘Smyth’ but it didn’t turn up anything.
The School database can be accessed through the local library, if the library has family history research facilities, if not either both the State Library and QLD Archives have the database available.
Hopefully the transcribers get South Townsville and Railway Estate Schools done this year, as this is where the Colemans (I think) and the Raynors attended school.
At the time Maggie and Martha were attending school, Annabella and Eliza were in Townsville Orphanage. Annabella discharged from the Orphanage 11 May 1893, and Eliza was discharged 7 Aug 1894. They must have had it pretty tough.
Last year I came across a birth certificate in the family records, and I initially thought it had been included in error. The birth certificate was for a Mary Smyth, but it was clearly not Mary Jane Smyth (daughter of John Smyth and Isabella Shiels), as the date, parents and place of birth were different. Then last week, the penny dropped – this was the birth certificate of a relative of Mary Jane. It appears the father, William, might be John Smyth’s brother, and was living in Townsville. If that is the case then Isabella and her daughters might have had family support after all when John died.
The birth certificate details are:
Child: Mary Smyth b, 7 Feb 1887
Father: Wiliiam Smyth
Age 31 years
Birthplace: Athy Kildare Ireland
Occupation: Labourer
Birthplace: Athy Kildare Ireland
Mother: Bridget Welsh
Age: 29 years
Birthplace: Acies Queens County Ireland
Children living (of William and Bridget):
– William (1 year old)
Children deceased:
– 1 X Female
Witness to the birth: Nurse – Mrs McDeregal
I suspect when Isabella sent her older daughters to the Townsville Orphanage, she might have placed her younger daughters with William Smyth and family (who probably couldn’t look after all 5 daughters).
I’ll investigate further when I get some time.
Hi
Just letting everyone know that this weekend I spend some time uploading more family history information to the website (something I’ve been meaning to do for sometime now).
On the family history pages, I’ve uploaded the latest family research for Births, Deaths and Marriages.
I’ve also added in some links to the various websites, containing various family history databases, and the old newspaper website, set up by the National Library of Australia (very good website if you like reading old newspapers, which has many family related stories, advertisements and announcements like obituaries)
For the Smyths:
A recollection of emigration on the SS Stirlingshire in 1880
For the Wilsons
Dunwich Asylum Cemetery – resting place of Catherine Wilson
For the Colemans
The Swing Riots of 1830 & 1831 – including the Hampshire district
And, finally, for the Raynors
Mudpicker Family 